Garry Owen dominates August's naps race

The Daily Record’s Garry Owen was the runaway winner of August’s Napchecker naps race. With eleven winners during the course of the month, Garry Owen posted a rock-solid 27.9-point profit. In second spot, with a 4.3-point yield, came Glendale, who stuck doggedly to Garry Owen’s heels for much of the month, before losing momentum in the last week. Rob Wright (2.1 points) and the Racing Post’s Postdata both rallied late on to claim third and fourth positions.

Wright also registered a small profit with all-tips, a fine effort considering more than 900 selections were advised.

Garry Owen’s month can be neatly sliced into three distinct phases: a strong opening (1-9 August); a sluggish middle (10-23 August) and a brilliant ending (24-31 August).

Four wins in that opening nine-day period included the month’s top-priced winner, 14/1 Jungle Cove (Ascot, 6 August). The next fortnight brought just two winners; and the early good work looked in danger of coming to naught as Glendale closed to within a point.

But back-to-back winners, Bicep (9/4, Musselburgh, 24 August) and Badri (11/2, Newcastle, 25 August), restored Garry Owen’s comfortable advantage, and victory was secured when Jamoomi (100/30, Goodwood, 27 August), Savvy Victory (13/2, Goodwood, 28 August) and Shouldvebeenaring (3/1, Ripon, 29 August) took the tally of winners to eleven with wins over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Glendale also started August well, and maintained a good win-to-run ratio well into the second half of the month. Six of the first 14 naps were winners including two 13/2 shots, Tyrones Poppy (Ayr, 6 August) and Manigordo (Musselburgh, 17 August). At that point the strike-rate was 43 and the profit stood at 13.5 points. Thereafter things went downhill, with a further twelve suggestions revealing just two winners (both odds-on).

Rob Wright owed his 2.1-point profit to the injury-time successes of Glamorous Force (8/1, Chepstow, 30 August) and Bellstreet Bridie (100/30, Southwell, 31 August).

After an eight-day barren spell between 4 and 11 August, Postdata was in trouble. But the Racing Post service enjoyed a strong finishing rally with three of the last seven naps obliging, a sequence inaugurated by 15/2 Show Me Show Me at Newcastle (25 August).

For much of August, Templegate was nicely ahead, but the month ended with a losing run of six, and a loss of 1.5 points.

There were plenty of winners for Fortunatus (Sheffield Star) but only one – Intervention (5/1, Yarmouth, 26 August) would have caused the bookies any concern. As a result, a 31% strike-rate (which was bettered only by Garry Owen), earned nothing better than a 1.6-point loss.

At various times during August, Spotlight and Postdata (Racing Post), Captain John (Irish Times) and Scout (Express) all scored heavily in the all-tips table. Sadly, in each example, the success was short lived. That was not the case with Rob Wright, who posted 910 tips and still managed to turn in a 4.3-point profit (settled to starting price). Of course, best odds guarantees on even a tenth of Wright’s August selections would have produced a much healthier profit.

Date Published: 04/09/2022