Tin hat needed after The Tin Man lets us down

The last week was all about The Tin Man for Northern Monkey.  Clearly, the Wizard of Oz is still playing funny buggers and hasn’t given The Tin Man a new heart.  Judging by the way it ran at Ascot on Saturday, it sure does need one!

After last weekend’s huge success, Wayne was understandably bullish about his latest “project” horse and the week leading up to Saturday’s race saw a few attempts at getting stakes rolling up onto The Tin Man via doubles.  Unfortunately the previous week’s heroics weren’t matched and Saturday proved to be a major disappointment for Northern Monkey’s followers.  Still, you can’t win them all…

Getting right back on after falling off

Tuesday evening proved to be something of a horror show for the Football Service 1 system (I backed five teams, none of them won) and judging by the tipster’s comments in his member’s email on Thursday containing the weekend’s picks, it appears that the main system suffered too.  Of course, after a blow out, human nature tends to dictate that the last thing you then want to do is shell out a load more money on a big number of tips from the same source.  Far better to gradually recover the losses and regain confidence that way, no?

Well, no.  It was a case of getting right up back in the saddle on Saturday with a bumper 13 bet weekend for the Service 1 system.  Even the tipster himself was struggling to remember the last time a round of fixtures threw up so many selections.  Those who retained faith in their tipster and betting bank, and stayed consistent in their staking enjoyed a decent enough day.  In times past I can guarantee I’d have lowered my stakes or something equally as daft.  Not now though.  Sometimes experience really does count for a lot.

Clean sweep for AH Edge

It’s not been a good week overall.  The horse racing tipsters have found the going heavy in more ways than one and judging by the emails, the guys at Chasemaster are feeling particularly frustrated at present.  But of course this is why we add diversity to our portfolios, and it was good to see AH Edge produce five winning bets from five on Sunday.  Such a performance certainly helped keep the week to a “Disappointing” rating and prevent it from slumping to “Catastrophic”!

Here are the month to date figures…

AH Edge: Staked 39pts, +1.453pts.

Chasemaster: Staked 20.25pts, -17.387pts.

Football Service 1: Staked 27pts, -1.458pts.

Golf Insider: Staked 1,060pts, +43.1pts.

Jason James: Staked 83.5pts, -10.917pts.

Morning Value Service (Lite): Staked 47pts, +15pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 49pts, +30.271pts.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 41.256pts, +3.386pts.

Racing Service A: n/a

Racing Service B: Staked 39.5pts, +6.6pts.

October ROI: 10.46%, ROC 3.89%.

Northern Monkey’s Profit Explosion

I can’t possibly start this week’s post with anything but a huge big-up and doff of the cap to Northern Monkey.

It’s been a frustrating year for Wayne and his disciples, but after yesterday’s events NMP subscribers ought to be offering to bathe Wayne’s feet in milk whilst peeling his grapes for him.

Picking the winner of the notoriously difficult Cesarewitch is a tremendously difficult task in itself.  To pick out what went off as the 5/1 favourite antepost at 25/1 is, some might argue, bordering on the miraculous.  To double it up with a 100/30 winner on Tuesday when still at 12/1?  Well, I’d say Wayne doesn’t so much walk on water as tap dance his way over it.

The upshot was a tremendous Saturday’s sport, boosted further by Morning Value Service (Lite) weighing in with three winners, but the weekend undoubtedly belonged to Wayne.

Lot to like about Pilelist Racing

Naturally it’s always easy to write good things about a service you’re new to when they’re knocking in big priced winners, which is something Pilelist Racing did on Tuesday with Landing Night finishing first past the post at 20/1 up at Newcastle.  But it’s fair to say that there’s a lot to like about this service.

Succinct but detailed bet rationale, tip release when markets are mature, odds holding up well…it’s taken very little time to acclimatize to following, primarily because all the basic things you want to see in a service are there.  It’s been only two weeks from placing my first Pilelist bet, but I’m already feeling that the service is akin to a comfy pair of slippers or a favourite armchair.

Winter is on it’s way, but TVB is warming up nicely

As far as I am aware, Racing Service A is the only horse racing tipster out there to have a pre-season.  The decent weekend National Hunt Chepstow card signifies the fact that the fledgling jumps season is beginning to get serious.  It is at this time that A. starts to gain a feel for things again after a summer off.

Members who have been missing Racing Service A’s daily ponderings and doses of wisdom were given a treat when A. sent out a couple of emails detailing his thoughts.  Experimenting with a staking system that is new for 2017/18 and attempting to get the rustiness out of his formbook reading, A. showed that the magic has not diminished over the summer months.  Although not an ‘official’ tip, he was able to bang in 14/1 winner Court Minstrel.  Roll on the start of November when things go live.

A fine week

After Northern Monkey’s stormer on Saturday, things would have had to have been pretty disastrous elsewhere for this past week to have been anything other than a very good one.  Although Chasemaster, Jason James and Racing Service B disappointed, good performances from MVS (Lite) and Pilelist ensured that disaster didn’t strike.

