Mark Your Card return to the top

2016-03-26

Isiris’ Mark Your Card resumed winning ways in March, claiming yet another monthly title with a 98.3point yield.

February’s heroes, Middleton Racing Services, maintained their fine form with second position. Personal Info, who enjoyed a profitable Cheltenham, finished third.

Steve Jones’ Probets, Personal Info’s Saturday-Only service, Richard Dunwoody and First Favourite also posted March profits.

After a quiet, but still profitable February, Mark Your Card were unstoppable throughout the month. The March success was the ninth monthly success since the start of 2015, and the sixth out of the last seven with only last month’s Middleton victory breaking the sequence.

As is the norm with Mark Your Card, the big priced winners rolled in throughout the month. Two 12/1 AW strikes, Goal (Southwell, 28 February) and Something Lucky (Wolverhampton, 29 February), set the ball in motion and the momentum was sustained thanks to 14/1 Incentivise (Warwick, 13 March), 11/1 Mister Hendre (Newcastle, 19 March) and 11/1 Midnight Chorister (Southwell, 21 March). However, the best return came appropriately at Cheltenham when 20/1 advice Mall Dini triumphed in the Pertemps Final (17 March).

Unlike Mark Your Card, who advised more than 500 horses during the four-week period under review (28 February-26 March), Middleton Racing Services provided just nine selections during the same period. This selective approach has been remarkably successful in the past, and it was to prove so yet again. The focus was on Cheltenham with six festival selections yielding three winners (4/1, 3/1 and evens) and a 10/1 each-way third. The net result was a 20.1point yield, second place in the March table and a profit thus far in 2016 of 58.4.

Cheltenham also brought out the best in Personal Info with seven festival selections producing four winners, including Gold Cup hero Don Cossack (5/1, 18 March) and 4/1 Altoir, winner of the Supreme Hurdle (15 March). The month also produced a further seven winners and a final profit of 16.3 points. A model of consistency, Personal Info has now posted a profit in 13 of the last 15 months.

March was a month of two distinct halves for Steve Jones’ Probets. The first eleven days of the period (starting on 28 February) yielded a frustrating sequence of selections finishing second or third. Baby Bach (13/8, Carlisle, 10 March) heralded a run of success that turned the month around in spectacular fashion. This is best demonstrated by the form figures for 10-26 March: 1101212111210111. That’s 11 winners and three seconds from 15 bets with prices ranging from 5/4 to 9/2 (My Lord, Wolverhampton, 24 March). This all means that a potential losing month was turned into a profitable one and the return on investment (ROI) for those 15 bets amounted to a staggering 232.5%.

Four winning selections out of seven ensured Personal Info’s Saturday-Only subscribers enjoyed a profitable March, while Richard Dunwoody also posted a profit, thanks to the Lingfield success of Strawberry Sorbet (4 March).

Three wins, two seconds and a fourth from just six bets was First Favourite’s return this month with 5/2 Tagrita (Wincanton, 2 March) helping to ensure a fourteenth month of profit from 15 since the beginning of 2015.

With Cheltenham consigned to history, the year moves breathlessly on with two of the sport’s great enigmas – the Lincoln and the Grand National – looming. For many the return of the Flat will bring joy, while jumping still has plenty to offer with Ayr and Sandown still to come. Happy days.