I  STILL DO!

I’ve only been back in work a little over 7 weeks and already I’ve had enough.

Early starts, late finishes and all the hours in between. I miss watching the racing, I miss not being able to play poker and I miss sitting on my backside infront of my laptop. It’s time to banish work from my schedule. It’s time to become a millionaire.

So I’m going to try every route possible between now and Christmas to win myself a million and give up work. Sort of like a fun gambling advent calendar to count down to Christmas here are my 31 ways to win a million……

NUMBER 9: ONLINE SLOTS (SUNDAY 4TH)

When I’m in Vegas I love to play the slots. Sitting with a free bottle of Budweiser watching the reels spin for a potential million dollar payout in the greatest city on earth is my idea of a perfect and relaxing way to spend a few hours. It’s just one of those things you have to do while you’re there. So playing online in your own home has never appealed to me and is something I’ve never done before. Until now.

Betfred sent me an email last week telling me that their Beach Life slot machine hasn’t paid the jackpot out for over 6 months and it currently sits at over £3 million (£3, 433, 039 and counting). When it’s finally won it will be an online record for the highest slots payout ever. On average the jackpot is usually won around every 4 months so it’s well overdue to pay out and sounds to good an opportunity to miss…..

That’s the good news, the bad news is that when you actually click on the game to play it you find that the stake per spin is £10. Yep, £10!! To win the jackpot you have to play all 20 lines at the maximum stake of 50p. Yikes! Betfred did offer me a 100% signup bonus to their casino which would in effect make it £5 a spin but wow that’s a bit more than the fruit machine you play down the pub. Oh well, in the spirit of this blog and to save any of you losing any money on the game I’ll flush my £25 down the proverbial toilet. So with Fred matching my £25 I have £50 to play with or 5 spins. This should be quick…….

Spin 1: Stake £10. I got 2 scuba divers on 3 lines and returned £7.50 (-£2.50)
Spin 2: Stake £10. Again, I got 2 scuba divers on 3 lines and returned £7.50 (c/f -£5)
Spin 3: Stake £10. I got my 2 scuba divers again along with assorted icecreams and lollies and somehow got £25 (+£10)
Spin 4: Stake £10. Cola Lollies, Icecreams and a wild symbol in the middle reel all added up to £12.50 (+£12.50)
Spin 5: Stake £10. Nothing (+£2.50)
Spin 6: Stake £10. 3 cola lollies for £5 (-£2.50)
Spin 7: Stake £10. The return of the scuba divers and £10. (-£2.50)
Spin 8: Stake £10. Nothing (-£12.50)
Spin 9: Stake £10. Nothing (-£22.50)
Spin 10: Stake £10. OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH. 3 Jackpot Chests out of 5. Close but nothing back. (-£32.50)
Spin 11. Stake £10. 3 cola lollies=£5 (-£37.50)
Spin 12. Stake £10. Nothing. (-£47.50)

And that’s it. Done my money in little less than 8 minutes including writing the above details for this post. Actual playing time for the 12 spins was around a minute and offered absolutely no excitement whatsoever.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

To play at £10 a go you probably need to be a) mad b) rich or c) both. I’m definitely a) and certainly not C) and I’m now another £47.50 further away from being b). Thanks Fred. I couldn’t even begin to work out the chances of any one player winning the jackpot but it’s millions and millions to one. You have more chance winning the Pools, Euro Millions and National Lottery all in one week.

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

 

NUMBER 8: SCOOP 6 (SATURDAY 3RD)

As the days go by I seem to be getting further away from my goal of being a millionaire. There’s not been much to shout about and I’ve not even managed a tenner on the Lottery in the last 2 weeks. Looks like I’ll have to keep working for the forseeable future. Unless I can pick all 6 winners of today’s Scoop 6 bet…….

 With no winners for quite some time it’s now rolled over to £748,718 in the pool before Saturday’s wagers are added. With the Bonus Fund also not won there should be well over £2million to play for this weekend.

Obviously it’s not going to be easy and there are some very tricky races to navigate but here goes…..

1.25 Sandown

A nice easy 20 runner handicap to kick off with! Also it’s a Pertemps qualifier which means half the field won’t be trying because their trainers will be eyeing up the final at Cheltenham next March. But which half?

It looks as if the Paul Nicholls traine Poungach will start favourite but he doesn’t look brilliantly handicapped to me and has only had 3 runs so far. I prefer the Evan Williams runner DRUMBALOO who has been highly tried throughout his career (he was 8/1 for the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham) and won a Chepstow handicap nicely last time out on his first run for the stable. He should go well off his low weight. I’m also going to throw in CANTLOW who didn’t stay 3m2f last time out at Cheltenham and will be better suited by the conditions here.

2.10 Aintree

A 15 runner chase over the National fences. Blimey they don’t make winning a million very easy do they?

Gary’s all over BALLYVESEY here so that’ll do for me and I’ll add SWING BILL who has been in good form so far this Season. He has form over the fences and should run well.

2.30 Sandown

I really like the look of GIBB RIVER here and with David Bass able to claim 3lb I see him running a big race. I’ll also put Pipe’s ENFANT DE LUNE in as well although I doubt he’ll get a soft lead like he did on his last run.

3.05 Sandown

In the absence of Tataniano it has to be SIZING EUROPE here and he’ll be a welcome banker for my Scoop 6 bet.

3.20 Aintree

FRANKIE FIGG won the race last year and at the weights should again confirm form over Nikola. Everything looks set for a big run from this one. I also like the look of Arthur Moore’s 6yo LINNEL from the bottom of the weights.

