Today is one of the most significant days for the future of Rangers as Duff and Phelps legal challenge to Ticketus ownership of around £40m of tickets over the next three seasons plays out. Should Ticketus retain ownership of the tickets it considerably inhibits the phoenix scenarios Duff and Phelps are able to profile as they look to sell the club.
BBC Scotland’s business and economy editor, Douglas Fraser, Tweeted this afternoon that Duff and Phelps asked the court for permission to breach the agreement with Ticketus as it acts as an inhibitor to attracting potential bids for the club. Fraser also notes that there is little precedent for such a breach and that the Blue Knights consortium have been able to construct a deal recognising Ticketus’ rights.
I heard earlier today that Craig Whyte is particularly distressed at some of the derogatory comments fired his way this week, a few of which he feels are unjustified. The media are already speculating on what could happen to Mr Whyte in the event that police inquiries lead to a report being made to the crown office.
I understand supporters of Mr Whyte, who has maintained a dignified silence on many aspects of the deal, are curious as to why the person who led him to Ticketus has not revealed his involvement. I hear that early last year when Whyte privately revealed he was unable to pull enough funds together to complete the takeover, he was told:
“Why don’t you speak to a company called Ticketus? They are very helpful for this kind of thing.”
Having never worked in the football business, Whyte had never heard of Ticketus. When I heard who this was I laughed and laughed and laughed. I’m still laughing. This is the story that just keeps on giving. My source is not for going on the record, so discretion is the better part of valour on this one, but if Mr Whyte ever gets to the witness box, get yourself a front row seat.
The Daily Record today suggested Mr Whyte could end up in jail over this business. I wonder if he’ll be the only one.
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TIMABHOY ,How many winners did u have to-day, at present this man city are a bad lot ,also the picture freezes quite a bit. the press conference to morrow ,get a security man at the door ,to stop the record and the bbc from entering the media room.
Folly Folly &Bhoy 67
Emotions got better of me while writing last post. Drifted from what i was going to say.
We tend think of/remember the ones we’ve lost ,alot more on special occasions.
Christmas / new year etc etc.
This sure feels like a special time.
HH BB
MORT What do you mean ,sporting lisbon 1 up
Hi Timbhoy 2 ,had 3 good winners + Big buck forecast.
Here´s todays.
Good luck whatever you do.
Good evening, Brian
I had a very interesting e-mail from someone minutes after CAPE TRIBULATION waltzed past the winning post for us this afternoon…”will you have my babies”….erm, how old are they and what are their names…and would the missus mind you giving them to me!
Seriously, it wasn’t a bad old afternoon’s punting. The first race was a cracker for us….and my pre-season 20 to follow list! we nailed the lot plus, I personally laid PEDDLERS CROSS until the cows came home. I was sitting here this morning, after sending my Newsletter out and I recalled a comment McCain had made about the possibility of them going back over hurdles with this horse. he made it some time ago, perhaps even before he got beaten by SPRINTER SACRE, and everything kinda fell into place for me. The horse is not a natural jumper at speed and will never beat the big guns…expect it to be back over the smaller obstacles next term.
CAPE TRIBULATION….what a little beauty. I had spent the better part of 3.5 hours on that race and for it to all come together was brilliant.
NOBLE PRINCE has a problem. it drifted like a barge in the market, never jumped a twig, jumped out to it’s right and was then pulled up.
BIG BUCKS to beat VOLER LE VEDETTE….not a bad call. I did as I said I would and just watched….as you lot pocketed some very nice profits.
The rest of the day resorted to typical Thursday…but three winning races from six at a Cheltenham Festival on a Thursday….I’ll settle for that.
let’s see what the final day brings….
THE TRIUMPH HURDLE
This is my favourite day of the entire week. I have generally licked the wounds inflicted by the Thursday…very much teeth gnashing day, generally….at the time of writing I have absolutely no idea how we have done today because I doubt a single jockey is out of bed yet!
