Up or down?

[Rhinestone_Cowboy]

1) Are you up or down?*

Up, I will always give myself a great chance due to the number of free bets I accumulate throughout the year and by following the great posters on here:

Real money investment 135 points
Free bets 165 points
Total return 440 points

2) What was your highlight racing wise?*

RSA - Dream race

3) What was your lowlight racing wise?

The fatalities, I would love nothing more than a 0 fatality Festival. Hope the BHA continue to look at ways of reducing risk, appreciating it is not easy. Hoping the changes made this year reduced the risk in the last 2 races, I haven’t seen them yet but understand they passed without serious incident

4) What was your highlight betting wise? Best race?

RSA with Topofthegame, not far behind was Al Boum Photo and Klassical Dream

5) What was your lowlight betting wise?

National Hunt Chase, like many, one of those I was in a great position in but was sucker punched by Le Breuil (RIP Ballyward)

6) Anything you wish you'd done differently?

Not much, got a little too stuck into the Arkle early doors with my free bets. But l started laying off just before the injuries came in and continued to lay Kalashnikov and Lalor (my biggest remaining winners). As I covered most of the runners I had DDG at a good price for a small stake meaning I wasn’t down much overall at all which I was very happy about in the end. That said this race took a disproportionate amount of my time and effort for no reward so would not look to repeat this again next year

[Tangodelta]

1. Up
2. Altior
3. The fatalities
4. The supreme. I had the 1,2,3 at fancy prices. Also was a hair away from a new life with a lucky 15. chitibello, kilfilium cross, spirit of the games and jerrysback unfortunately had him for the ultima not the NH chase
5. The Ultima was a poor race for me and not cashing out some of my ante post bets
6. Not get drawn in by the hype horses I managed to avoid Al Dancer and Angels breath but got drawn in on a fair few others

[Hurricane fly]

1. Still need to complete my spreadsheet but I’m down overall, however once I remove the fact that free bets aren’t my own money I believe I’ll be up but nothing worth writing home about. Was hoping to pay for a holiday and looks like I will be but out of my wages

2 been opposed to him all year but the Tiger easily. Altior was good but I can’t get over the farcical start

3.Benie, has her in every bet I placed from March onwards, and it gives the idiots a chance to crow about Ruby.

4. Tight between the Supreme and the bumper. The Supreme, had Klassical Dream from a long way out and also the 2-3. However the bumper, I’ve been telling people(who only have a passing interest) about Envoi Allen for long time lucky not to have the option to cash out at 33/1 but also couldn’t believe he opened up at 9/2 on the course and had some. Watching him be backed and having chats with people on the course who were dead against him does help stroke the ego - which took a battering the rest of the time!

5. Quite a few low points, but laying Frodon in my first ever lay has ensured I’m put off for life. Still don’t like the horse and can’t believe it won but should have stayed with backing others.
Not backing Le Brueil despite constantly telling myself the best jockey always wins it, but lumped on Dallas Des Pictons rather than splitting stakes hoping to get a decent profit for the festival just ensured that I summed up my fez in one go.

6. No Multiples after June and before March. Must have had 10-15U of bets go down in stupid multis. Need to remember to focus on a bit of book building and take more emotion out of antepost betting. There are horses that I take stands on and usually it works(e.g Lalor), but I need to be smarter about a horse like Paisley Park where I easily could have got on at double digits just to cover it.

[delsie777]

1. Very successful festival. Could never best last year but very satisfying to cover my year in four days
2. Willie's 1-2 in the Mares Novice. Great win bet - great e/w bet and fantastic forecast
3. Other than the obvious - the Champion Hurdle was disappointing after all the build up. The two mares underperformed and the champion fell.
4.Sire De Berlais backed at 33/1 and Barry lifting him home to net me a great payday
5.Bun Doran backed to win rather than eachway. Only had to chase down a 66/1 but didn't go through with it.
6.I should have had more faith in WPM and had even more on his horses in the Mares Novice - but that's just a bit greedy. Wait even longer to back horses in handicaps other than the Pertemps

[ComplyOrDie]

1. Up. Between 200-300pts, haven't worked out final figures yet. Yesterday was horrific, but it was a case of what could have been.

