A losing May last year, two changes, and this May is twenty two points up from eighty eight bets, fifty seven of them winners. It's the best month in the book. I want to be careful about why, because the easy story is that the changes worked, and the honest one is that they probably helped and the horses did the rest.
The changes, from last May's post, were fewer turf handicaps and a floor on the price. Both held all month. Most of the bets were on the sand or at the smaller northern tracks, and nothing went on under 2.5 unless it was a place bet. So the bets I'd have lost on last May, the sixteen runner handicaps at Chester with half the field improving, mostly weren't there.
What I can't take credit for is the rate. Fifty seven from eighty eight is closer to two in three than six in ten, and that won't last. Monday the eleventh was a day like that. Four bets, three winners, a 5.1 shot at Southwell and a 4.03 shot in the same race that was an extra, and four and a half points in an afternoon. I've written before that days like that don't change anything, and they don't, but they do make a month. The members' area has every one of the 88, and two weeks for £5 is enough to see a month like it start.
The comeback bets had their first full month, eighteen of them. Eight won. That's better than I'd hoped for at the prices, and they came out a few points ahead. It's still a small bet on a small number of horses and I'm not reading much into one month. I'm reading a bit into the fact that the losers cost half a point each, which is the design doing its job.
The bank is at its highest since I started. I've moved the point up for the first time, from £100 to £150, because the bank has earned it and the rules say the stake follows the bank and never the other way round. If June is a bad month, the point stays at £150. It only goes down if the bank does.
If you've followed since the start, you'll have noticed that this is the first good May since the changes. I'd love to say it's the method. It's mostly the sand and a floor on the price, and a month where the fancied horses did what the form said. Enjoy it. July's usually good too, and I've no idea why.
Lee
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More from the notebook: Eleven points in February · Mojito Des Mottes, and the best month in the book