Week and Weekend Punting Pointers

A bit of a mixed bag today, as I act as your virtual tour guide, pointing you in the direction of various other pieces of information around geegeez. Actually, on that subject stay tuned to the end, as I’ve got some fairly big news regarding your favourite independent horse racing website 😉

Oh yes, and I’ve another question for you way down below too.

First, though, and with Champions Day looming large in the mirrors (declarations will be around later this morning), you might be interested to know which trainers are in form right now.

If so, you should check out Andy Newton’s splendid weekly piece, Trainer Trends. In that article, he highlights the strings in fine fettle… and names and shames one yard in, erm, disappointing form. Ahem. Each nominated trainer is hyperlinked straight to their Racing Post profile so you can see who they’ve got entered in the coming days.

Andy’s Trainer Trends article is here. And it’s on the site each Thursday for your delectation.

Now what could be a finer accompaniment to the ‘macro’ top down trainer view, than the ‘micro’ bottom up race view? Well, er, nothing. Which is why Mal Boyle continues to dazzle, amaze and otherwise isolate big priced winners in his fine ‘Well I Declare’ column. That is available for geegeez readers each Wednesday…

…and you can find the latest ‘Well I Declare’ edition here.

As well as those two excellent articles covering the week’s action, there is also a third piece which looks specifically at Saturday’s telly racing. That’s on the site from Friday, so do remember to check back tomorrow, as I don’t always have time to email out to remind you. (Sorry about that).

Finally on this, subscribers to my super-expensive the Bisogno Bulletin newsletter will be getting my full rundown on the Champions Day races tomorrow. The only way you can get that exclusive insight is by subscribing to the Bisogno Bulletin newsletter. It’s $5.99 (about £3.82) and you can register here, should you so wish.

http://letter.ly/BisognoBulletin

Oh yes, there’s a fair bit of other useful info in there too!

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On a more local note, it’s been a week of carnage for jockeys, who are becoming more ‘jokey’ than ‘jockey’, and are certainly not jocular as a collective at this time!

After the predictable opening day bans following the introduction of new whip rules, three further jocks fell foul of the measures yesterday, including William Buick. He joins Richard Hughes as the most high profile pilots on the sidelines so far, but this weekend’s Champions Day meeting promises to really polarise factions on the subject.

Imagine if you will, a jockey who has the option of a ban, or riding a Group 1 winner. Yes, folks, the rider will simply disregard the an and crack on (literally and metaphorically) with the job – and stick – in hand.

I quote Pat Cosgrave, another whip abuse felon from yesterday, who said: “Obviously, things were tight, but it wasn’t the sort of race worth getting a ban in so I put my whip down.”

Now, obviously, I sympathize with the sentiment, but where exactly does that leave punters? That’s a line I foresaw in my first edition of the Bisogno Bulletin, and it is just the sort of thing we now need to be mindful of.

More jockey carnage up at Wetherby, where the ‘road track’ struck again, fatally injuring a horse. The other jocks paid little heed to the yellow flag advising them to bypass the area where the stricken beast lay, and were given holidays for their ignorance. The fact that there will nine jocks be nine riders vacationing and that they include AP McCoy is interesting…

Ian Sutherland has done more credence to the story here.

In fact, Ian’s pieces continue to take a perfectly sideways take on racing, and I’d encourage readers to have a look at them. For instance, this piece on the best horse to come from Great Leighs; or this one on the magnificent Czech marathon, the Velka Pardubicka.

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Next up, a tool. No, not me again(!), but rather a punting tool. It’s a way to rate races quickly and effectively using the work of others.

It might look a bit fiddly at first, but I tried it, and it worked fine. Like I say, it’s a pretty good way of shortlisting runners in a race, and it’s free courtesy of the puntology boys…

You can check it out here.

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Now, a quick question for you. As you know, I’m always looking to make geegeez.co.uk the site that YOU want it to be, which is why your feedback is so often sought and actioned upon.

With that in mind, today I want to know if you’d be interested in a ‘race of the day’ preview piece. This might be just a tip for a horse with a three line explanation of why it’s fancied on some days, and it might be a deeper analysis of the whole field on other days.

So, let me know if that is something you’d come to the site to read…!

[poll id=”32″]

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And last today, I have a confession. I’ve not really been happy with the new site layout since I upgraded it. I mean, sure, it looks smart and all that. But… well, I just don’t think it’s very user friendly, and I think a lot of the best stuff on the site is a bit hidden away from easy reach.

So… in a couple of weeks you’ll probably see another new look to geegeez, which I hope will make everything more accessible to you. Watch this space. (Actually, if you want a sneaky ‘work VERY MUCH in progress’ look at how things might be in the future, you can check out the geegeez.COM site, where I’m testing out a few ideas… 🙂

Have a great day, and don’t forget to check out some of those other posts above, and answer today’s question, if you wouldn’t mind.

Matt

p.s. I meant to say…. many, many thanks to all of you who replied offering your services as a reviewer. In the end, there were over 120 of you who volunteered! Obviously, we’ll not be able to accommodate everyone, but Chris will be in touch to share more info on next steps, and we hope to welcome a number of you to the reviewer community soon.

Applications are now closed, and a very big THANK YOU again to all for your offers of help to make the geegeez group of websites the foremost collection of trustworthy independent review sites on the webbie. 🙂