S.A. Racing Results- The Last Weekend of Aug.2013

I still ‘Cannot hit a cow in the C... with a banjo’ when it comes to local racing. (Excuse the language if any ladies reading...)

If I choose a Swinger that might pay, for e.g., R1.90 to R3.50, one of the horses will, 99% of the time, run fourth!?

If I play a roving Quartet with the first 4 favourites, a 16/1 and say a 40/1 roughie, chasing 8-15% of a, hopefully, biggish pay out; either the shit-hot favourite runs out of the top four, or an even bigger roughie (Yes, 66/1 or even 100/1!) runs into the minor places. Nightmare!

Even my favourite bet, the PA, pay outs have been a bit of a yo-yo lately.

One recent meeting paid only R7.90 then last Saturday (24/08/13) the Turffontein & Kenilworth PA’s paid R833 and R892 respectively. Now these may not be the mega PA payouts we’ve seen in the past but to me are still fairly ‘big’ results. Imagine, for example, if one of my (or yours) R10 or R15 straight lines would come in at nearly 900 bucks, Happy Days if they did, I’m sure you’ll agree?

The thing that Irks (‘cos this site is about irksome matters pertaining to horse racing after all. Isn’t it vaguely amusing that a synonym for irk & annoy is Nag..?) me about those two PA’s though is that both had huge bombs in their first legs which would have thrown tens of thousands of tickets out of the running. Thank goodness I did NOT play...

Both meetings had huge Quartet pay outs on the day but The Crooks at Kenilworth took the cake with a R86,869 and a R189,775 QT results! Yes, that nearly R190 THOUSAND RAND QT was, for most unfortunate punters, the very first leg of the PA!? That race also produced a R200 Swinger, an R11k Trifecta and a whopping R18.50 for the third placed, # 14, donkey!

Anyone except the connections collect on that one? I doubt it..

Remarkably 789 tickets still managed to catch my local PA- they must’ve got through that first leg with the second horse, # 6? (Paid R2.00 for a place). Well done to those fellas!

At this Cape meeting only ONE favourite won a race (Race 1) and few even placed? in a 9 Race card.

COME ON GUYS- GIVE US A BREAK ALREADY.................................?

Jo’burg faired slightly better on that Saturday with three favourites winning and 3 placing for Trifecta possibilities but their Race 3 also destroyed most PA punters chances of getting out of their starting blocks. That races result of 9/11/5 helped the PA pay out get to a healthy R833! Nice if you got it...

The difference in the favourites coming-in or not is blatantly evident in the two Pick 6 pay outs.

Turff. Pick 6 was a gettable R15,958 to about 68 tickets but the ever predictable Villains in the Cape managed to come up with a stonker of R610,875 to only 0.44 tickets with a hefty R341,698 Carry Over!!!??? Will be even more unlikely to win when 'couplings' are done away with on 09/09/13. Read next blog posting please? 

You know people 'high-up' in this game, then please forward my Blog onto them. They need to read this stuff!

Good luck punters,

smallpunter

Local Racing- First Weekend,. Aug.13

I see the first weekend of August brought no changes to the unforgiving results in local horse racing- keeping it true SA style- which means the average punter stands bugger-all chance of winning..?

The two Saturday meetings were slightly unusual in that one was held in Kimberley. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one hoping that the horses [and jockeys] familiar with the surface and conditions there might actually run some races to form… After all it wasn’t Kenilworth were one could easily have 30ml of rain before the first. Flamingo Park conditions are nothing, if not consistent! As usual- Boy, was I wrong!

Out of a 9 Race card only ONE favourite WON a race and only THREE favourite horses placed!? There weren’t any R50.00-type win returns but there were a lot at the R6.00 to R11.00 type level. Blimey, what a crock of shite!

The Jackpot and PA pay outs were big but, surprisingly, not massive, so some people got to collect something. I’ll refrain from calling those winners ‘punters’ as they were probably all the connections of the un-fancied nags that came in. The big pay out at this meeting was the Pick 6 at a whopping R205,044.00 to ONLY 2.45 tkts!?

I dare say Kimberleys’ normal Monday turnout of about 34 on-course punters maybe grew tenfold for this ‘festival-type’ Saturday, but hold your horses (pun intended) local organisers; if you don’t let those extra feet collect something small, they might become as cynical & bitter & deserting as this commentator. Beware Ooms!

The KZN card for the same day produced 4 favourite winners [in a row] which was basically the Jackpot and that must’ve given our buds who play big Jackpot perms ‘a pain in the hole’, cos it only paid R136.60! (Sorry for you lads- now you also feel fleeced-up, nê..?)

Not surprisingly though for the Pick 6 guys and us mere mortals who play PA’s there was going to be one Race to screw us over. (Isn’t there always?).

