Morning News

Good morning...

So, I guess not such a great day for the ratings but...

I ought to let you know that I watched Being AP last night (or, should that be tonight - I'm not sure - I'm not sleeping very well at the moment) - the new film about A.P. McCoy and...

I've probably learned more about horse racing in 1 hour and 36 minutes than I've learned in the last 3 years!

A great film - I'd strongly advise you to watch it even if you don't like jumps racing.

That first scene, when he is in hospital and reciting his 'work' injuries to the doctor/surgeon, sort of shows how commited he was.

Good grief - even Barry Sheene didn't get injured that much!

And Barry Sheene fell off his 200 mph motorbike quite a lot!

And there wasn't much of his (Barry Sheene's) body that wasn't composed of Meccano (of the medical kind!)

What really gets me is that he (A.P. McCoy) comes over as such a nice guy...

Committed (and a true professional), sure but,

Still, a nice family guy.

So, if I feel a bit fired up over the next few days, you'll know why that is!

I should say that my ratings work best for the AW races (which, to be honest, are the easiest races to rate) but I just can't watch them.

I have a weird (almost kinky) interest in the early flat 2 year old races but most of the flat leaves me feeling a bit flat (sorry for the pun.)

But I do love watching the winter and spring jumps racing though (especially the Boxing Day's racing and Cheltenham) - I guess that I'm not going to be the only boy in town who misses A.P. McCoy.

Still, what do I know about horse racing?

Quotes of the film...

"If he rides a horse for the first time, it's uncanny how many times that that horse wins again."

The feedback that he gives to a trainer... and then the horse suddenly improves."

Believe me, there are plenty more great quotes in the film/documentary.

Great film - can recommend it and if your husband or wife is looking that special Christmas pressie for you, you might want to suggest a DVD of that film.

You'd probably enjoy that more than another pair of driving gloves or some more fancy aftershave that you'll never use.

Anyway, enough of that, firstly let's get on and take a quick look at yesterday's results in more detail....

Yesterday's Results

Yesterday's Results, show a strike rate (for our top rated horse) of 14.81%.

Yesterday's Live Ratings, show a strike rate (for our top rated horse) of 14.29%.

Yesterday's - Link to Follow - results for All Races (including previously unrated races), show a strike rate (for our top rated horse) of 14.29% from all 28 Races (including previously unrated races.)

The Overall Profit Index. If you had blindly backed every top three rated horse in all of the races you would have had 72.34 units returned to 82 units staked. The Overall Profit Index was, thus, -11.78%

Top Rated Horse - There were 4 winners from the top rated horses from 27 Races. If you had blindly backed the top rated horse in all of the races you would have had 9.11 units returned to 27 units staked. The Top Rated Profit Index was, thus, -66.26%

2nd Rated Horse - There were 9 winners from the second rated horses from 28 Races. If you had blindly backed the 2nd rated horse in all of the races you would have had 53.98 units returned to 28 units staked. The 2nd Rated Profit Index was, thus, 92.79%

3rd Rated Horse - There were 2 winners from the third rated horses from 27 Races. If you had blindly backed the 3rd rated horse in all of the races you would have had 9.25 units returned to 27 units staked. The 3rd Rated Profit Index was, thus, -65.74%

Forecasts

There were 0 forecasts yesterday.

Reverse Forecasts

There were 4 reverse forecasts yesterday.

Southwell (AW) 13:30:00 - The CSF paid £9.46

Towcester 13:40:00 - The CSF paid £120.83

Towcester 15:10:00 - The CSF paid £23.95

Chelmsford (AW) 18:40:00 - The CSF paid £10.66

Tricasts/Trifectas

There were 0 tricasts/trifectas yesterday.

Combination Tricasts/Trifectas

There were 2 combination tricasts/trifectas yesterday.

Exeter 13:20:00 - The Trifecta paid £3.50

Chelmsford (AW) 16:05:00 - The Trifecta paid £45.60

Winners

From the 28 rated races there were 15 winners (from the top 3 rated horses.) 5 of those were at nice prices.

Course	Time	Horse	ISP	BSP
Towcester	13:40	Earcomesthedream (1)	17.00	20.61
Southwell (AW)	15:00	Coto (4)	9.00	11.99
Towcester	15:10	Ballyegan (5)	7.00	7.80
Southwell (AW)	15:30	Gabrial The Hero (1)	6.00	6.00
Chelmsford (AW)	16:05	Silk Gem (4)	7.00	9.60

The Portfolio

There was neither a Banker's Bet nor a Chancer's Bet yesterday.

On the Portfolio Page there is now a link to the Banker's Bet Proofing Page and, also to the Chancer's Bet proofing page.

You may subscribe to my Portfolio. To do so, you need to go to your Members Page and change option 4 on the Your Profile bit.

If you haven't subscribed, the button will say Yes - just click on it and you'll be signed up.

Place Betting Strategy

Towcester 12:40:00 - Lakeshore Lady - 2nd - Betfair paid 3.09 for the place.
Exeter 12:50:00 - Arty Bella - Unplaced
Southwell 13:00:00 - Powered - Unplaced
Exeter 14:20:00 - Dolores Delightful - Unplaced
Towcester 14:40:00 - Tistarr - Unplaced
Exeter 15:20:00 - Motts Cross - Unplaced
Towcester 15:40:00 - The Model County - Unplaced

We made a loss of 4.0145 points on the day and have made a profit of 24.9315 points for December.

For the new strategy we made a loss of 5.433831 points on the day an have made a profit of 13.164726 points for December.

I have added a new section to the spreadsheet to indicate the results should we ignore the odds on selections.

For the refined strategy (the one that you should be using) we made a loss of 5.433831 points on the day and have made a profit of 15.667563 points for December.

The spreadsheet of all of the results is available at… http://focusratings.com/data/PBSDec.xls

Something to make you laugh

Words of wisdom from Andrew D.

I do have to say that Andrew does feel that if we do starting looking at horse racing though children's eyes (in other words, thinking outside of the box), perhaps we'd make more money?

I can't explain why those ideas are so important but, I promise you that they are!

Children's Eyes

Teacher: How old is your father?
Kid: He is 6 years.
Teacher: What? How is this possible?
Kid: He became father only when I was born.

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America .
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS: Maria.

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your maths multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using the tables.

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L'
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!

TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with ' I. '
MILLIE: I is...
TEACHER: No, Millie...... always say, 'I am.'
MILLIE: All right... 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet'

TEACHER: Now, Simon , tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No Miss, I don't have to, my Mam is a good cook.

TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's.. Did you copy his?
CLYDE : No Miss, It's the same dog.

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: Miss

And one from me...

Facts of Life

1. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.

2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

3. Going to a mosque doesn't make you a Muslim any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel faster through the mail than checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.

25. Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.

Today

Today's early test ratings show 33 rated races from five meetings.

Have a great day's racing!

Once again, if you've got anything to say about Focus Ratings, please wander over to the Focus Ratings Review at Tipsters Review and have your say.

The income that we make from sign ups from that site keeps me in Red Wine and Smelly Cheese!

As always...

My kindest regards