3.40 Sandown

If I get this far it will be a miracle and there’s no guarantee that I’ll get any further. The 8 runners range from 4/1 - 12/1 in price and it really shows how tight the race is. Runshaan, Prophet De Guye and Do It For Dalkey have all won their last 2 races by wide margins in eye catching fashion but all have been heavily raised in the weights as a result. Of the three I prefer PROPHET DE GUYE who looked a horse going places when winning at Ascot last time out. I have to put in MEANDUS DANDY in as well after a great 2nd at Wincanton last time out and will also take a chance with ANY CURRENCY despite his year long absence from the track.

To recap;

6 & 16 / 4 & 15 / 2 & 11 / 7 / 6 & 13 / 2 & 4 & 5

That’s 48 bets at £2 for a total outlay of £96. Gulp!

Chances of making you a millionaire?

Probably the best chance you’ll ever have. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, far from it, but the odds of success are far lower than 1 million to 1 and it’s a must bet with a chance of a big payout for a small outlay.

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

If you get the first few winners your heart will be pumping and even getting 6 placed horses usually pays okay. An all round great bet with life changing opportunities that should give plenty of excitement on a Saturday afternoon.

NUMBER 7: NATIONAL LOTTERY (WEDNESDAY 30TH)

After failing to negotiate the 116 and a half  million to 1 odds of the Euro Millions on both Friday and Tuesday I’ll try my luck with the much easier to win National Lottery where the odds are only around 14 million to 1. Like most of the population I’ve been trying my luck on the Lottery since it began and like most of the population it’s been without any success. I’ve never had more than 4 numbers in any one line and I’ve only managed the 4 about 3 times. I don’t need Mystic Meg to tell me it most certainly hasn’t been me.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

I would imagine it’s easier than winning the pools but that’s not saying much. I read once that if you put your lottery ticket on a couple of days before the draw you are actually 1100 times more likely to die before the numbers are drawn than win the jackpot! It’s a pretty sobering thought and shows how hard it is to win a million. Knowing my luck I’ll get both up in the same week!

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

NUMBER 6: EURO MILLIONS (TUESDAY 29TH)

I’ll have another go at the Euromillions with my £2 line 7-18-23-32-33

NUMBER 5: THE POOLS (MONDAY 28TH)

I have fond memories of the football pools and helping my dad fill in his pools coupon each week when we were growing up. The pools man coming to collect it and then we’d watch the results on World of Sport every Saturday afternoon with Dickie Davies. My dad was always using some new fangled perm he’d invented that covered 30 teams in groups of 3’s or 4’s or whatever he thought was best that week. It always looked a mess with x’s and brackets and instructions written all over the sheet but it was great fun.I don’t ever recall him winning though which was probably due to Littlewoods not being able to understand his coupon.

Times have changed and with the introduction of the lottery the pools has seen a massive decline in interest. The major pools companies have now all merged and you can only play online http://www.footballpools.com/cust.

The classic pools has a £3,000,000 first prize and costs £7.50 for 12 selections, £2.75 for 11 and £1 for 10. Unlike the pools my dad used to play you now how to find 8 games where there is a HIGH scoring draw i.e. 2-2 or higher. It gets worse, as in those 8 games the scores have to add up to 40 goals or more! Blimey that sounds near impossible.

Oh well, in for a penny in for £2.75. After careful analysis of the fixture list (I pressed the Lucky Dip button) I’ve come up with the following 11 matches; Blackburn, Wigan, Blackpool, Peterborough, West Ham, Stafford, St Mirren, Queen Of The South, Ross County, Arbroath and Sterling Albion.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

I’d say you’d have more chance of winning the Lottery jackpot than the pools these days and it’s not hard to see why hardly anyone plays it anymore. You’d have more fun with a fixed odds coupon from your local bookies

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

NUMBER 4: PREMIUM BONDS (SUNDAY 27TH)

A sort of lottery with a chance to win a million pounds every month with the added bonus that if you don’t win you can have your stake back! Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well it is true and it’s been attracting punters by the millions since 1956. In fact 23 million people in the UK hold premium bonds which is roughly 1/3rd of the population.

Prizes are drawn monthly and range from £25 to the magical £1 million. The chances of winning any prize each month is 24,000-1 but obviously the more bonds you hold the better your chance becomes. If you simply have the minimum bond holding of £100 your chances of winning a prize in any 12 months is 3.28% or roughly 33/1. With a £1000 holding your odds increase to 28.3% (roughly 5/2) and with the maximum holding of £30,000 you are pretty much guaranteed to win at least one prize a year as it’s a 96.4% chance (that’s 1/25).

When you send off your application for Premium Bonds you are entered into the draw one month after they receive it so if I send it off now I will just about make the December draw. I won’t therefore win a million before Xmas this way but I can hang on until the New Year!

So there you go. You’d probably make more money by putting your cash in a savings account but you’ll never have the chance to win a million with your cash deposited with Santander.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

Very, very small as the odds are the number of premium bonds held to one. With around £40 billion pounds worth in existence that’s near impossible but as your stake is never lost it does make for a free way to play for a million

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

As you never lose your stake you can’t really class it as gambling. It does seem that you need to hold a lot of Bonds to make it worthwhile and the odds of winning are pretty small but it’s a safe way to dream of millionairedom……

NUMBER 3: FOUR LONGSHOTS IN A LUCKY 15 (SATURDAY 26TH)

Using my William Hill trained bet settling brain I calculate that one 20/1 winner and three 33/1 winners in a £1ew Lucky 15 will give me a shade over a million quid with the 10% Bonus being added. That’s the easy part now let’s do the tricky bit and see if we can find 4 such outsiders…..