2. Tiger Roll, by some margin. What a bloody horse.

3. All of the fatalities. I love this game but they hit me hard every time, not even festivals just general day to day. Even more so when they as sickening as Sir Erec's was.

4. Supreme/Arkle double. Went a long way to clawing all stakes back and set the week ahead up.

5. Triumph was horrific. Adjali or Pic were my main bets and obviously covered with Sir Erec. Absolutely horrendous.

6. I thought the 'any race' bets were a great idea at the beginning of the season, turns out not one of them won I'm sure not every season they will be that poor but has made me re-think.

[Eggs]

1) up

2) The Gold Cup.

3) Sir Erec.

4) Had Al Boum Photo 33-1, but I was particularly happy with Roksana @ 22-1 because I put it up on the Mares thread a while ago. Chuffed I managed to get on the tipping competition Leaderboard as a novice.

5) Not having a return in the Coral Cup.

6) Happy with my strategy, just didn’t manage to find an ante-Post Double from the set of good priced winners I had.

[Middle_Of_March]

1) up

2) The Gold Cup.

3) Sir Erec.

4) Had Al Boum Photo 33-1, but I was particularly happy with Roksana @ 22-1 because I put it up on the Mares thread a while ago. Chuffed I managed to get on the tipping competition Leaderboard as a novice.

5) Not having a return in the Coral Cup.

6) Happy with my strategy, just didn’t manage to find an ante-Post Double from the set of good priced winners I had.

Frankly Roksana should’ve been a 10 length second.

[TheEagleHasLanded]

I hope you all had a magical time win, lose or evens, it’s the highlight of the year in my eyes

1. I was lucky enough to cover my anti post outlay after the first race, nice steady progress through the week has led to a nice little profit but will still have to go to work in Monday so....
2. Frodon for me, what a heart that horse has (being on at 7s helps)
3. Sir Eric, was so looking forward to seeing his career progress and it was a horrible thing to happen, RIP to him and the other horses which died
4. Klassical Dream, Paisley Park, Frodon, TOTG and ABP
5. County Hurdle and Albert Bartlett, had 2 very live chances for decent money and ended as a bit of a damp squib... Also BDD but would rather not talk about that...
6. For ages in my ‘racing group’ I have been saying Willie has had such a poor season by his standards, it would be Sod’s law he would break the voodoo in the GC, I backed Kemboy and ABP and even though I had a decent pull on it, i really should of had more money on it
Hindsight is a wonderful thing... never a truer sentence been said.

[Quevega]

I like to have a Cheltenham/betting break of at least a month after Cheltenham so I'll give some quick immediate thoughts now.

I've had my worst festival in a fair few years despite 8 winners. Benie falling cost me in singles but moreso in the multiples - one of which was an antepost yankee of Altior, Tiger Roll, Paisley Park and Benie Des Dieux. Would've returned a fair chunk of the amount I'm down. Pic D'Orhy was also one of my biggest bets I have placed. Commander of Fleet at 14/1 and Delta Work 16/1 both getting beat was sour too. Particularly with the latter as I'd covered him (so I thought) antepost with Santini at 10/1.


Six questions for you all whilst it's raw:
1) Are you up or down?
Down. Very bad year.


2) What was your highlight racing wise?
Probably Tiger Roll or Altior doing what they did. I stood just past the last for Tiger Roll's win and seeing him powering past me in complete isolation had me a little bit teary. No idea why. Just did.


3) What was your lowlight racing wise?
Sir Erec (RIP) breaking down today was awful. But the lowlight for me was the National Hunt Chase. I thought it was awful. Visibility wasn't great but to have three jockeys done for something that 'is contrary to the welfare of the horse' is not good to see. That, and Ballyward (RIP) sadly taking a fatal fall in the race, means the antis have been handed ammunition in one swoop. I expect the race to be significantly changed for next season or removed. RIP to Invitation Only today too.

