Personal Info head table after soggy September

2017-09-30

A washout. That just about sums September up. A month of non-stop rain that reduced racing to a soggy farce – Ayr’s three-day Western Meeting was washed-out and the starting stalls sunk into the sodden Chester turf. The rains made a mockery of the formbook. As one leading Besttipping tipster observed: “We are in the turf Flat season and the horse are running on National Hunt ground”. Needless to say, in such circumstances, the bookies were desperate for punters to be separated from their hard-earned. One leading firm offered eight places on the 34-runner Cambridgeshire, which ended with a 50/1 chance finishing ahead of a 100/1 rag with another 50/1 ‘no-hoper’ back in third.

In the face of such challenging circumstances, it is little wonder that several of the Besttipping stable kept away from the action, but those that did take on the elements deserve credit. At the forefront were Personal Info, who finished at the head of the September table with a small, but commendable profit of 2.2 points, while the same firm’s Saturday-Only service claimed second place with a 1.5-point yield.

First Favourite finished third with a 1.3-point loss, while Steve Jones’ two services, Daily Bargain and Probets also posted small losses.

Personal Info’s month can be broken into two distinct parts: six single bets that yielded four winners, a second and a fourth, and six bets involving two or even three selections in the same race, which again produced four winners. In two of these multiple selection bets, the runner-up was also advised, while in another case the two selections finished second and third. It’s evident that given better ground conditions, there is potential for large profits from following Personal Info’s ‘Dutching’ bets.

Personal Info’s Saturday-Only service made it five winning months out of seven, thanks to wins by Akvavera (evens, Beverley, 2 September) and Dubai Empire (13/8 advice) at Musselburgh fourteen days later.

Reverand Jacobs (4/6 advice) triumphed at Ascot for First Favourite on 8 September, but with the month’s other two bets losing, a small loss was incurred.

It was a similar story for Steve Jones’ two services, Daily Bargain and Probets. Small loses, but no real damage done to the respective overall banks. In fact, with Mark Your Card enduring a challenging month, Daily Bargain now has a commanding lead at the top of the 2017 challenge. A nine-month yield of 147.50 points leaves them in a seemingly impregnable position. And the news just gets better for Jones as Probets climbed from third place to second ahead of Middleton Racing Services, Those2oppose and First Favourite.

Mark Your Card posted a 99-point loss which probably ends dreams of a fourth successive Besttipping title. Yet, several factors need to be considered here. Firstly, Mark Your Card advised almost 350 bets during the course of the month, so the average loss per bet is little more than that of other, more cautious, services that either sheltered from the storm, or who offered just a single bet per day. Secondly, Mark Your Card is a risk-taking service. This can yield spectacular returns (a 230-point profit in a single month, November 2015, for example) as well as the occasional thumping loss. What matters are the long-term results, and Mark Your Card’s all-time profit stands at more than £20,000 to a £10 stake unit.