Obviously the best place to start would be to ask Gary as these sort of prices are right up his street. He has in fact picked 5 big priced horses today which you can see by clicking on the blog tab above or going here http://nag-nag-nag.co.uk/blogs/

I’m using 3 of them for my bet and adding one of my own to make it a million pound Lucky 15 attempt……

DUNKELLY CASTLE 12.20 NEWBURY
RAVASTREE 1.30 NEWBURY
BILLIE MAGERN 3.10 NEWBURY
CRESCENT ISLAND 3.45 NEWBURY

Chances of making you a millionaire?

Slim to say the least but a few places will still pay nicely.

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

Betting on the horses can be an excellent way to win money gambling but multiple bets are not really the way to do it. It’s a sobering thought that if your first horse loses in a Lucky 15 you lose over 50% of your stake in one go. Ouch!

NUMBER 2: EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY DRAW (FRIDAY 25TH)

I’m not a big fan of the EuroMillions. The £2 cost per ticket is too high and the prizes are distributed poorly with a top heavy payout designed purely for advertising purposes. In fact 32% of the weekly take goes towards the win prize fund which seems scandalous when the odds of  actually hitting the jackpot are a massive 116,531,800 - 1! Would it really matter if you won £10m or £100m? Probably not but I guess it is a chance to join Europes mega-rich if you so wish.

The odds of winning any prize is 13-1.

The game is open to residents in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For some reason the Germans don’t play it. The French are the biggest spenders followed by Spain and then us.

And if you’d like to know who your £2 entry fee goes to it breaks down like this; Camelot get 1p, operating costs are 9p, 10p goes to the retailer, 24p goes to the Government in duty, 56p goes to the good causes fund and £1 is put into the prize pot.

I’d be happy with the £1m raffle which was introduced in November 2009 to guarantee at least one UK resident would be a millionaire each week. Tonights draw is a Superdraw with 18 first prizes up for grabs. I’ve done a bit of research and it seems the odds of winning the raffle is around 1 in 3,500,000 for a Tuesday and 1 in 9,500,000 for a Friday draw. Even allowing for an increase in activity due to the enhanced chances to win I reckon it’s about a million-1 to win a million quid.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

It’s a longshot but it should be a genuine true odds chance of making me a millionaire.

I’ve had 5 lines at £2 a go. 4 lucky dips and 1 line with my 5 lucky roulette numbers 7-18-23-32-33

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

NUMBER 1:  NATIONAL LOTTERY SCRATCHCARDS (THURSDAY 24TH)

I started my mission this afternoon in Cardiff shopping centre by purchasing 2 scratchcards from the National Lottery stand. A bit sad but apparently 5 people a second win on a scratchcard every day which means the odds of winning something must be pretty decent.

The first one promised a top prize of £40k a year for life which meant that as long as I can avoid the grim reaper for at least another 25 years I’ll get my million. I’m 43 now so I reckon even with my poor diet and lack of regular excercise I must be a shade of odds on to make it to the age of 68. According to the National Lottery website the jackpot prize is still waiting to be won which also increases the chances of actually winning a million - although it doesn’t say how many cards are still unscratched. Still, It could me heh?

Errrrr…. no. After some rigorous scratching I had nothing to show for it except little bits of silver foil all over the table.

The second card was a straight hit for a million. No messing. All or nothing. It was called Instant Millionaire and was pretty much all I needed to know although it was handy to note that the NL Website claim that all 4 jackpots are still to be won (you can’t win something if someone’s beaten you to it).

 

For anyone who’s prone to a bit of scratchcard action you’ll be glad to hear that all 4 jackpots have still to be claimed!

In the 60 or so seconds it took for me to find out I was a loser 300 other people up and down the country were celebrating some sort of scratchcard win. Typical of my luck really……

Chances of making you a millionaire?

Slim to say the least. I have no idea how many cards you would have to scratch before you won the jackpot but it must be 100’s of millions and even their claim of 1 in 3.8 cards wins is misleading as a win can constitute you simply getting your money back. I don’t know about you but when I back a non-runner in the bookies it never feels like I’ve won. I also have to say that it’s the least exciting form of gambling possible. There’s no tension or excitement involved whatsoever. It’s as if you know you’ve lost before you’ve even started scratching. Oh and you get a horrible load of silver filings everywhere as well.

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

It also makes me a little bit further off millionaire status as I’m now in deficit of £10

I’ll be back tomorrow, with a little help from Gary, as we have a crack at 4 big outsiders in a Lucky 15.

Good luck,
Gavin.

Hi All, hopefully a few of you followed me last week and now have a few quid running onto The Giant Bolster (if you’re in the same boat as me then McCoy getting beat on Killyglen could end up costing us a small fortune). Go Amwell finally paid us back to prove that if you stick by them then they do generally reward you in the end. For 1pt ew singles on all last Saturdays selections you could have been 25pts up, so with the 25pts we made in October, we have amassed a profit in excess of 50pts so far.

Today I have really gone for some longshots, so keeping things real I’m hoping for a couple of places at very rewarding odds and if we are lucky enough to get a winner then thats fine by me. So onto todays fantastic five……..

