Wednesday horse racing summary

Not the ideal way to sign off a month, with two losing bets. My win bet for the day was a disappointing Active Asset, running this evening at the newly opened Great Leighs.

I was betting against Frankie Dettori's mount Bankable at Ascot this afternoon. Ordinarily I would be reluctant to bet against a horse in a handicap who has won in the same class last time out, as was the case with Bankable. However, his last run was more than six months ago. This afternoon he would also be running on soft ground, a surface over which he had yet to win. He would also be carrying an extra 8lbs for his last performance. The bookmakers were taking little chance by offering a meagre 11/8 about a horse in a handicap, which is short by anybody's standards. So I decided the value lay in betting against the horse. Bankable won fairly comfortably, but you can see why bookmakers win in the long run and punters rarely get rich backing horses at those prices.

I ended the month by slicing 2.5 points from the top of the profit cake.