PROBETS TIGHTEN GRIP

2022-06-30

Probets’ grip on the 2022 Besttipping challenge was tightened in June thanks to an unprecedented sixth straight table-topping month. A yield of 4 points secured the honours, but it needed a last day winner to deny Personal Info’s Mainline service, who ended the month 3.68 points up.

Personal Info’s Saturday-Only service registered a fifth profitable month of the year (1.01 points), but Daily Bargain’s fall from grace continued with a 6.5-point loss.

So, at the half way point in the challenge, Probets have earned a 51.9-point profit and have built up a huge lead of more than 48-points. Personal Info Saturday-Only are second with a 3.71-point profit.

Daily Bargain, the reigning champion, trails stablemate Probets by more than 76-points, which, on current form, makes a comeback appear a fanciful notion.

Six of Probets’ 25 bets in June were winners with prices ranging from 5/2 to 11/2. Prior to the start of this phenomenal run, Probets often missed out on positive returns despite decent strike-rates. This was a result of average sp’s being below 3/1. Significantly, June’s average was almost 7/2. That extra half a point is the crucial difference; six winners at an average of 3/1 would have resulted in a 1-point loss.

The high-point of Probets’ month was Royal Ascot, which provided two of the month’s winners: Magical Lagoon (3/1, 16 June) and Broome (11/2, 18 June).

The overall profit following Broome’s Hardwicke Stakes success was 9 points, but a run of ten losing selections sent Probets into the red. Wodeton (4/1) was the saviour, winning with some ease at Epsom on the last evening of the month.

Wodeton’s victory shattered Personal Info’s hopes of a first monthly title since last December. But, overall, this was another impressive month with eight winning selections from eleven bets. Always the service for the big festival meetings, Personal Info were again in top form at Royal Ascot, with three winners from four bets: Karl Burke’s Dramatised opened proceedings with a comfortable victory in the Queen Anne Stakes (11/4, 15 June); Meditate secured the Albany Stakes on day three (4/1, 17 June); and Missed The Cut completed the sequence of wins with a 5/2 success in the Golden Gate Stakes on the last afternoon (18 June).

The month began with a winner, All The Time (4/1, Nottingham, 1 June) before Personal Info secured an Epsom classic double courtesy of Aidan O’Brien’s Oaks winner, Tuesday (3 June) and the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Derby hero, Desert Crown (5/2, 4 June).

Personal Info’s Saturday-only chipped in with Desert Crown and Missed The Cut, ensuring yet another profitable month, the fifth in succession.  

The one golden moment in Daily Bargain’s month was the success of 11/1 advice Candleford in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Ascot (17 June). This was one of just two successes in June, the other being Midnight Legacy (13/2, Epsom Downs, 4 June). It all means that Daily Bargain enter the second half of the year having registered just one profitable return from six thus far in 2022. Unless there is a dramatic change of fortune, the five-time Besttipping champion is looking at a loss-making year - the first since 2016.