12.20 Newbury DUNKELLY CASTLE 33/1 Bet365 ran over hurdles first time out this season, back over fences over a proper trip he could run well
1.30 Newbury RAVASTREE 25/1 Ladbrokes was too keen over hurdles at Exeter last time now over fences 25/1 on offer at Ladbrokes is HUGE!!
1.45 Newcastle ET MAINTENANT 20/1 Ladbrokes usually let down by his finishing ability, but ran much better than his form figures suggest
3.10 Newbury FAIR ALONG 50/1 Corals a decent staying hurdler and chaser in his youth is capable on his day
3.45 Newbury  CRESCENT ISLAND 20/1 Stan James a bold front runner when winning on his debut last season, made a shocker of a mistake last week, with a clear round 20/1 could be very generous

and don’t forget we are already on The Giant Bolster at 25/1 in todays feature race

Good Luck as always
Gary

I DO!

I’ve only been back in work a little over 7 weeks and already I’ve had enough.

Early starts, late finishes and all the hours in between. I miss watching the racing, I miss not being able to play poker and I miss sitting on my backside infront of my laptop. It’s time to banish work from my schedule. It’s time to become a millionaire.

So I’m going to try every route possible between now and Christmas to win myself a million and give up work. Sort of like a fun gambling advent calendar to count down to Christmas here are my 31 ways to win a million……

NUMBER 6: EURO MILLIONS (TUESDAY 29TH)

I’ll have another go at the Euromillions with my £2 line 7-18-23-32-33

NUMBER 5: THE POOLS (MONDAY 28TH)

I have fond memories of the football pools and helping my dad fill in his pools coupon each week when we were growing up. The pools man coming to collect it and then we’d watch the results on World of Sport every Saturday afternoon with Dickie Davies. My dad was always using some new fangled perm he’d invented that covered 30 teams in groups of 3’s or 4’s or whatever he thought was best that week. It always looked a mess with x’s and brackets and instructions written all over the sheet but it was great fun.I don’t ever recall him winning though which was probably due to Littlewoods not being able to understand his coupon.

Times have changed and with the introduction of the lottery the pools has seen a massive decline in interest. The major pools companies have now all merged and you can only play online http://www.footballpools.com/cust.

The classic pools has a £3,000,000 first prize and costs £7.50 for 12 selections, £2.75 for 11 and £1 for 10. Unlike the pools my dad used to play you now how to find 8 games where there is a HIGH scoring draw i.e. 2-2 or higher. It gets worse, as in those 8 games the scores have to add up to 40 goals or more! Blimey that sounds near impossible.

Oh well, in for a penny in for £2.75. After careful analysis of the fixture list (I pressed the Lucky Dip button) I’ve come up with the following 11 matches; Blackburn, Wigan, Blackpool, Peterborough, West Ham, Stafford, St Mirren, Queen Of The South, Ross County, Arbroath and Sterling Albion.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

I’d say you’d have more chance of winning the Lottery jackpot than the pools these days and it’s not hard to see why hardly anyone plays it anymore. You’d have more fun with a fixed odds coupon from your local bookies

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

NUMBER 4: PREMIUM BONDS (SUNDAY 27TH)

A sort of lottery with a chance to win a million pounds every month with the added bonus that if you don’t win you can have your stake back! Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well it is true and it’s been attracting punters by the millions since 1956. In fact 23 million people in the UK hold premium bonds which is roughly 1/3rd of the population.

Prizes are drawn monthly and range from £25 to the magical £1 million. The chances of winning any prize each month is 24,000-1 but obviously the more bonds you hold the better your chance becomes. If you simply have the minimum bond holding of £100 your chances of winning a prize in any 12 months is 3.28% or roughly 33/1. With a £1000 holding your odds increase to 28.3% (roughly 5/2) and with the maximum holding of £30,000 you are pretty much guaranteed to win at least one prize a year as it’s a 96.4% chance (that’s 1/25).

When you send off your application for Premium Bonds you are entered into the draw one month after they receive it so if I send it off now I will just about make the December draw. I won’t therefore win a million before Xmas this way but I can hang on until the New Year!

So there you go. You’d probably make more money by putting your cash in a savings account but you’ll never have the chance to win a million with your cash deposited with Santander.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

Very, very small as the odds are the number of premium bonds held to one. With around £40 billion pounds worth in existence that’s near impossible but as your stake is never lost it does make for a free way to play for a million

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

As you never lose your stake you can’t really class it as gambling. It does seem that you need to hold a lot of Bonds to make it worthwhile and the odds of winning are pretty small but it’s a safe way to dream of millionairedom……

NUMBER 3: FOUR LONGSHOTS IN A LUCKY 15 (SATURDAY 26TH)

Using my William Hill trained bet settling brain I calculate that one 20/1 winner and three 33/1 winners in a £1ew Lucky 15 will give me a shade over a million quid with the 10% Bonus being added. That’s the easy part now let’s do the tricky bit and see if we can find 4 such outsiders…..

Obviously the best place to start would be to ask Gary as these sort of prices are right up his street. He has in fact picked 5 big priced horses today which you can see by clicking on the blog tab above or going here http://nag-nag-nag.co.uk/blogs/

I’m using 3 of them for my bet and adding one of my own to make it a million pound Lucky 15 attempt……

DUNKELLY CASTLE 12.20 NEWBURY
RAVASTREE 1.30 NEWBURY
BILLIE MAGERN 3.10 NEWBURY
CRESCENT ISLAND 3.45 NEWBURY

Chances of making you a millionaire?

Slim to say the least but a few places will still pay nicely.

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

Betting on the horses can be an excellent way to win money gambling but multiple bets are not really the way to do it. It’s a sobering thought that if your first horse loses in a Lucky 15 you lose over 50% of your stake in one go. Ouch!

