Close finish to February race ends in Goodfellow's favour

February’s Napchecker table was headed by Robin Goodfellow, who narrowly outflanked Racing Post Ratings to win by a margin of just 0.22 points. Remarkably, with less than a week to go, both were languishing in mid-table, but a remarkable flurry of winners for both tipsters saw them surge past their rivals.

Robin Goodfellow ended the month on 12.16 points with Ratings finishing with an 11.94-point gain. White Rose rivals, The Duke (Yorkshire Post) and Fortunatus (Sheffield Star) were also involved in a close match for third, with The Duke prevailing by the tiny margin of 0.07 points.

Wise Owl (Belfast Newsletter), Marlborough (Daily Telegraph), Scout (Express), Rob Wright (The Times), The Guardian and Glendale (The Scotsman) also recorded second month profits.

Three of Robin Goodfellow’s last five naps were successful, with Mamoo (7/1, Catterick, 25 February) ending an eleven-selection losing sequence. Best priced winner of the month came on 1 February when 10/1 Limited Reserve was successful at Sandown.

In a way the Racing Post Ratings revival was even more impressive. It involved a sequence of five winners from the last six naps, transforming a likely losing month into an extremely profitable one.

Best priced of these five winners was Stonific (100/30, Doncaster) on the last day of February, but it was the 15 February Ascot nap, Nordano (8/1) which yielded the best return.

Also finishing in style was The Duke; Christmas In April, the 8/1 winner of the Devon National at Exeter (21 February), was the first in a sequence of five winners from the month’s last eight advices. It added up to a monthly yield of 8.62 points.

Fortunatus maintained a good ratio of wins to runners throughout the month, but in only finding two winners in the last seven days, the Sheffield Star’s tipster just missed out on third. Nevertheless an 8.55-point yield was more than satisfactory, as was a 36% strike-rate.

Wise Owl (up 7.93 points) also boasted a better than average strike-rate of 38%, with the month’s longest losing sequence a mere three.

Marlborough again boasted the best strike-rate with 43%, 1% more than Racing Post Ratings, but the Telegraph’s napster has to settle for sixth position with a 6.15-point return.

The Scout’s 6.10-point return was built around the 9/1 Fakenham success of Premier D’Troice. This win, on 14 February, was the start of a sequence of five winning naps out of six. In all, nine out of 24 naps were successful (38% strike-rate).

Just three of Rob Wright’s 19 naps hit the spot in February, but as these included two 7/1 shots, Shah An Shah (Doncaster, 19 February) and Stopnsearch (Lingfield, 21 February), as well as Miah Grace (11/2, Doncaster, 28 February), a decent 5.23-point profit was returned.

The Guardian, who posted a 2.76-point February yield, remain in top position in the 2020 table with a two-month profit of 18.77 points. The Scout (16.15 points) and Wise Owl (12.55 points) are second and third.

Marlborough, who won last year’s Napchecker Naps Challenge, was in impressive February form with his overall tipping; just under a third of the month’s 551 selections did the business resulting in a 16.91-point profit – a stunning achievement. Credit also to Patrick Weaver (Star, 5.20 points) and Robin Goodfellow (1.04 points) who also posted positive February returns. As these results are settled to SP not best price, and all three advised in excess of 550 selections, the achievements are all the more worthy.

Date Published: 03/03/2020