I’m going to start by discussing SHADOW CATCHER….you knew I would. I want him to win. I want him to win pulling double and put himself in the Champion Hurdle frame for next season. Why? Because I wanted to buy him for my 500 club members last October but we fell short on the funding side. I had spotted this horse in the catalogue and told David O’Meara he was the one I wanted. David watched some videos of past races, agreed he looked decent and as he went through the ring we blew out at £16k.
He went for £41k.
I will not miss the one I want this year.
So, can he win this?
Seven of the last ten winners were priced up at 9/1 or less. This is most certainly due to the introduction of the Fred Winter. Punters and layers alike now have this sussed.
My first shortlist contains:
BABY MIX, BALDER SUCCES, GRUMETI, PEARL SWAN, SADDLER’S RISK and….SHADOW CATCHER.
Last season ZARKANDAR became the first to win this race off the back of one race and it’s far more likely the winner is in that list than not, all having raced more than once.
It is a “vital” that all horses being considered have won at least half of their races this term and, all the above fit that bill.
Nine of the last ten winners were trained on the British mainland so, unfortunately, this is where I drop SHADOW CATCHER. Had I got him for my members and were he trained in Yorkshire by David O’Meara, he’d have been included. But he’s not.
Nine of the last ten winners had actually won on their last visit to the track before coming here so, if I take that as gospel then my shortlist is now down to:
BABY MIX, BALDER SUCCES, GRUMETI and, probably controversially, PEARL SWAN….that one was disqualified when beating GRUMETI, I thought, on merit.
I hate punting horses coming to a Championship on the back of a scare and GRUMETI was recently lame. Even if I honestly believed he would win, I would still be unable to punt him because of that.
That leaves me three.
IN CONCLUSION
I am more than happy to dutch BABY MIX, BALDER SUCCES and PEARL SWAN.
On the understanding that nine of the last ten winners were sired by a Group 1 winner off the flat, my 20/80 has to be PEARL SWAN, a son of GENTLEWAVE, winner of such a race in Italy.
Combo exotics, same three.
I will still cheer to the rafters if SHADOW CATCHER pulls it off though!
VINCENT O’BRIEN COUNTY HANDICAP HURDLE
Only three of the last ten winners were in a single figure price, giving this a whiff of “difficult”.
Three of the last four winners were 20/1, 20/1, 50/1….perhaps they should rename this the Pertemps Byrne!
Anyway, let’s see what we can do with it. If I nail it, you can thank me later.
Weight….nine of the last 10 winners carried no more than 11st 1lb so, anything above ALDERWOOD on the current race card, is removed from calculations.
That still leaves us 16 mines to defuse.
Eight of the last ten winners had raced within the last 35 days and, as five and six year olds have won seven of the last eight races I will perm those two stats to draw up a shorter shortlist.
EDGARDO SOL, MAGNIFIQUE ETOILE, REDERA, OLOFI, TED SPREAD, IFYOULETMEFINISH, INGLEBY SPIRIT, COURT IN SESSION.
If we accept that the three long priced winners above were simply flukes….you can make a case for that being the case, when you add into the equation the fact nine of the last 13 winners were in the front four on the morning tissue, then narrowing this down further becomes easy.
Ignore ghosts, note that Paul Nicholls has saddled three winners, a second and a fourth in the last eight years, you have to include TED SPREAD in any dutch you are considering. He ran poorly last Saturday but Ruby Walsh felt beforehand the race would not be run to suit and my feeling is he only went there to see if they could nail the bonus for winning the Imperial cup and a race at the Festival.
The word all last week was, he’s a certainty for this.
That might be someone getting all over exuberant but I can see this race being much better for him.
Six of the last 10 winners had finished in the first four placing’s on the previous run and whilst that means four had not, I’ve entertained bringing in TED SPREAD as that %age.
I want two from the rest that have….MAGNIFIQUE ETOILE and IFYOULETMEFINISH plus INGLEBY SPIRIT qualify.
IN CONCLUSION
The prices of my four here are 20/1, 16/1, 14/1 and 33/1. I can dutch the four to produce a very decent profit if successful and I will do so. TED SPREAD will be my 20/80 and I will contemplate how best to work my exotics as I will need to keep the perms down to make them an attractive play.