NUMBER 2: EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY DRAW (FRIDAY 25TH)

I’m not a big fan of the EuroMillions. The £2 cost per ticket is too high and the prizes are distributed poorly with a top heavy payout designed purely for advertising purposes. In fact 32% of the weekly take goes towards the win prize fund which seems scandalous when the odds of  actually hitting the jackpot are a massive 116,531,800 - 1! Would it really matter if you won £10m or £100m? Probably not but I guess it is a chance to join Europes mega-rich if you so wish.

The odds of winning any prize is 13-1.

The game is open to residents in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For some reason the Germans don’t play it. The French are the biggest spenders followed by Spain and then us.

And if you’d like to know who your £2 entry fee goes to it breaks down like this; Camelot get 1p, operating costs are 9p, 10p goes to the retailer, 24p goes to the Government in duty, 56p goes to the good causes fund and £1 is put into the prize pot.

I’d be happy with the £1m raffle which was introduced in November 2009 to guarantee at least one UK resident would be a millionaire each week. Tonights draw is a Superdraw with 18 first prizes up for grabs. I’ve done a bit of research and it seems the odds of winning the raffle is around 1 in 3,500,000 for a Tuesday and 1 in 9,500,000 for a Friday draw. Even allowing for an increase in activity due to the enhanced chances to win I reckon it’s about a million-1 to win a million quid.

Chances of making you a millionaire?

It’s a longshot but it should be a genuine true odds chance of making me a millionaire.

I’ve had 5 lines at £2 a go. 4 lucky dips and 1 line with my 5 lucky roulette numbers 7-18-23-32-33

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

NUMBER 1:  NATIONAL LOTTERY SCRATCHCARDS (THURSDAY 24TH)

I started my mission this afternoon in Cardiff shopping centre by purchasing 2 scratchcards from the National Lottery stand. A bit sad but apparently 5 people a second win on a scratchcard every day which means the odds of winning something must be pretty decent.

The first one promised a top prize of £40k a year for life which meant that as long as I can avoid the grim reaper for at least another 25 years I’ll get my million. I’m 43 now so I reckon even with my poor diet and lack of regular excercise I must be a shade of odds on to make it to the age of 68. According to the National Lottery website the jackpot prize is still waiting to be won which also increases the chances of actually winning a million - although it doesn’t say how many cards are still unscratched. Still, It could me heh?

Errrrr…. no. After some rigorous scratching I had nothing to show for it except little bits of silver foil all over the table.

The second card was a straight hit for a million. No messing. All or nothing. It was called Instant Millionaire and was pretty much all I needed to know although it was handy to note that the NL Website claim that all 4 jackpots are still to be won (you can’t win something if someone’s beaten you to it).

 

For anyone who’s prone to a bit of scratchcard action you’ll be glad to hear that all 4 jackpots have still to be claimed!

In the 60 or so seconds it took for me to find out I was a loser 300 other people up and down the country were celebrating some sort of scratchcard win. Typical of my luck really……

Chances of making you a millionaire?

Slim to say the least. I have no idea how many cards you would have to scratch before you won the jackpot but it must be 100’s of millions and even their claim of 1 in 3.8 cards wins is misleading as a win can constitute you simply getting your money back. I don’t know about you but when I back a non-runner in the bookies it never feels like I’ve won. I also have to say that it’s the least exciting form of gambling possible. There’s no tension or excitement involved whatsoever. It’s as if you know you’ve lost before you’ve even started scratching. Oh and you get a horrible load of silver filings everywhere as well.

Xmas pud rating as a form of gambling (out of 10)

It also makes me a little bit further off millionaire status as I’m now in deficit of £10

I’ll be back tomorrow, with a little help from Gary, as we have a crack at 4 big outsiders in a Lucky 15.

Good luck,
Gavin.

Hi All, as Gavin is still very busy selling Calenders he asked if I would take a look at todays racing and see if I could find something of interest. I have selected 5 from all over the country and hopefully we can pick up where we left off a couple of weeks ago. So here we go….
12.50 Haydock Harry Hunt needs a career best to win this but at 12/1 he looks worth a chance and as his jockey is 2-2 on him.
2.30 Haydock Knockara Beau ran some great races towards the end of last season when put back over hurdles, he finished 4th at Cheltenham off a rating of 156 and then 4th at Aintree off 155 behind Big Bucks. Top weights do run well in this race and he has won 1st time out on 3 of his 4 seasons. 28/1 looks way over priced.
3.20 Ascot I’msingingtheblues ran a cracker at Cheltenham last weekend looks a good EW bet in the 2m1f h’cap chase. 8/1 looks value with the Pipe stable in such tremendous form.
3.30 Huntingdon Go Amwell, I have tipped this a few times before but as Docofthebay proved last weekend if you stick by them they will repay you in the end, the 14/1 looks an interesting price as he is now 7lb lower than when winning over CD last autumn.
3.40 Haydock Killyglen was our trends selection for the Grand National way back in April, he was in the process of running a good race when he fell late on, back over hurdles for his last few runs, he goes back over the larger obstacles with AP McCoy doing the steering and 11/1 with Paddypower looks way way overpriced.
One last thing, I don’t very often get involved in Ante-Post betting, but I have a very strong fancy for The Giant Bolster in next Saturdays Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury. He is top priced at 25/1 with VC and I think that is a very generous price and should he line up next saturday he’ll be a 10/1 shot in my opinion.
Good Luck as always
Gary

JOCKEYS

Over the last 5 years at Cheltenham the top 5 jockeys at the track have ridden over 150 winners between them…..

