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PROBETS PROVIDE JANUARY SUN

2022-01-31

January is often a tough month to crack for the punting fraternity. Racing builds to a crescendo over the holidays, and there is an inevitable lull in the early months of the year, as the leading stables turn their gaze towards March and the Cheltenham Festival. As a result, winner finding can be more of a challenge than usual.

If that feeling rings true, take some comfort from the knowledge that the pros also find the year’s opening salvos demanding. Last year, for instance, none of the Besttipping stable secured a January profit, although Personal Info missed out by a fraction.

January 2022 was also a testing month, but Steve Jones’ Probets came through this stern test with flying colours. Often hidden in the shadow of multi-championship winning stablemate Daily Bargain, Probets opened the year with a 12-point yield and an eye-catching strike-rate of more than 35%.

Probets’ month was built around a good opening (5 wins from the month’s first 12 selections) and a barnstorming finish with six winning advices from ten between 22 and 31 January.

Ooh Is It (9/2 advice, Wolverhampton, 10 January) was the best priced winner during the early exchanges which also included two winning 3/1 advices, Daheer (Wolverhampton, 7 January) and Alablaq (Lingfield, 8 January).

Five of the nine selections between 13 and 21 January were placed, but the winning thread was picked up with the victory of Royale Pagaille in the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock (3/1 advice, 22 January). Despite shouldering top weight, the Venetia Williams-trained gelding scored his second win in this prestigious race. He also initiated a run that would see Probets’ selections find their way into the winner’s enclosure on five on the next nine days curtesy of Brewin’upastorm (13/8 advice, Lingfield, 23 January), Hooves Like Jagger (6/1 advice, Wolverhampton, 24 January), Darwell Lion (6/4 advice, 26 January), Enfranchise (9/4 advice, Lingfield, 28 January) and Zapper Cass (100/30 advice, Wolverhampton, 31 January).

Last year, Daily Bargain began their title defence with a miserable 13-point loss. As it turned out, this had little relevance to the overall destiny of the crown, as, by the end of May, Daily Bargain had established an impregnable lead.

This time round, Daily Bargain’s opening month saw a loss of 5.5 points. Brushwork was an early scorer (11/2 advice, Dundalk, 5 January), but a long sequence of losers, pushed the balance sheet well into the red. Salvation came in the shape of Calonne, a 16/1 advice (4/1 sp), who pounced late to claim a neck victory at Wolverhampton on 24 January. That pushed them into credit, but despite a sequence of three second places (including 18/1 Shamshon at Lingfield, 28 January), Daily Bargain was unable to add to the tally.

January was a month of wretched misfortune for Personal Info, which was typified by the short-head defeat of Addingham at Lingfield (28 January). The William Haggas-trained three-year-old who went down by a short-head to Rogue Mission, surrendering the lead in the very last stride. No fewer than seven of the month’s 24 selections found one too good, but the first two home in the North Yorkshire Grand National at Catterick on 13 January – Supreme Escape (5/1 advice) and Almazhar Garde (100/30) both received the Personal Info stamp of approval.

It was a similar story with Personal Info’s Saturday-Only service; a 3.6-point loss did at least earn the silver medal in January’s table.  

A tough month. Better will come, of that we can be certain.

A FINAL THOUGHT

The inauguration of the Winter Million – a three-day festival combining jumps and all-weather action – is an initiative that deserves to succeed. I’m sure I was not alone in thinking: Lingfield. Jumping in January! Are they mad? But the weather was kind and the meeting went down well, receiving terrestrial TV coverage on the two days of jumping action and a fair deal of media attention. In time, if things go well, this could be just the opportunity to inject much needed vigour into the post-Christmas programme.