4) What was your highlight betting wise? Best race?
It should be the Mares Hurdle. Instead, perhaps surprisingly it's the County Hurdle. Of my three each way pokes, Sternrubin held on for 6th at 33/1 and Ch'tibello won at 12/1.


5) What was your lowlight betting wise?
Benie falling. Has to be. Stunned silence across the stands. Gutting. She was my NAP of the week and on the snaff when coming down. Gutting.


6) Anything you wish you'd done differently?
I wish I hadn't backed a couple of hype horses as I did. With the benefit of hindsight, I went in far too hard on Magic Saint after the comments from connections. That was very disappointing. I also regret not covering Topofthegame at 7/1 when seeing that price for him a while back when having the front two in the market at 16s and 10s. What was I thinking not covering the other of the main three? Stupidity.

1- Up, looking at overall bank, immediately before the festival started, it's increased from approx 1100 points to 1900 points.
Bearing in mind stake monies, returns from non runners I'd imagine I'm up in the region of around 400/500 points (proper guess that though)

I'll do a race by race count up next week and post something on here I reckon.

2- Racing wise, the obvious thursday afternoon hour was lovely, as I was strong on Paisley Park and had Frodon backed also. It was just emotional and I like that.

3 - The champion hurdle and triumph were just rubbish for form studiers, although both winners could be very good racehorses.

4 - Most enjoyable race from a betting perspective was the Ultima. Stood on the course and having backed
Up For review at 20-1, OOseven 80-1, Bewarethebear 20-1 and Vintage clouds 33-1 (all each way)

All jumping the second last in front in a line and going well was as good as it gets. 2 didn't get up the hill but still a great result, and that was followed later with A Plus Tard at 16-1 ew, and won doing handstands.

5 - Lowlight betting wise - was the mares novice hurdle, after realising the market was all to cock and the mullins mares were massive priced on the exchange I covered most of them and also put four of the bigger priced ones in a combination swinger/exacta's bet. As it was all in the last 10 minutes before the race and I was recovering from drink. I Totally forgot to cover Eglantine - wot a nob.

If concertista had hung on I'd have still missed out on the forecasts but would have stood to win approx 320 points.

6 - should have listened to what i said this time last year.

[lloydy]

Fabulous festival even though I didn’t see one race, listened to all of them on radio 5 live/sports extra. Will be back at Cheltenham next year.

1 Up 25%
2 Tiger Roll and Rachael Blackmore getting amongst the winners
3 The three horses not coming home
4 Highlight betting wise was Chitibello. Me and my mates go Ireland once a year and build up a kitty with weekly luckys and a pop at the big festivals. My Cheltenham bet was this fella
5 BDD falling at the last
6 Normally just do loads of antepost multis. This year added to that with about 20 win any race horses, not one pick up. Need to follow a few posters on here who build up positions with several horses in all races. There were some fabulous looking books pre Cheltenham.

[TCH29]

1) Up. Best Festival in terms of actual points return: +128 points, but on points stakes of 260, so an ROI of 49%. My second best ROI%.

2) I think the RSA was the race of the festival. And got to cheer in Topofthegame at a big antepost price.

3) Triumph was awful for racing for several reasons. Financially for me a it was a bloodbath too Had a 25 pt return if Sir Erec won or 100pt return if Pic D’Orhy did. That coupled with Sir Erec’s fatality made it comfortably the most deflating moment of the festival.

