My heart Skippers a beat today

On the last day of January it was the turn of my lay bets to shine, and make their contribution to what (provisionally) looks like another record-breaking month. Watch out for the next newsletter in a few days for confirmation. Two back-to-win selections failed to show any return.

I put forward three horses to oppose today. I was prepared to go against I'm Spartacus at Leicester for a sizeable 7 points, but the price never sank as low as the 15/8 I was hoping for, only 5/2 as the tape went up. Although he was beaten, this has to go down as a 'no bet'.

Better news with Skippers Brig. Here was a horse, stepping up in class, and giving away at least 8lb to every other horse, and yet still priced at 2/7 odds-on. You could even have got odds of 1.19 on Betfair this morning -- that's 1/5 odds-on!! -- which means you were effectively getting odds of five-to-one about the horse not winning. This was a no-brainer, and today it paid off handsomely as I suggested a 5 point bet. My heart was racing as the line approached, and Sherwoods Folly just nailed him on the line.

I gave a little of my profit back when my third lay bet Englishtown won at 11/8F and my two win bets failed to win, but still a welcome profit of more than 12 points on the day.