Here are the figures for the month to date:

AH Edge: Staked 21pts, -0.36pts.

Chasemaster: Staked 10.25pts, -8.687pts.

Football Service 1: Staked 9pts, +0.708pts.

Golf Insider: Staked 590pts, +513.1pts.

Jason James: Staked 53.5pts, -22.917pts.

MVS (Lite): Staked 30pts, +16.5pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 28pts, +38.321pts.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 25.645pts, +8.175pts.

Racing Service A: n/a.

Racing Service B: Staked 27.75pts, +4.85pts.

October ROI: 30%.  ROC: 6.23%.

Spring is the time of growth, is it not?  Autumn the time of slow death and decay as nature readies itself for the cold and barren winter months.  Well, not for this little bunny rabbit it’s not!

Three new services added to the portfolio for the start of October…

BANG! AH Edge – adding to the football element with (funnily enough) a concentration on the Asian Handicap markets.

BANG! Golf Insider – replacing Pinpoint Gold for reasons I will explain soon (and nothing at all against that service).

BANG! Pilelist Racing – an each way betting expert with a pretty decent long term track record.

This brings the portfolio up to ten services, providing a bit more turnover and more opportunity to grow bank levels.  I am still looking to add one or two more and will look to do so as we move into the New Year.

The intention is to bring more posts to the Bet Diary too.  Having a larger portfolio will make this easier to do as quite simply, there will be more to talk about.  So make sure you check back regularly!

Betting from 1st October to 7th October

The first week of the new month has produced an overall ROI of 9.4% and ROC of 0.89%.

The most notable performer in a positive sense has undoubtedly been Racing Service B whose recent good form has continued.  Badly in the negative is Northern Monkey, who has hopefully returned from a recent holiday refreshed, but possibly a little rusty!  Loads of time this month to get back on track, however.

Here are the figures…

AH Edge: Staked 15pts, -0.399pts.

Chasemaster: Staked 3pts, -1.437pts.

Football Service 1: Staked 4pts, +1.273pts.

Golf Insider: Staked 150pts, +215.6pts.

Jason James: Staked 27pts, -0.25pts.

MVS (Lite): Staked 9pts, +6pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 12.5pts, -11.262pts.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 10.392pts, +3.727pts.

Racing Service A: n/a.

Racing Service B: Staked 12.25pts, +20.35pts.

And so another month whizzes by.  Seriously, where the heck has this year gone?!?  It’s frightening how quickly the months and weeks pass.

September is notable for the fact the return of football betting following the summer break.  As was the case last season, I’m following Football Service 1 through 2017/18.  However, in what is a general expansion of the portfolio, I will be introducing another football service into proceedings.  More detail on that and another couple of additions very soon.

September’s betting returned a solid enough 10.23% ROI, and bank growth of 4.49%.  Five of the seven services to issue bets returned a profit.

It gives me great pleasure to write that the most lucrative service to follow last month was Racing Service B.  I was having lunch and a beer with a couple of betting friends last week when the subject of this tipster’s approach to the game came up in conversation.  It was fascinating to hear the thoughts of another experienced bettor on the Irish tipster’s prowess.  My friend felt that via the various conversations he had enjoyed with this tipster over a period of time, the one thing that came through very strongly was that his intimate knowledge of horse racing and his “feel” (or understanding) for the sport provides him with a genuine edge over the bookmaker.

Of course I have bemoaned on these very pages a lack of progress up the Racing Service B P&L chart in the recent past, and it was good to have my confidence and faith in it reaffirmed by my friend’s thoughts.  It has been good too, for that reaffirmation to be firmly cemented by what has been a cracking month – 46.85pts profit at an ROI of 56.1%, or, put another way, bank growth of 23.4%!  Long may this form continue.

A positive mention too for Northern Monkey who both managed to squeeze in a well-deserved holiday and squeeze out a pretty healthy profit of 10.048pts at an ROI of 12.5% and ROC of 12.56%.  It’s been a frustrating summer for Wayne with a number of near misses.  Had the betting Gods smiled a little more favourably the summer months would have been lucrative ones for NMP members, but I guess them’s the breaks!

Here are the figures…

Chasemaster: Staked 19pts, +4.76pts, ROI 25.08%, ROC 4.76%.

Jason James: Staked 106.5pts, +15.65pts, ROI 14.9%, ROC 7.82%.

Morning Value Lite: Staked 52pts, +1.5pts, ROI 2.88%, ROC 1.5%.

Northern Monkey: Staked 80.25pts, +10.048pts, ROI 12.52%, ROC 12.56%.

Racing Service B: Staked 83.5pts, +46.85pts, ROI 56.1%, ROC 23.42%.

Pinpoint Golf: Staked 133.8pts, -47.207pts, ROI -35.28%, ROC -9.44%.

Football Service 1: Staked 13pts, -3.764pts, ROI -28.95%, ROC -7.52%.

So, next time, news of some changes.  Tune in shortly…