Cue the last, Race 8- Result:13/9/7/1

That’s an eye-watering:

(a) R58.40 win for #13; R2.80 place for #9 and R12.40 for #7!

(b) Highest Swinger- R229.90

(c) Exacta- R872.20

(d) Trifecta- R11,531.60

(e) Quartet- R203,091.20 (that’s a fifth of a Million Rand for a QT!?)

 

OUCH!!! And thanks once again GOLD CIRCLE, your ability to run things ‘properly’ & ‘honestly’ beggars belief!

Roll-on Sunday and Gold Circles’ corrupt counterparts at altitude (Aka Phume.., something?) also stitched us up but they did it nice and early-on in the meeting. Race 2 was the start of the PA in this 8 race card and us PA punters were bent over double and firmly rodgered from behind!

The #14 favourite conveniently ran 4^th, discarding probably 70% or more of the PA tickets in the first of the 7 Legs! There was a R44.10 winner, an R11k Trifecta and a nearly R59k Quartet! Thanks fellas.

After that it looked like favourites started to come and the big Pick 6 players out there would’ve been disappointed with the small result of R6855. The PA was only nine hundred Rand less at R5908! Ouch!

I think that’s it for me, for now. I cannot take this crook-ery any longer.

 You might only be losing two to three hundred Rand a week G.C and Phum. from this smallpunter, but listening to the betting Joe-public in you Totes I can tell you with the certainty, that the Proteas will choke in one-day tournaments, that I am NOT the only one deserting.

Your shops are empty of horse backing punters! (I’m not counting the 497 Nigerians in every store playing R5.00 soccer bets here, I’m talking the R30,40, 50 and R100 a day uncles like me…)

Wake-up, smell the coffee and take a look!

smallpunter

GOLD CUP, 2013. Yet Another Feature Race Disaster for Punters!

I didn't play last week Saturday (rather wisely, in retrospect) at Greyville's Gold Cup feature which looks like yet another 'bomb' result for the already stretched punters out there...

Having looked at the Quartet pay out of R111,550.00 (!!!???) I initially thought that the #19 & 20 were the donkeys but they were reasonably priced at 9/1 and 8/1 respectively. It was the 1st and 2nd place horses that made the big pay out. Both started at 25/1 in this feature that once again robbed 99% of the punters of their hard earned cash..?

The favourite came in  [galloping on 'strong' I'm sure] in a resounding 13th place!?

The PA for this meeting was a rather big R12,100.

Way to go SA racing- you keep doing this and the chances of attracting any new 'punting' blood to this pastime stands as much chance as me winning a straight line PA!

Good luck today punters. I see Kimberley producing some big bombs as well, so fingers crossed.

smallpunter

VAAL- Tuesday, 23 July 2013.

As most often is the case, Race 3 in the Vaal this last Tuesday was the start of that days PA.
So smallpunter cruises slowly (Petrol almost as expensive as horse punting these days!) down to the Tote to lay my usual R30-40 bucks worth of PA's.

With 20 minutes to go before that Race 3 I study the form to maybe get a percentage on a mid-level Quartet, who knows..? Pre-printed race cards liked the 5 & 9 in that race as did I. On course the betting had moved to the 10 as favourite, followed by the 5,9. So I take two rovers with four others including three roughies.

Boy was I wrong!?

Those first 3 favoured horses are still running now 4 days later and even the harshest of my critics, out there, cannot blame me for not including 100 & 75/1 roughies in my perm.

The result was a huge R185,445.50 Quartet!
1st # 7- 100/1
2nd # 3- 12/1
3rd # 2- 28/1
4th # 13- 75/1

Numbers 10, 9, 5 nowhere to be seen!
small and a whole lot of other punters immediately & summarily thrown out of that days PA!?
That PA paid  R9407 to only 83 tickets. Way to go horse racing authorities...

I know I keep going back for yet another 'rodgering', but my days are numbered, I can tell you that!

smallpunter

The Half Million Rand Jackpot!? Ban Betting at Eastern Cape Racing!

As I write this they have already run the first two races at Fairview today. I don't want to know the results and quite frankly I am sh..ting bricks about  the rest of the meetings results with one 18 horse and two 20 horse fields included in  the exotic bets later on..?

Having said that this, increasingly stupider, smallpunter has done a few PA perms totalling a princely sum of R30.00 (ZAR). I might as well throw the 3 ten Rand notes out of the window onto the Cape breeze than totter down to the Tote, but what the heck- our horse racing is a Lotto anyway, one lives in hope.

I see the usually 'comfy Cartel' in the Eastern Cape lead by Messrs AC Greeff & GD Smith saw their collective backsides this time last week at Arlington when combined they only ran 5 or 6 placed horses on the day. NOT a single winner!? When last, if ever, did that happen?