ALBERT BARTLETT NOVICES’ HURDLE
I know a lot of people are really looking forward to seeing BRINDISI BREEZE here but that one faces the horse I have suggested will win next seasons RSA Chase, BOSTON BOB.
Should be very interesting and this race looks a cracker.
This is not a race I have a lot of empirical data for as we have had just seven running’s of it.
Once of my stats that will be blown to bits is that which requires a horse to have won here previously. Four of the last seven had done so but not a single runner tomorrow has got that C next to their names.
The best stat I have to work with is that which tells me only one winner has been bigger than 9/1, three favourites having won three of the last six.
Anything bigger than that 9/1 is binned and I have a shortlist of:
BOSTON BOB, BRINDISI BREEZE, MOUNT BENBULBEN, ROCKY CREEK, SEA OF THUNDER.
Five isn’t a bad starting point, is it.
Unfortuntely, lacking the bits and pieces of information I require to sort this race out, I’m not able to whittle it down any further!
IN CONCLUSION
A race I would love to be able to suggest we get stuck into BOSTON BOB as I believe he is a monster but I myself will simply have a 20/80 MOUNT BENBULBEN and only because he is in my list of 20 to follow this season and by crikey they have performed well this week.
BETFRED GOLD CUP
There really is no point looking away from the glaringly obvious. If the winner is outside the front three on the morning tissue, it’ll be a Burton’s window job again.
In all honesty, if LONG RUN jumps round, he’ll beat KAUTO STAR. Sorry to all those fans of the best steeplechaser we’ve seen for a long, long time but I just do not see him being able to do what he has done at Haydock and Kempton, at Cheltenham. He will have to be ridden a bit more conservatory and that will play into the younger horses hands.
In my Cheltenham Preview Newsletters I mooted BURTON PORT would be a cracking good 20/80 to add to your portfolio and I will simply stick to that play.
The last three races on tomorrow’s card I tend to not get heavily involved in. we have the Foxhunters, a race I would probably do just as well using a pin, we have the Conditional’s race and the last race on the last day has, two seasons in succession, stuffed me sideways. I will only pay lip service to them.
CHRISTIE’S FOXHUNTER CHASE
You do not really expect me to have any kind of grip on these, do you?
The only logic I can apply to a race like this is, look for a former class act, connected, in whatever way, to a top yard. CHAPOTURGEON is “trained” by Richard Barber but the access he has to quality facilities is second to none. He has won here before and if you really must have a bet, I would suggest that is as good as any.
IN CONCLUSION
My money is far too important to me, to even consider betting here.
MARTIN PIPE CONDITIONAL JOCKEYS’ HANDICAP HURDLE
Another race I tend to swerve, advising you simply work with the glaringly obvious and last year we found SIR DES CHAMPS.
Again, in my pre-Cheltenham Newsletters I advised you punted BOURNE. That will be the only bet I have in this event.
JOHNNY HENDERSON GRAND ANNUAL CHASE
The finale.
Hopefully by the time this race arrives we are miles ahead of the layers and all in clover.
The winner will have won over the trip. Every single runner has done so, so that stat will remain.
I’m not interested in anything older than nine or, carrying more than 10st 11lb.
Top four in the handicap are binned.
I will not be looking for anything priced bigger than 8/1, six of the last 10 having been amongst the fancied ones.
KID CASSIDY, TOUBAB qualify.
IN CONCLUSION
It has been a long old week (month actually), and I am hoping to see Nicky Henderson round off what has been a phenomenal week. Dutch that pair, 20/80 KID CASSIDY, who Tony McCoy suggested would only really come into his own when racing in a big field, and a reverse exotic.
I hope you have enjoyed reading the profies and, if it is your first time using my work, that you come back for Royal Ascot, if nothing else!….we will have some serious fun with that one.
Have a great evening and nurse those profits…don’t be to keen tomorrow to hand them all back.
Kindest regards