Ante-Post … A Dead Duck?

Hi there!

I’m not sure whether the figures back this up, but I can’t believe the ante-post market is anything like as vibrant as it once was.

The concessions offered on extended place terms are now so attractive for the big meetings such as Cheltenham and Royal Ascot, together with the opportunity for NRNB, that there is no benefit in betting each-way ante-post with the obvious risks of losing on a non-runner.

In my view ante-post prices have, for a while now, been mostly used as a vehicle for bookmaker advertising.

It would, though, be interesting to know what sort of support it took to bring last week’s Dante Stakes winner Desert Crown down in the immediate aftermath of the race from 3/1 to 2/1, with one firm claiming they were ‘knocked over.’

The colt had been the subject of support from 33/1 to 6/1 in the fortnight leading up to the Dante, but I suspect this price cut was more a consequence of ‘informed’ support rather than volume.

I know from a relatively recent conversation with a representative of a top firm that there are still a few clients they retain and monitor closely, contrary to the generally held view that regular winners have their accounts closed down.

I imagine a few of you will beg to differ on that subject. I was with someone in the pub last week who took a leading Internet-based firm for a relatively modest three-figure sum and was immediately restricted.

I like multiple betting and one firm restricts me to units of as little as £1.28!

Finally, I don’t know if I’ve missed something, but I see the Tote returns now quite often replicate exactly to the penny the SP – the 3/1 winner of the first race at Carlisle today paid £4.

On Sunday at Ripon five of the seven races returned the equivalent SP return.

Perhaps the system has changed, in which case I would welcome some feedback from anyone who is up to speed on this.

Bye for now

Marten