The downside of that for us poor punters was a MASSIVE Jackpot pay out of nearly Half a Million Rand! (R445942.10 to be precise- okay, I'm rounding-up, but this is still shocking!)
I don't know the rest of the trainers that well in this backward part of the world and TJ Laing and Y. Bremner might well be part of the afore mentioned Cartel, but well done to them for running 50% of the days' winners. I bet none of the 4 mentioned above lost any tom though..?

My short period on this Blog has seen the 'near' Million Rand Quartet, the Third of a Million Rand PA, the R500.00 Swinger and now this monster Jackpot result in the home of elephants & crocodiles!? (God knows, we'd have better luck betting on those two species than the 'apparent' thoroughbreds we lose our tom on...). Having said that I suspect though that it's the two legged crooks that control & ride these fine animals that are entirely to blame.

I didn't see the spec. sheet for this meeting, but for a Friday meeting with a pay out that size there could only have been 1 point-something winners with the average pool there. F..ing CROOKS!

Betting should be banned at the two courses in this province- it really does border on the criminal.

Break a leg lads. (Pref. a trainers or a jockeys, if you can catch one- Bastards!)

smallpunter

Kenilworth-13 July, 2013. Quartet Horrors!

I haven't had the time, or inclination to look back at this weekends racing, but I did hear our unlikely July winning jockey, Smanga Khumalo, rode the full Jackpot at Turffontein yesterday..? Apparently it was 5 straight wins and everyone was watching & waiting for him to run the Pick 6, but he failed in its sixth Leg. Remarkable!
Was it his birthday or something? See an upcoming post of mine on jockey birthdays, if you know of any please let me know, as that sort of info can help us less fortunate punters back these unpredictable little men on their special days...

My beef in this posting was the HUGE Quartet pay outs at Kenilworth a week ago on Saturday. I don't know if anyone else noticed or was even bothered?
Horsey journo Michael Clower noticed and wrote that the old fella, and perennially unpredictable Jock, Glen Hatt, running four winners on the day (That's 50%- not bad?). There was one favourite, a 5/1, a  7/1 and one donkey at 33/1 (Victorious Lady). Well done Hatty! (see above about birthdays- makes one wonder, doesn't it?)

I copied & pasted from my spread sheet and you can see the stupendous results below. Clairwood had 7 out of 10 QT pay outs under a Grand, which is small for QT's, but the upstanding folk down here in the Cape sought fit to break records with massive pay outs for their QT's in 7 out of 8 races!?
Race 1: R165K pay out and R116K C/over!?
One week KZN crook, the next week it's the Cape and Eastern Cape meetings always defy belief!!! (R446k Jackpot this last Friday! I rest my case.)

Every time I write something on this site I think Wow, surely it can't be surpassed?
But in SA horse racing it takes only a fortnight or so for something more shocking to occur!

Go carefully punters.

smallpunter
 

	QUARTET PAY OUTS- SATURDAY, 13 JULY
CLAIRWOOD			KENILWORTH
RACE 1	R 54.40		RACE 1	164 810.70	115623.91 (C/OVER)
RACE 2	R 992.80		RACE 2	25 868.20
RACE 3	R 215.40		RACE 3	10 819.60
RACE 4	R 234.70		RACE 4	7 125.10
RACE 5	R 629.20		RACE 5	14 943.30
RACE 6	R 139.30		RACE 6	437.70
RACE 7	R 417.10		RACE 7	11 706.30
RACE 8	R 2 048.50		RACE 8	11 568.40
RACE 9	R 2 567.40
RACE 10	R 1 765.40
UNDER R1000
1000-5000
5000-20000
20000-100K
100K PLUS

Uncanny Similarities

Below are the last two Durban July winners, lest I remind all of us who couldn't or didn't manage to pick 28/1 and 16/1 respective winners...
Does anyone know if this owner/trainer back-to-back double has happened before in this prestigious race?

And then one 'hack' (A Jimmy Lithgow in the Sunday Times) points out what wasn't that obvious [to this observer at least] on that bad day for the average punter. Quote;
"Black jockey wins SA's biggest race for the first time on Nelson Mandela day at Greyville"

I should point out that the 'black jockey' part of that sentence was in fact very obvious to me and good luck to the young fella; he's a good jockey and I don't mind punting him, but NOT in this race!
The part that wasn't immediately obvious was the 'Nelson Mandela day'. They're doing so much to appease this old boy on his death bed, one has to wonder if the 'honest' folks in SA racing could actually go far enough to pull-off such a cunning stunt..?

POMODORO

Piere Strydom

S G Tarry

A

55.0

20

1

0.00

133.19

20/1

28/1

2012

 

HEAVY METAL

S'Manga Khumalo

S G Tarry

A

59.5

11

1

0.00

135.44

22/1

16/1

2013

 

Both owned by CJH van Niekerk!? (Who's he..?)

smallpunter