Morning News

Good morning...

I'll go into the detail of yesterday's results for the Hong Kong and French ratings for yesterday lower down on this post.

The one thing that I should say is that I finally committed some code updates yesterday and, as a result...

We now have two more columns for our Hong Kong CompassRatings.

As you'll see from the screenshot...

We now have a column that shows the Draw (very important for Happy Valley races) and another new column for the Confidence for each horse.

This applies to both the Top Three Rated PDF and the All Horses PDF.

Click on the image to see it full size - don't forget to use the Back button to return to this post.

I'm hoping to add Draw/Stall win percentage as a new column this weekend; this is only really useful for the Happy Valley racing but it could improve profitability.

Hong Kong Ratings

Yesterday's results weren't as good as they recently have been.

We had one third place, one win and two non-runners (for our top rated horse) from the nine races.

It seems that Sha Tin is obviously our no deposit cash machine.

This week the Sha Tin meeting is held on Sunday (as it normally is) but starts very early with the first race running at 5am British time.

I'll be getting the ratings out tomorrow or first thing Saturday.

French Ratings

The link to today's ratings for Longchamps is... http://focusratings.com/french/FrenchRatings-2020-05-14.pdf

The first race is at 10:10am

There are 4 meetings in France tomorrow (Friday 15th May) but 3 of the meetings are trotting races which are...

Absolutely hilarious to watch but also, to my eyes anyway,

Totally incomprehensible.

Imagine getting Sebastian Coe and Lindford Christie and getting them to run a three legged race in the next Olympics (possible a hurdle race - that would be fun); well, that's what Trotting races look like to me - especially the horse and cart ones.

From http://horseraces.pmu.fr/french-racing - the English language version of the main French horse racing site.

France is a world leader in organizing trotting races. It also created and conceived its own breed, le Trotteur Français (the French Trotter). More than 11,000 trotting races take place in France every year, representing 61% of the total French races organized.

All I can say is...

Only in France!

The remaining meeting at Lyon-Parilly is mainly low grade conditions Flat races with no Graded or Listed races.

Thus, there will be no French ratings for Friday.

I am still working on my bets for today's French Racing.

Obviously I got my staking wrong yesterday; a childish error possibly brought on by excitement over having a bet after a long period of abstinence or, due to me rushing because I wanted to get today's French ratings out in good time.

My instinct is to concentrate on the 10:10 with, perhaps, a cheeky place (or each way) bet on Mcfancy in the 10:40 - the latter is what I think of as a scratchcard bet; you buy a scratchcard and if you win a couple of quid it makes you feel happy but if you lose you don't feel bad about the couple of quid you've lost.

For those of you thinking about betting on French Horse racing, you can obviously do that on both the Betfair Sportsbook and the Betfair Exchange (there is. at the moment, a reasonable amount of liquidity (to my eyes, anyway) every morning.

Alternatively, PaddyPower is supposed to be the leader in French betting but I have found that RaceBets.com looks good to me - they explain the betting here... https://blog.racebets.com/7-reasons-bet-french-horse-racing

Other Ratings

Just for a laugh (or possibly because there are no French ratings for tomorrow)...

I shall be manually rating one of the two Group races running early in the morning in Australia on Saturday.

The 7:25am at Morphettville (6f The Furphy Goodwood) looks interesting and very rateable so it'll be a good test to see how the ratings work in Australia.

It's a group 1 race with £135,400 going to the winning horse.

If any of you enjoy betting on Australian horse racing (or have had experience of doing so) then please let me know; I do have to admit that I am a bit of an advice sponge - always asking silly questions although, I've learned that, in reality, there's no such thing as a silly question.

I do have to admit that I have a niggling thought lurking somewhere deep at the back of my warped and twisted mind...

Perhaps it's because I used to play chess (and am, thus, sort of inclined to think 2 or 3 moves ahead) but...

What happens if, God forbid, there were a second wave of Coronovirus?

Would the UK (and Ireland) have to resort to another (but stricter, as we've had to endure in France) period of quarantine?

And how would that affect the, soon to be resumed, British racing?

It's always worth having a Plan B.

I imagine that we've already forgotten that, back in February last year, we lost a week of racing due to the threat of Equine Flu.

Once again, it's always worth having a Plan B.

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Something to make you smile...

The Cup of Tea...

Well,

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me.

I was maybe 2 1/2 years old and had just recovered from an accident.

Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys.

Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of "tea," which was just water.

After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home.

My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was "just the cutest thing!"

My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watched him drink it up.

Then she says, (as only a mother would know . . ... )

"Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?"

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A Wife's Wishes...

A despondent woman was walking along the beach when she saw a bottle on the sand. She picked it up and pulled out the cork. Whoosh! A big puff of smoke appeared.

"You have released me from my prison," the genie told her. "To show my thanks, I grant you three wishes. But take care, for with each wish, your mate will receive double of whatever you request."

"Why?" the woman asked. "That bum left me for another woman."

"That is how it is written," replied the genie.

The woman shrugged and then asked for a million dollars. There was a flash of light, and a million dollars appeared at her feet. At the same instant, in a far-off place, her wayward husband looked down to see twice that amount at his feet.

"And your second wish?"

"Genie, I want the world's most expensive diamond necklace." Another flash of light, and the woman was holding the precious treasure. And, in that distant place, her husband was looking for a gem broker to buy his latest bonanza.

"Genie, is it really true that my husband has two million dollars and more jewels that I do, and that he gets double of whatever I wish for?"

The genie said it was indeed true.

"Okay, genie, I'm ready for my last wish," the woman said. "Scare me half to death."

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Cooking Fried Eggs...

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.

Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.

"Careful," he said. "CAREFUL! Put in some more butter!

Oh my Goodness! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY!

Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my GOD! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK!

Careful . CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never!

Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind?

Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!"

The wife stared at him. "What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?"

The husband calmly replied, "I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving."

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Today

Whatever you are up to today...

Stay safe and healthy.

As always...

My kindest regards