Sandbets secure November title with winner cavalcade

2019-11-30

Sandbets secured a third Besttipping monthly crown with a commanding display in November. A 35.2-point return produced a huge margin of victory, adding to table topping efforts in September 2018 and September 2019.

Mark Your Card, who are more selective in their selection process these days, finished second with a 5.9-point gain ahead of Steve Jones’ Probets (4.1 points), Personal Info (2.2 points), Personal Info Saturday Only (1.2 points) and First Favourite (0.9 points).

The overall 2019 leader, Daily Bargain, suffered a rare losing month, bringing the race for glory back to life. At the start of the month, Steve Jones’ service held a 21.3-point lead over Mark Your Card, but by end of November, the advantage had melted away to just 6.4-points. (There are echoes of 2013, when Daily Bargain entered December with a lead of just 5.2 points over PJA National Hunt. On that occasion, however, there were five services in with a shout with a month to run. And, ultimately, Isiris, who started the month in fourth spot went on to prevailed by a remarkably comfortable 18 points.)

Having hit top form in September, Sandbets struggled to find winners in October. An 11.5% strike-rate was far from encouraging, yet, no fewer than 25 selections finished second or third. In other words, 40% of all tips finished in the frame. This time around, 48% of all advices finished in the first three, but the difference was that 19 of these won their races. Leading the cavalcade were Full Intention (33/1, Kempton, 5 November), Newbolt (25/1, Chelmsford City, 25 November) and Venture (20/1, Kempton, 27 November).

As noted earlier, Mark Your Card are more circumspect these days. A monthly total of 30 tips is less than a tenth of the number once posted. But the profits are still there. November’s 5.9-point yield was a seventh winning month of 2019, a figure bettered only by the two Personal Info services.

November winners for Mark Your Card included 9/1 Haafapiece (Huntingdon, 23 November) and 6/1 Crievehill (6/1, Haydock, 23 November). There were also a number a decent each-way returns.

Probets third successive winning month was a reward for another consistent effort. Nineteen of the month’s 29 selections finished in the first three with eight finding their way into the winners’ enclosure (28% strike-rate); two Kempton scorers, Purple Paddy (5/1, 5 November) and Fearless Warrior (9/2, 20 November) made the biggest contribution.

Personal Info were again in imperious form: advices were given in thirteen races and no fewer than nine winners were identified. These included Thebannerkingrebel (2/1, Haydock, 23 November) and Scentasia (2/1, Lingfield, 16 November). Since the start of 2018, profits have been recording in 19 out of 23 months, an astonishing 83% strike-rate.

Personal Info’s Saturday-Only service continued the good work, registered a 1.2-point yield, making it 26 winning months since the start of 2017. November’s tally was three winners and a second from just four selections with the two 2/1 successes noted above standing out.

First Favourite’s patience is finally starting to pay off. November’s single selection was a winner following on from a similar record in October. The success of 10/11 Documenting at Lingfield (23 November) made it four winning advices out of six since 26 August.

We’ll be back in January with a comprehensive review of the Besttipping year. In the meantime, you can keep up to date by following us on twitter (@Besttipping).