RACING RELAY with DEANJOHN

In this week's article I look at racing in Melbourne and ask is it becoming so dumbed down that it is now boring? The racetracks are being watered away. Where are all the good horses going? And those feral jumps! A staking plan to use with my tips. And it's Party Time: DEANJOHN plans a big sendoff for the final meetings of the season. Read on...

The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Happy Valley Beauties shake their booties after another DJ THREE IN A ROW! Aren't they gorgeous! I love tipping winners to see them Dance for Me!

Three of the four Top Selections won at Happy Valley at the final meeting Wednesday night including the last three in a row. Whiplash $3.20, Our Lucky Boy $3.20, Interchina Star $7.00

You can read all the details on my WALL.

I am afraid I cannot say very much if anything about Racing Victoria. They have managed, with TABCORP, to dumb down the racing product here to the point where it is just plain boring. Their only solution to increasing turnover on horse racing is to bet on more and more races, to the point where it now resembles poker machine racing 363 days per year. 

Its quantity not quality. Tabcorp really hasn't done much to promote racing, they seem to be more interested in the Casino side of their business. Racing would have been much better served with a partner that has as its sole charter the promotion of betting on racing, rather than with one that seems more interested in the pokies and casinos. In the casino business, more machines means more turnover. And that has been the approach to racing too.

Of course, racing is in a desperate race against the trots and the dogs. Each year, racing's portion of total wagering has been declining while the trots and in particular the dogs has been increasing. In the 1990s, at least $3 in every $4 was bet on horse racing. Now its getting closer to only $2 in every $3. Thus horse racing's mad rush to race morning, day and night. Because soon the funding split from the TAB will be renegotiated and racing faces reduced funding at the expense of dogs and trots.

Well, I hate to say I told them so. But I did. I told them that constant over-watering of these Melbourne tracks is going to ruin them. Four years of daily watering has turned Moonee Valley into a heavy heap of rubbish. Caulfield and Flemington will be alright for a few years, they are just new tracks. But Moonee Valley: its now over 10 years since it was re-done. To me they seem to have washed away all the strathayr in the Moonee Valley track. I just cannot believe it could be HEAVY last Saturday! It makes it laughable to recall all the hype when Moonee Valley was opened in the mid 1990s, and they said there would never be a heavy track. They never factored in that they would be told to water day by day!

Last Saturday there had been no rain for over a week. Here is the rainfall report: Rainfall: Zero mm past 24 hrs, Zero mm past week. Apparently, according to officials, some real heavy dews on the track in the days leading up to the meeting were to blame!

But the real blame is on the Racing Victoria policy of watering tracks daily to a DEAD rating year round. The tracks never have a chance to dry out. A few months ago, I said the tracks will resemble swamps if they ever get an old fashioned wet winter. And so far this has not been a wet winter. Not by a longshot! But Moonee Valley and Sandown are both wet traps!

And six months ago, I wrote here that these Melbourne tracks would be cow paddocks soon if this watering madness didn't stop. Brad Rawiller described the Moonee Valley track last Saturday as a cow paddock. Even the Stewards were surprised the track was Heavy... and I can assure you, it takes a hell of a lot to surprise our stewards!

When you race on over-watered tracks, the tracks get a lot more damage than what they would if the track was dry. All across the country the over-watering is now coming home to roost. Some of the tracks in Brisbane and Sydney are also in a deplorable state.

The standard of horse is not a patch on times gone by. There has hardly been a course record broken on the city tracks in Melbourne in the past four years. This despite improved track quality including such things as better track design and cambering. The sad fact is we are losing many good young horses overseas.  

The current world sprint champion, Sacred Kingdom, was bred in Australia. And recently, in Singapore, he beat the second best sprinter, Rocket Man, a horse who will probably end up being the best. Rocket Man was also bred in Australia. Collection, the Hong Kong Derby winner, who may be coming to Melbourne for the Cox Plate, is also Australian bred. Wouldn't it be exciting if these young champions were all racing here. Now that would bring people back to the track!

And what about those Jumps. And I use the word Jump lightly. You know, those pissant modular things that mascarade as obstacles. I was out at Moonee Valley, a track where you are real close to the action. In fact, it's a great track for getting up close and personal. So what does Racing Victoria do? Yes they take away the one jump in the straight, where you are close up to see them take off and over the flight. 

The two jumps races last Saturday had NO JUMPS at all in the STRAIGHT, they were all well away, and most in the back straight. Racing Victoria really do know how to bore me to the point of petrification.

Oh and one last thing. Thank goodness I don't bet in Sydney often. If I had placed an all up bet last Saturday expecting the races to be run on the Randwick course proper and find out after a couple of races that they had been moved to the inner Kensington track, I think I may have necked myself. Those two tracks are like chalk and cheese. The stewards obviously don't have the protection of the punter or punter satisfaction very high up on their list of priorities.

I can tell you if the Hong Kong Stewards moved the races from the course proper at Sha Tin to the inside dirt track, there would have a riot on their hands. But don't worry, that would NEVER happen. The  Hong Kong Jockey Club have customer satisfaction high up on their list of priorities.

Next Week: THE TRUTH ABOUT JUMPS RACING. What I will tell you will sear your brains for life! Here is just a brief look at what happens to these jumps when horses crash into, step on and barge thru these ridiculous jumps.

This staking plan is a simple, but very effective way of betting selections that have a good strike rate. As long as the horse runs a place, then the place portion of the bet is enough to produce a winning transaction.

I call this the 1 x 4 Insurance Plan because it involves placing an insurance bet of 4 Units for the place for each 1 Unit you invest for the Win. It works brilliantly with my selections.

Your first bet should be 1 Point for the Win and the Place bet would be 4 points the place. If you set your point as say $5, your first bet would be $5 for the Win and $20 for the Place.

If the horse runs a place, then you repeat the bet.

If the horse loses, then you increase the Win bet by 1 point to 2 points ($10) and the Place bet becomes 8 points ($40).

As soon as a winner is backed that puts the sequence into profit, you rule off the series and start again at 1 point for the Win and 4 points for the Place.  

If a winner fails to put you in profit for the sequence, you step back the number of points according to the odds of the winner. For example, if your bet was 8 points for the win and 32 points for the place and you bet a winner at say 3/1. then you step back 3 points and your next bet would be 5 points for the win and 20 points for the place.

So, summarising, the progression is 1x4, 2x8, 3x12, 4x16, 5x20, 6x24 and so on.

Have a dry run on my selections and get the feel for it, and then put it into operation this weekend. Depending on track conditions, I will be selecting for:

Saturday June 28 at Flemington
Sunday June 29 at Sha Tin
Wednesday July 1 at Sha Tin. 

You can also use the plan with your other favorite Punters Paradise tipsters. It works best with tipsters with a good win strike rate and place strike rate! 

To celebrate the end of the Hong Kong Season on July 1 we are going to try for one or two more THREESOMES to turn a small bet into a nice fortune!  So join me for the final time as we celebrate another great year of racing this Sunday and Wednesday!  Its Party Time!

If you missed last week's article: A Scenic Blast at Royal Ascot and what the Brits thought of the Aussie Antics. After three favorites and two second-favorites won on the first day, the bookies were being carried out of the betting ring on stretchers! The Hong Kong season is coming to a climactic close. All this and the PP Tipsters covering Ascot in this week's article, click here to read it all.

I will have all the voting results and a wrap on the Hong Kong racing year. And the truth about the Jumps.

Good Luck to Everyone

DEANJOHN

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