Thought it about time I put “pen to paper” as it were! 2021 has been slow but steady so far, French horse bets still doing OK though the ROI is down a bit to 60% and there won’t be many bets for the next month with only 2-3 meetings a week at Pau with 4-5 races per meeting. The problem seems to be prices crashing very quickly, I can’t think that is purely down to me but who really knows. The Charles Byrne story confirms my thoughts of why I gave up betting in low grade UK/Irish racing though I will still look at the better quality races with decent prize money and hey it’s the Somerset National at Wincanton tomorrow! I am trying to stick to my guns with the golf of no bookmaker outright bets before the off and only betting in running, that should be easier now they have left Hawaii on the PGA Tour although Abu Dhabi starts at stupid o’clock in the morning tomorrow. The Sentry Tournament of Champions was a washout but the Sony more than made up for it with bets on Chris Kirk. The e/w bets copped and I did trade back £450 at an average 7/1 in running so made a nice little profit, the win would have been nice with another £4k in the bank but you can’t win em all. I will still do my Betfair golf bets pre-tournament on prices I think are too big, this week I have 6 for Abu Dhabi, 3 have morning tee times and 3 afternoon and with a potential weather bias some have drifted Donaldson 160 £3,180.00 Stenson 148.13 £2,942.60 Luiten 158.37 £3,147.40 Cabrera Bello 161.47 £3,209.40 Burmester 248.93 £2,479.30 Larrazabal 348.37 £3,473.70 £100 invested I will no doubt put some speculative lays up before heading to bed tonight. Over on the PGA Tour the American Express has a different feel with only 2 courses and no amateurs which should make for better viewing. The only one I was tempted from a back to lay perspective was Adam Hadwin and had £50 @ 80, the reason for this bet is that these are the prices he has traded at in 4 attempts 2019 1.08 2018 7.8 2017 2.62 2016 4.1 He is trading a bit higher now – 85 but I will leave it at that before the off.

The Champions Tour returns on Friday with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship – so maybe some more late nights if my sole bet KJ Choi is up there. It pays to concentrate on form in Hawaii and Choi is a past winner of the Sony Open and played well for 3 rounds in that event last week. I have been a touch unlucky in this the past 2 years, Ernie Els traded odds on when a 20/1 shot last year and David Toms led by 3 with 6 holes to play, 3 putted the last and lost by 1 the year before. I backed Choi @ 22/1 with 5 places - the extra place is important I think.

That’s it for now, any in running bets will be on Twitter and we have racing at Pau tomorrow and Sunday.