Trainer   Wins-Rides   Strike Rate  Profit/Loss
R. Walsh   46 – 202   23%   +£18.74
Paddy Brennan  29 – 251   12%   +£55.69
Richard Johnson  28 – 207   14%   -£23.38
Barry Geraghty  28 – 157   18%   +£22.62
A P McCoy   24 – 243   10%   -£101.83

But how have they got on at this 3 day meeting over the same period?…….

RUBY WALSH

Ruby Walsh missed the meeting last year due to injury so I have left the figures the same as when I researched them in 2010……….

Since 2005 Ruby Walsh has ridden 10 winners from 47 rides (21.3%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £3.12 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2005 0 / 12 (wins / runners) 
2006 6 / 14 
2007 1 / 4 
2008 1 / 8 
2009 2 / 9
2010 0 / 0

Hurdles  3 winners from 22 rides  Chases 5 winners from 23 rides
NH Flat 2 winners from 2 rides

7 of his winners won their last start.

PADDY BRENNAN

Since 2007 Paddy Brennan has ridden 6 winners from 46 rides (13%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £10.27 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2006 NO RIDES 
2007 2 / 10 (wins / runners) 
2008 2 / 14 
2009 2 / 13
2010 0 / 9

Hurdles  3 winners from 23 rides  Chases 3 winners from 21 rides
NH Flat 0 winners from 2 rides
RICHARD JOHNSON

Since 2006 Richard Johnson has ridden 6 winners from 40 rides (15%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £10.71 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2006 3 / 9 (wins / runners)
2007 1 / 10 
2008 0 / 4 
2009 0 / 7
2010 2 / 10

Hurdles  3 winners from 22 rides
Chases 3 winners from 16 rides
NH Flat 0 winners from 2 rides

A P McCOY

Since 2006 Tony McCoy has ridden 4 winners from 48 rides (8.3%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £20 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2006 2 / 10 (wins / runners)
2007 2 / 9 
2008 0 / 8 
2009 0 / 12
2010 0 / 9

Hurdles  1 winners from 24 rides
Chases 3 winners from 20 rides
NH Flat 0 winners from 4 rides

He’s been beaten on his last 35 rides at the meeting. His last winner was Alberta’s Run on 17th November 2007!!

BARRY GERAGHTY

Since 2007 Barry Geraghty has ridden just 3 winners from 21 rides (14.2%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £5.16 at level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2006 No rides 
2007 0 / 3 (wins / runners)
2008 1 / 6 
2009 1 / 1
2005 1 / 11

Hurdles  1 winners from 12 rides  Chases 2 winners from 7 rides
NH Flat 0 winners from 2 rides
ROBERT THORNTON

Another jockey who didn’t ride at the meeting in 2010 due to injury….

Since 2005 Robert Thornton has ridden just 3 winners from 35 rides (8.6%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £15.05 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2005 0 / 7 (wins / runners) 
2006 1 / 7  
2007 1 / 9 
2008 0 / 7 
2009 1 / 5
2010 0 / 0

Hurdles  3 winners from 19 rides  Chases 0 winners from 15 rides
NH Flat 0 winners from 1 rides

All 26 horses that he has ridden aged 5 or over have been beaten.
If you wish to download both the trainers and jockeys in a pdf guide then click here…….

>>>>FREE TRAINERS & JOCKEYS GUIDE<<<<

100% FREE and this is a direct, one click link.

Good luck,
Gavin.

—————

TRAINERTRACKSTATS

The TTS season began last Tuesday and after a sticky start we hit a bit of form on Saturday to end the week nicely infront. 4 winners from 15 qualifiers (26.7% strike rate) and a profit of over 5pts are the kind of figures we’ll be looking for throughout the Season.

Thanks to many of our subscribers taking the long term option and paying upfront for the 6 months we still have a number of £1 Membership’s available……GET YOUR £1 MEMBERSHIP HERE

If you want to give it a try and get the TTS Guide for just £1 you have until Wednesday lunchtime to register.

This week we’re also giving away the Cheltenham Trends for the weekend and the AW Jockeys Guide that I gave a couple of examples of in last weeks blog post (www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/blogs)

You get both these guides included for £1 and a daily email highlighting the days selections. It must be the bargain of the Winter…….

GET YOUR £1 MEMBERSHIP HERE

Good luck,
Gavin.

Saturday sees the start of what many consider the real jumping season with the Cheltenham Open meeting taking centre stage. Last year I did a bit of research on the trainers and jockeys at the meeting and I’ve now updated it to take into account the 2010 meeting. I hope you can find something of use here…….

 PAUL NICHOLLS

The champion trainer has had 12 winners from 69 runners at a strike rate of 17.4%.
You would have lost £14.75 by backing his horses to a £1 level stake.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2006 4 / 12 (wins / runners) 2007 1 / 12 2008 2 / 17 2009 2 / 12 2010 3 / 16

He’s had just 3 hurdle winners from 27 such runners with most of his winners coming from Chase races where he’s had 7 winners from 39 runners. He’s also trained 2 National Hunt Flat winners from 3 runners.

Interestingly all 12 winners have come in Class 1 or Class 2 contests with all 9 runners in lower grade races being beaten (just 1 placed).

All 12 winners had also raced no more than once in the previous 90 days with all 4 of the runners who had run more than once in that time period being unplaced

10 of his 12 winners were from the front two in the betting market but with 35 of his runners being sent off as favourite or second favourite simply backing his fancied runners will leave you just out of pocket (a 28.6% strike rate and a level stakes loss of -£3.25).

Backing his horses in races over 3m4f or further is another bad move as all 4 of these runners finished out of the frame.

