Monday 16th April 2007

The Sports Trader has had very little trading due to my twins 4th Birthday Party. I only managed to trade in 3 horse races and 1 football match.

My first trade was in the 14:10 at Wolverhampton where I laid Haroldini for £10 @ 7.80, whist in the final furlong and not able to catch the leading two horses, to result in a profit of £10.

In the 14:20 at Wetherby I laid Frankie Figg for £20 @ 2.60 and backed Hilly Gale for £9 @1.07 to result in a profit of £21.

My final race trade was in the 19:50 at Tramore and resulted in a small profit. So my race trading had finished with a profit of £34.

In the Liverpool v Manchester United Youth football match I backed the under 2.5 goals for £56 @ 1.80 well after the first goal had been scored and had only laid off £2 @ 1.63 before the second goal went in. I then backed the unders for £40 @ 2.42 and had put up my lays @ 2.05 and 1.95, however a third goal was scored just as the traded price was getting to the level of my lays. I was therefore left with a loss of £95.

I then followed the match result market and backed Man Utd for £200 @ 1.39 and a further £112 @ 1.33 before laying off @ 1.20 for £12 and 1.15 for £100. I then backed Man Utd for another £370 @ 1.12 and laid £300 @ 1.10, £224 @ 1.03 and £100 @ 1.01 to result in a profit of £105.

At the end of my very short trading day I had managed to finish with a profit of £43.

Trust me to have a day off when a big story started to emerge on the forums regarding Matt Chapman. I have been catching up with the news tonight and would like to express my support for Matt. I know I had a little go at him over the ATRxtra affair but I have always appreciated that he has a difficult job to do as a presenter and link man for ATR.  It now appears that Joe Fanning and Dale McKeown have demanded the sacking of Matt from ATR for his remarks after the ride that Joe gave Zar Solitario, otherwise some jockey's are threatening to stop giving live interviews on ATR. My view is that jockeys are paid as professionals to ride all races to the best of their ability and to secure the best possible finishing position whilst  riding out to the finishing post. In this case the stewards took the view that Joe had not obtained the best possible finishing position. Matt, as a presenter called the finish of the race exactly the way he, most of his viewers, and importantly the stewards, had seen it, and gave his view immediately after the race. I think Matt was right to express his view in the way he did and should have the support of all of us traders, gamblers and punters.

Comments

[traderpete]

Hi Ray

Hope you keep up the good work and recover soon mate.
Re: the Matt thing---I think the trouble with him is that he comments on jockeys' rides almost EVERY race and it just annoys everybody.He tries to call photo finishes and often gets it wrong (which we all do but he is presenting the programme and he should realise that some poor devils will back his judgement).I know jockeys are his 'thing' but he just doesn't give a balanced view considering he is presenter.
My views anyway---guess you can tell I don't like him on the telly.
Good luck mate

Pete

[Ray]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your comments. Matt does have the knack of sensationalising everything but if he thinks a jockey has let down people that have put their hard-earned cash on a horse I think he is right to say so.

Good Luck with your trading.

Ray

[Cormac]

Hi Ray, I was at a Cheltenham preview in Dublin which Matt did the MC for, and thought he was excellent, as did everyone else I know who went. He's entertaining, funny and seems to really know his stuff. It's a shame anyone would ask for his resignation, seems to me maybe they are afraid he calls it too honestly!

Yours,
Cormac

[Ray]

Hi Cormac,

It's good to hear from you again. He certainly doesn't sit on the fence, I like his style and wish more presenters would say what they mean.

Ray