Once again, the weather was a nuisance and cancelled the only card on Tuesday.
The jumps meetings were abandoned a couple of days in advance, but Southwell was on the receiving end of some heavy snow.
As a result, I have dodged the Southwell card as they are expecting further snow. Wolverhampton looks set to have a clear night, so it should be on for Tuesday's racing, and we can get some all-weather racing on.
Baker Blue 7/2 (1pt) – Wolverhampton 3.15
Four of the horses in this race are returning from either 100 days or longer, so they will likely need the run. Better And Better is returning from a decent layoff of 59 days and is making his stable debut for Karl Burke, who is going through a quiet patch.
All of that said left me thinking Baker Blue had a solid opportunity on his second run for Dylan Cunha.
The Ardad gelding made a nice debut for Dylan at Southwell in a novice event in the middle of December, beating a very well-supported 1/4F debutante from AMO racing.
It is actually crazy to see a horse backed into 1/4F on debut as a juvenile, especially when Baker Blue hadsome decent form from Ireland when trained by Jessie Harrington. The favourite finished second, and with that much money placed, he must have a serious reputation on the gallops. If that's the case, the form might be fairly solid.
Baker Blue enjoyed making the running at Southwell, and if that's something they'll go for again, there is every chance he could deliver another big performance.
Echalar 5/1 (1pt) – Wolverhampton 3.45
I was tempted by some of the older horses, mainly Diamondonthehill and Follow Your Heart, but I will always give a chance to the lighter raced horses to surpass their elders.
On the back of his last two starts, where he has been ridiculously keen, it's a fairly big gamble backing Echalar. However, he has had a gelding operation, and if that has done the trick, we could see the horse that finished fifth in a good handicap at Kempton.
He ran well in a very good Class 4 handicap, which saw the top four all finishing very close to eachother. They all produced RPRs higher than their handicap marks at the time, and Echalar was making up good ground from the rear. To add to the front four, the sixth-placed horse has come out and won in taking fashion, producing an RPR +12 of his handicap mark.
As I mentioned before, he has gone off the boil, all from his own doing. I am not sure why he has decided to race keen on his last two starts, but Jane Chapple-Hyam hasn't wasted any time in trying to correct that.
If he is calmer this time around, he is on a good handicap mark, which is 5lb lower than the Kempton race.
GambleAware
Just been reading the site bio and was amused by this paragraph
“We’re particularly proud of our horse racing coverage which enjoys its own active community who love the racing”
The site haven’t got a community anymore.
No posts on the racing thread for days.
The new owners have made it patently clear over a period of time that day to day contributors are their least priority, it’s all about advertising revenue gained from the annoying adverts that started appearing.
Another sign was lack of interaction from the admins in the comments.
When everyone was locked out a while back there was no Information, no explanation and now the “expert tipsters” they quote post to an almost invisible audience bar a few on the football thread.
I actually had an email of someone in admin at one point saying posters were their priority and new exciting changes were on the way.
Just scrolling back recently I see nothing, just relatively empty threads and no exciting changes.
Just Google Mr fixits tips and quote a year and links to threads of yesterday will be there with 100+ comments regularly on the football and 20-50 regular on the racing.
Now it’s one or two if you’re lucky on the racing and about 10-15 on a good day on the football.
It’s a shame, the bio says the site has cultivated the best online betting community on the internet.
Once upon a time they did when the founder of the site was running the show, but the sense of “community” has been sold down the river by the new owners.
In my opinion they should remove Mr fixit’s name as the site name because what it is now isn’t what he was all about god rest his soul….
Anyway a belated happy New year to the posters who are still here, I still look in for your tips and keep up the fight against those horrible bookies…
Whatever happened to Hibee? He was the glue that held us all together. The man that fuelled our journey to the winners enclosure via the paddock.
I still think the racing thread can make a lazarus type comeback but only if Hibee hears this call and gallops into town to save the day.
We need Hibee but the question is, Does Hibee need us?
Spot on elvis 100% correct unfortunately, I miss reading the write ups from the various tipsters giving their reasons for the tips on both pages and didn’t always back them but enjoyed reading them and their thoughts behind them, don’t get that now.
Happy New Year
Cottweiler
Hi Elvis, sorry for the late reply.
I understand your disappointment with the comment section being the way it is.
Personally, I loved it when the comments were thriving, and people were chatting among themselves and putting in some valuable tips and information on selections.
I’ll pass this on to the admins and see what they can do about it.
I’d really like to see all the oldies come back and make it what it used to be. Whether or not that is possible, I’m not sure.
Elvis,
Hope you’re well.
Second everything you said, likewise miss the insights and occasional banter.
Mint…