June is a MASSIVE month of sport…

A stupendous month of sport…

Wow. As sporting months go, June is an absolute whopper. And that’s quite apart from the fact that the World Fly Fishing Championships conclude today in the Czech Republic!

Of more interest to most – fly fishing fanatics aside – are the monoliths of racing’s summer calendar – The Oaks and Derby, and Royal Ascot – which this year are just ten days apart. That means that three weeks from now they’ll both be consigned to history. It also means we have a lot to look forward to in the immediate future.

Geegeez will have extensive coverage of both events, as you’d expect, including big race previews aplenty.

Even before the Oaks, which is this Friday, there is a big update due to the racecards. As I write (10am Monday morning), my web wizard is putting a couple of finishing touches in place, and we hope to upgrade the cards and form tools later this morning or this afternoon. There could be a short hiatus in service, so please accept apologies in advance for that.

So what’s in today’s upgrade? Well, quite a lot…

– Significant speed enhancements
– Jockey / Trainer form indicators
– New Trainer-Jockey Combination reports
– New Jockey form reports
– Variable ranges added to Race Analysis Reports
– Tipping League integrated into the main cards
– Ability to remove horses from consideration (and reinstate them)
– Publication of all reports for tomorrow’s racing the night before
– Head to Head info on full five day declarations
– Inclusion of a ‘Race Verdict’ comment for every race
– Improved search visibility and mechanics
– Various minor bug fixes

I am planning to produce a user manual covering not just the ‘Phase 6’ additions above, but everything. That, as you might expect, will take a while! But it should be ready in time for me to update it ahead of Phase 7, which we’re planning by the end of the month. More on that in a minute.

One thing I’d like to especially tease out is the new integrated tipping league. I’m sorry to say that, until now, playing the tipping league was a bit of a faff, with users having to go to a completely different page to enter selections.

Well, no more. From later on today, you’ll be able to click the ‘TIP’ icon next to a horse and enter your tip right there. Awesome!

Now you can enter your tips right from within the racecard…

Between the Derby and Royal Ascot, beginning next Thursday in fact, is that tiny little event of minor interest to a handful of people dotted around the globe, the World Cup. Whilst geegeez.co.uk is of course a predominantly racing site, many of us love our football as well; and many more of us love a good bookie offer.

Well, the World Cup is like Cheltenham on steroids when it comes to bookie offers, and I’ll be bringing you the pick of them in the coming days. I’m planning on making a risk-free £90 myself today, which I’ll tell you about tomorrow, all being well 🙂

For those into tennis, the French Open is drawing to its conclusion this week – Muzza is still in there, but for how much longer, who knows? – and Wimbledon serves its first aces three weeks today. Dunblane’s finest will have his usual rock solid chance there, as the defending champion.

And, as I say, by the end of June, we’ll be aiming to introduce Phase 7 of the ongoing racecards and form tools project. So, what will be in Phase 7?

Well, I can’t be too specific at this stage, but what I can tell you is that we’ll be working on making things a bit more personal. What I mean by that is we’ll be kitting out your ‘My Geegeez’ page to include things that are important to you, and we’ll be giving you various options to control how you see information within the cards.

As well as that, we’re adding some amazing content into the form – more on that anon, but I’m pleased to say it’s ‘best of breed’.

We’ll also be adding some versatility to the ‘going’ element across the cards. Once we’ve introduced this, you’ll be able to select the going for a meeting from a dropdown, and that will then perpetuate throughout the cards and form tools, meaning any changes in weather can be directly managed by you, at least in terms of your form study experience. 🙂

As for what else is in Phase 7, well, that’s rather up to you. We’re open to suggestions regarding what you’d like to see. No suggestion is too big or too small, so don’t be shy. Leave a comment below with anything you’d like to see, and we’ll add it to our list.

June is looking like a MASSIVE month for horse racing fans, sports fans in general, and for geegeez readers too. Exciting times ahead!

Matt