Post Racing Podcast 20/12/24

This week we discuss affordability checks, Jet Blue, the French horse that bolted up at Cheltenham last weekend, we look at how horse racing in Asia is viewed by comparison to here at home, give Willie Mullins a big thumbs up and applaud the brilliant effort made by Tony Carroll to reach 100 winners in a calendar year!

Below is my side of the conversation but you can read a full transcript using YouTube and iTunes who provide a transcription service.

1. Affordability checks at 4p a day – but let’s not forget restrictions and account closures where we are pointing the blame for a reduction in turnover

I read the sage words of the Punters Supremo in the Racing Post a few days ago….some guy called Trivass….you’ll have heard of him….and was just nodding away to everything he said….have you ordered the t-shirt yet?

Thing is, it’s not just people wanting to place a bet that are now stopping betting. To lay horses on the Exchanges in the way many were doing, you need to have a huge bank in place and those affordability checks also apply to those wanting to take those bets.

The other day I was faffing around with a BUYING MONEY SYSTEM dutch….a tenner spread across three horses and one part of the dutch was a bet of £1.38 @ 4.7 and it took me about five minutes to lay the whole £1.38….that’s ridiculous and a sign the liquidity on Betfair right now is close to zero.

Don’t anyone try to convince you this is anything to do with betting, it’s to do with money laundering, as simple as that.

• The French are coming – is Jet Blue a contender for Cheltenham come March?

You can still get 16/1 for the Albert Bartlett and that might be a good e.w. bet because that will be his target. I like THE YELLOW CLAY for that race but JET BLUE won very easily

• How to do it correctly – racing in Japan and Hong Kong is thriving - but for very different reasons

If you promote something - anything – in a positive fashion, you’ll convince the public to be positive about it. If you keep telling the public something is dirty, then it’s dirty and even those that know it’s not, will not dare say a word.

I saw the crowds over there, heard the noise they made, read your articles that told of someone trying to give baseball caps away to supporters of his horse and he attracted a crowd so big the police had to move them on….but racing here, at the moment, is a dirty word because it is associated with gambling….and gambling is, most probably, seen as close to doing deals with devils as it’s possible to imagine in this country.

• Willie Mullins wins Manager of the Year in Ireland – will that be a nudge to the powers over the Irish Sea that racing remains a popular sport

I guess winning our Champion trainer title helped but it also says racing is right up there with football, rugby etc and if the powers that be over there don’t see that, then it’s plain this downer some seem to have on our sport right now is nothing to do with the sport itself, but the betting/gambling side of it.

• Congratulations to Tony Carroll with 100 winners on the Flat in 2024 for the first time.

I thought I’d take a look at the prize money he won this year and with both win and placed prize money he scooped 757,885….last season he had 78 winners and a very similar number place, and he won £708,794 so those additional 22 winners were only worth £49,091 or £2,231.41 each.

John Gosden had 109 winners this season and nothing like as many...