4) City Island from a financial perspective! Had a long odds antepost trixie months back of Klassical Dream and City Island (void 3rd leg) returned my biggest payout. Topofthegame, Early Doors, Klassical Dream and Espoir D’Allen my other big returns. I recall even putting Espoir D’Allen up a long while back on here as a genuine contender in my view, although, like Cromwell, I thought more of a place chance than

5) Triumph as described above. Although Epatante completely failing to deliver was frustrating as I was on for a treble returning 78 pts had she won in the Mares’ Novice

6) Should have believed in Paisley Park and should have piled into the Tiger Roll prices earlier in the season. I also went a bit overboard in the Supreme antepostvtrying to cover the race, whilst I could have cashed out for 60 additional points but let it roll (and lose). I also need to reduce the number of doubles I staked through the week. Significant negative return there.

Still, a great week.

A word of thanks to all the well informed, generous and considerate posts on this forum that helped me (us all) stay ahead of the market months out, even if we didn’t all agree.

[Eggs]

Frankly Roksana should’ve been a 10 length second.

...it should, no doubt about that. A lucky winner, but a winner. I dare say we all have losers that are unlucky losers.

[John2345]

1: up by a satisfactory amount, but couid have been far better had I (a) avoided silly mistakes and (b) been a bit luckier in three handcaps.

2: Gold Cup or RSA. Both great races to watch. Didn’t have a bet on either (more of a hurdles backer) so enjoyed and appreciated the horses and riders.

3: Triumph, obvious reason.

4: Supreme - had a decent win on KD. Covered (even after mistake, see 6) my entire ante post exposure plus a bit. County - backed Ch’tibello at 16/1. Pertemps - had EWs on Tobefair and Not Many Left. Coral Cup, Ballandy was third leg of an ew acca with Espoir D’Allen and Thomas Darby.

5: BDD - I had her in a huge double with Wales to win Grand Slam. Top Notch and Bacardys (heart over head) in Stayers, never showed with a chance. Stand up and Fight - what exactiy was the plan?

6: laid off KD too aggressively just before off, and reduced win quite a bit - I was a bit concerned about my exposure given market moves for others. Silly errors in Mares Novices, spotted the crazy market and managed to miss covering the winner. Silly long range ante post Yankee placed in September 18, only one made it to the meeting. And worst of all, taking ‘advice’ and lumping on Mt Leinster for the Bumper at 40/1 and retaining hope even as reality began to dawn :-(

[Redbridge]

1) Are you up or down?
Yes, doubled my bank


2) What was your highlight racing wise?
Tiger Roll.ante post banker.
Witnessing Bryony and Frodon on the day I attended, it was one of the most joyous occasions i have witnessed on course that never involved my having a bet.


3) What was your lowlight racing wise?
All the casualties


4) What was your highlight betting wise? Best race?
Tiger Hill 5s 4s and 7/2.


5) What was your lowlight betting wise?
None runners,
Fakir d'oudairies Triumph.
Fusil Riffles Triumph 33s
Samcro Champion hurdle.


6) Anything you wish you'd done differently?
Revert to my old plan of targetting horses without multi options such as Juveniles aimed at the Triumph they are either good enough to run or get injured but I never see the whammy of JP Mcmanus buying a horse just to remove it, twice he has done this now and on both occasions missed the bullseye with both horses.

[Granvilleagain]

1 Up - in terms of winners my best ever (8), more profit last year but that was down to a very lucky forecast in the Martin Pipe, last paid for new fencing, this year has paid for laminate flooring

2 Altior - I've been in love with this horse since his novice hurdle days and it was marvellous to see him get the Champion Chase again, he's too strong a stayer at the trip for the current opponents

3 Lowlight has to be Sir Erec, I was there on Friday and there was a silence inn the Guiness Stand when he injured himself

4 The Brown & Advisory, I've never had the winner and to be there to watch Lizzie Kelly drive Siruh De Lac around in a powerful ride was brilliant

5 Buveur D'Air falling, I was convinced he was going to prove the doubters wrong at some decent odds for a change, I'm still convinced he would have won had he stood up

6 More ante post bets so that I don't have to cover too much during the week and I should have realised the Ryanair was never going to be set up for a 2 miler, stupid bet on Footpad