Lucky 31 suggestion and explanation for today

It was a disappointing day yesterday, the first one in midweek for a while as Berkeley Vale;

just missed a place after a decent run and Airpur Desbois, ran inexplicably badly. I always

have a look at the winners that beat us and in both races, I have to be honest and say that

it would have been very difficult to make a strong case for either, especially the 40/1 winner

at Towcester, so not a case of beating oneself up at missing anything obvious. These days

can happen, especially when racing is of poor quality so time to move on.

It is fantastic to see Hereford back today, closed 4 years ago due to a chronic lack of investment;

at the same time as we lost Folkestone, which has not (yet) returned, despite promises. The

track at Hereford was purchased by a new Company, supported by local Trainers and Businesses;

it has staged Arab and Point 2 Point meetings to keep things ticking over, and with a sensible

business plan, lets hope it can find a niche and thrive, sometimes when you lose something

you had taken for granted, it is vital to support it, and hopefully locals will turn up in enough

numbers to make it a viable proposition. We also have jumping today at Exeter; AW at

Chelmsford and a Flat/Turf meeting at Ayr plus Tramore in Ireland.

Despite the pleasure at seeing Hereford return, it is to be perfectly frank an awful

day of racing in terms of quality, save for a couple of Flat races and a few decent Jump

races, albeit with small NH fields in the better races. There are a few horses today that

are on very nice handicap marks, get ideal conditions and should win in theory; BUT;

the likes of Goninodaethat; Captain Scooby; Bunce; Mercers Row; Kommander Kirkup;

Dandyleekie etc, have caused a lot of heartache and pain for punters over the years,

they basically pop up now and again at decent odds, yet always seem to find ways

of not winning, when they should. There are those that will call it skullduggery and

cheating, I simply think they are poor horses with decent hearts who are capable

on a good day but who have too many off days, not dissimilar to many human beings.

I/we could make a case for backing any of the following as singles, but experience

tells me its the way to the "poor house"; yet experience tells me they are ready to "pop up"

and that it is probably best to cover that possibility, as we all know what will happen if

we dont - so here is a "fun" Lucky 31 of fancied horses for a bit of shrapnel to consider.

I have put the preferred selection first - I know some of you like to do 10 horse perms

on Betfair/Bet 365 where you can have more than 1 runner per race - so options

for you too......take the first named in the L31 (a 10p e/w unit costs £6.20).

Ayr 2.40 Goninodaethat (Captain Scooby)

Ayr 3.15 Bunce (Mercers Row)

Ayr 3.50 Kommander Kirkup (Escalating)

Exeter 2.20 Motts Cross

Exeter 5.15 Billy My Boy

These selections will not be proofed!

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There are much better quality and quantity options tomorrow; particularly at Newmarket

and York, so we will be back then with 2-3 proper selections and analysis.

Regards

Ian