And forget backing the old-timers from his yard at this meeting as all 7 runners aged 8 or older have been beaten (although 2 did make the frame).

Not surprisingly, Ruby Walsh has ridden 8 of Paul Nicholls’s 12 winners (from 30 rides)

2 of these were over hurdles (from 13 rides), 5 over fences (from 16 rides) and 1 in a NH Flat race. All 8 were in Class 1 or Class 2 races (27 rides).

Only 2 of Walsh’s winners for Nicholls were gained in handicap company (from 12 rides ) and would have resulted in a -£4.00 level stakes loss.

NIGEL TWISTON-DAVIES

Since 2006 Nigel Twiston-Davies has had 8 winners from 75 runners (10.7%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £7.20 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….
  
2006 0 / 14 (wins / runners)
2007 2 / 12 
2008 2 / 17 
2009 3 / 18
2010 1 / 14

He’s had just 2 hurdle winners from 29 such runners with most of his winners, like Paul Nicholls. coming in ‘Chase races. Over the larger obstacles he’s had 6 winners from 42 runners. His 4 runners in National Hunt Flat races have all been beaten.

Again like Paul Nicholls, all Nigel Twiston-Davies’s winners have been in Class 1 and 2 events with all 9 of his lower class runners being beaten (2 were placed).

His 8 winners were aged 5-8yo (from 43 runners) with the remaining 28 horses outside this age bracket all being beaten including all 11 of his 4yo runners.

All of his 7 winners had raced a maximum of 2 times in the last 90 days with 7 of them having had no more than 1 run in the same time period. All 11 of his horses to have raced at 3m2f or further at this meeting have been beaten.

Since 2005, backing the stables 5-8yo’s in Class 1 or 2 races up to 3m 1f would have given you…..

8 winners from 35 runners and a level stakes profit of +£32.79

Paddy Brennan has ridden 5 of Twiston-Davies’s 8 winners from his 35 rides for the stable

All 5 of his winners were aged 5-8yo and backing just these horses would have returned a  +£10.22 level stakes profit since 2006.

DAVID PIPE

His Dad may have dominated this meeting during his illustrious training career but Pipe Jnr has strugggled since taking over the stable in 2006. David Pipe has had 4 winners from 60 runners (6.7%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you a whopping £39.08 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….
 
2006 1 / 14 (wins / runners)  2007 0 / 15 2008 1 / 13 2009 1 / 9 2010 1 / 9

3 of his 4 winners were in Chases with 1 winner from 27 hurdle runners for the stable.
He’s also had 33 losers in Class 1 races.
PHILLIP HOBBS

Since 2006 Phillip Hobbs has had 7 winners from 51 runners (13.7%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £10.71 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….
 
2006 3 / 10 (wins / runners)
2007 1 / 13 
2008 1 / 8 
2009 0 / 7
2010 2 / 13

He’s had 4 hurdle winners from 30 such runners with just 3 winners coming in ‘Chase races. Over the larger obstacles he’s had 19 runners for those 3 winners. He’s also had 2 runners in National Hunt Flat races without success.

Again like Paul Nicholls and Nigel Twiston-Davies’s all his winners have been in Class 1 and 2 events with all 17 of his lower class runners being beaten (6 were placed).

All 7 winners returned at 10/1 or under with his 20 higher priced horses all being beaten (just 3 placed).

5 of his 7 winners were aged 4 – 6 years old (31 runners) with the other winners being 9 and 11yo. 6 of the 7 winners finished in the top 3 last time out and 6 of the 7 had run no more than twice in the previous 90 days.

Since 2006, backing the stables 4-6yo’s in Class 1 or 2 races who had finished in the top 3 last time out would have given you…..

5 winners from 16 runners (31.2%) and a level stakes profit of +£15.53

Richard Johnson has ridden 6 of Phillip Hobbs’s 7 winners from his 27 rides for the stable although he drew a blank at the meeting in 2008/09. In 2008 he rode 3 horses for the stable and 2009 it was 4.

If, since 2006, you had backed Richard Johnson mounts for the stable at 2m – 2m1f in class 1 or 2 races you would have had 4 winners from 11 runners (36.4%). They would also have shown a £5.78 level stakes profit

Miss VENETIA WILLIAMS

She may have a great record at the Cheltenham Festival in March but Venetia Williams’s record at this meeting is simply woeful with all 26 of her runners since 2004 being beaten.

2004 0 / 4 (wins / runners) 
2005 0 / 4
2006 0 / 2 
2007 0 / 3 
2008 0 / 4 
2009 0 / 4
2010 0 / 5

ALAN KING

He may have had quite a bit of success at the track over the last 5 years but his performance at this particular meeting is very poor. From 42 runners he’s managed just 4 winners and you would have recorded a level stakes loss of £14.05.

His overall record looks like this……
 
2006 1 / 6 (wins / runners)  
2007 1 / 10 
2008 0 / 14 
2009 0 / 4
2010 2 / 8

3 of his 4 winners came over hurdles at 2m – 2m1f (from 15 runners)

Robert Thornton has ridden 2 winners but they came from 26 rides for the stable (7.7% strike rate).

 

NICKY HENDERSON

Since 2006 Nicky Henderson has had 6 winners from 45 runners (13.3%) at this meeting. Backing all his runners over this period would have lost you £10.91 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2006 0 / 7 (wins / runners) 
2007 0 / 7 
2008 2 / 11 
2009 2 / 7
2010 2 / 13

He’s had 4 hurdle winners (all in handicaps) from 24 hurdle runners with just 2 winners coming in ‘Chase races (both handicaps). Over the larger obstacles he’s had 18 runners for those 2 winners. He’s also had 3 runners in National Hunt Flat races without success.

