New Year gambles landed

[BillyHills]

Read this on one of the blogs on the RP, just shows the old fashion gambles do still happen from time to time and they get away with it! Think my favourite was the Pasternak gamble from the Prescott stable some years ago.

By Nicholas Godfrey 10:16AM 1 JAN 2011 JUST in case you missed it, a late contender emerged for the training performance of the year at Lingfield Park on Thursday when Newmarket-based Mick Quinlan landed an improbable double. Scratch that. The feat wasn't merely improbable; put simply, it beggared reason. Look closely at the form of Bishopbriggs and Tell Halaf and it was little short of miraculous. Numbers don't tell the whole story, but pre-race form figures of 89009070 and 000009 aren't perhaps the most obvious precursors for a couple of heavily backed successes. While the Bet Totepool on 0800 221 221 Handicap may not be the most memorable of titles for a horse race, it won't be forgotten in a hurry by any bookmakers unlucky enough to be standing at Lingfield. Nor, perhaps, by anybody who took the trouble to studythe form book before having a bet in either division of this lowly 7f all-weather contest. You'd have had just as much chance of finding the winners if you'd spent the same amount of time catching the festive edition of Come Dine With Me. Minor meetings over the holiday period have always been notorious for lower-ranking stables laying the odd one out to recoup their Christmas expenses but could anyone outside the Quinlans' nearest and dearest really have seen that coming? First up came Bishopbriggs in Div I, he of the form figures for his last eight starts of 89009070. The five-year-old, 8-1 in the Racing Post's betting forecast, touched 12-1 in places at the track before being sent off 11-4 favourite - and was never in any danger as he recorded a 4½-length win under Adam Kirby. To be fair, this wasn't completely impossible to predict. An astute spotlight comment in the Racing Post at least warned the gelding was back down to an attractive mark and was worth a look in the market. What is more, Bishopbriggs had landed gambles in the past, and his run of dismal form had been preceded by a couple of Wolverhampton victories at the turn of the year. It also emerged that he had been treated for a back problem, although not in the stewards' inquiry into such improved form, because there wasn't one. Perhaps the BHA's review committee will have another look. But even if Bishopbriggs' chances were not blindingly compelling, they were certainly more obvious than that of stable companion Tell Halaf, the three-year-old who won Div II half an hour later. Let's get this straight: this was a mediocre contest, and Tell Halaf had won a course-and-distance handicap back in May for former trainer Michael Bell off a mark of 63. Half the job of anyone lining up a coup with a moderate horse who has rediscovered his mojo is to find an easyrace, and they don't come much easier than this one. That said, surely no-one can have quibbled with the forecast 25-1 after his previous efforts for the Quinlans (brother Noel being an integral part of the operation). He had beaten a total of four horses in six starts, leading to those distinctly unpromising form figures. In fact, those numbers don't even illustrate quite how dismal Tell Halaf's recent outings had been. He had finished 10^th of 11, 11^th of 11, 10^th of 10, 10^th of 10 and 10^th of 11 before an improved display on his last start at Wolverhampton, where he managed ninth of 12. The losing margins for this sequence were as follows: 30 lengths, 17 lengths, 30 lengths, 39 lengths, 13 lengths and 16 lengths. He had been tumbling unnoticed down the grades, from 0-90 down to 0-55. Tell Halaf's starting prices - before Thursday - suggest he was never really fancied as he was sent off 22-1, 25-1, 40-1, 50-1, 33-1 and 33-1. In contrast, after a ten-week break on Thursday, he was backed "as if defeat was out of the question" according to the Racing Post analysis, starting at 9-1 and ending up 9-4 favourite. No wonder Barry Dennis was ranting. The stewards did ask about this one, accepting the explanation of connections that the horse had been working well at home lately and that the yard was in good form. You can say that again. Even if they had only the "few quid" Noel Quinlan said his wife bet on Newmarket High Street - a "couple of £25 each-way doubles" - it must be suspected the New Year celebrations won't have been too shabby in the Quinlan household. In the unlikely event the booze ran out, they could probably have turned the water into wine. After all, they had already turned base metal into gold.

[andy4876]

Re: New Year gambles landed I actually got on Tell Halaf at 8.0 Was seconds away from getting the 10.0 ;)