All 6 of his winners were aged 5 - 7yo of which he has had 29 such runners. They were all in Class 2 or 3 races (21 runners) and at a distance up to 2m5f (40 runners).

All 24 of his runners in Class 1 events have been beaten (and just 6 placed).

All of his 6 winners were colts or geldings and the 6 female horses he’s run at the meeting have been beaten with just 2 getting placed.

Backing his 5 – 7yo’s in class 2 and 3 handicaps would have given you 6 winners from 13 runners and a Level Stakes Profit of £21.08 since 2006.
FERDY MURPHY

You can always rely on Ferdy Murphy to have at least one runner at the meeting including  one in the Paddy Power Chase. He won that race in 2007 which has provided half his tally of winners in the last 5 years. Those 2 winners came from 12 runners and you would have won £1 by backing them all at level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2006 0 / 4 (wins / runners)  
2007 1 / 2 
2008 0 / 1 
2009 1 / 2
2010 0 / 3

Both winners came at 2m4f+, in handicap chases (8 runners), in Class 1 events (8 runners) and both were 5-7yo (7 runners) .

Interestingly they were both from the top 2 in the betting and were the only two runners from the stable to have started 1st or 2nd favourite.

JONJO O’NEILL

Jonjo O’Neill has by far the best record at this meeting of all the current trainers. Since 2005 Jonjo O’Neill has had 7 winners from 36 runners (19.4%) at Cheltenham in November although he hasn’t trained a winner at either of the last 2 ‘Open’ meetings. Backing all his runners over this period would have won you a very impressive £26.00 at £1 level stakes.

His record for the last 5 years has been….

2005 3 / 13 (wins / runners) 
2006 1 / 7 
2007 2 / 5 
2008 1 / 2 
2009 0 / 2
2010 0 / 7

He’s had 4 hurdle winners from 18 such runners with just 3 winners coming in ‘Chase races. Over the larger obstacles he’s had 15 runners for those 3 winners. He’s also had 3 runners in National Hunt Flat races but without success.

All 7 winners finished in the top 2 last time out from 18 such runners.

If you ignored the National Hunt flat races and had simply backed Jonjo O’Neill horses who finished in the top 2 last time out you would have backed 7 winners from just 15 runners and made a massive level stakes profit of £47.00.

Tony McCoy has ridden 5 of the O’Neill winners from his  21 rides.

—————-

TRAINERTRACKSTATS

The TTS season began last Tuesday and after a sticky start we hit a bit of form on Saturday to end the week nicely infront. 4 winners from 15 qualifiers (26.7% strike rate) and a profit of over 5pts are the kind of figures we’ll be looking for throughout the Season.

Thanks to many of our subscribers taking the long term option and paying upfront for the 6 months we still have a number of £1 Membership’s available……GET YOUR £1 MEMBERSHIP HERE

If you want to give it a try and get the TTS Guide for just £1 you have until Wednesday lunchtime to register.

This week we’re also giving away the Cheltenham Trends for the weekend and the AW Jockeys Guide that I gave a couple of examples of in last weeks blog post (www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/blogs)

You get both these guides included for £1 and a daily email highlighting the days selections. It must be the bargain of the Winter…….

GET YOUR £1 MEMBERSHIP HERE

Good luck,
Gavin.

Saturday 5th November (+23.75): I said last week that I would continue to the end of the flat season, so today is my last day. I’m hoping to go out with a bang, rather than the damp squib that it’s been this week.

All selections today are EW

1.25 Doncaster BOUNTIFUL CATCH 33/1 LADBROKES
2.00 Doncaster AXIOM 12/1 GENERAL
2.00 Doncaster DOCOFTEHBAY 25/1 GENERAL
3.10 Doncaster CLASSIC VINTAGE 16/1 BET365 1/4 1-2-3-4-5
3.10 Doncaster TEPMOKEA 25/1 BET365 1/4 1-2-3-4-5
3.20 Wincanton RICHARDS SUNDANCE 16/1 BET365

It’s been fun doing this daily blog and I hope one or two of you made some money. I’ll be back on Monday with a final review of my 5 weeks in charge and looking at the stats to see how I performed.

Good Luck as always
Gary

Friday 4th November:(+27.75)

EW Selections:

DICKIE LE DAVOIR 3.00 FFOS LAS 20/1 an in and out sprinter who had a cracking time of it in the spring, has come back from his break in reasonable form and I’m prepared to take a chance that he has improved enough to get back on the winning ways, he does get behind early on so might be one to back on exchanges in running.

FAULT 6.40 WOLVERHAMPTON 14/1one we have done before, ran a cracker last week at Kempton over 1mile, todays drop in trip should help him get home.

Good Luck as always
Gary

Thursday 3rd November(29.75)

EW Selection: NOT MY CHOICE 2.10 SOUTHWELL 33/1 winning front runner, back in May, runs today off 4lb lower mark. Ran over 5F last time behind Style And Panache, this is much more like his trip and from stall 2 can nab the lead.

Good Luck as always
Gary

Wednesday 2nd November (+31.75)

EW Selection: BOTANIST 4.10 NOTTINGHAM 33/1 BET365 & WHILL formerly with Sir M. Stoute, now with new trainer Tobias Coles, had very good 2yo form, now finding his mark, beaten over 12f last time now back down to 10f I think he could run well at some very rewarding odds.

Good Luck as always
Gary