Marlborough within striking distance of the 2019 Naps crown

Thanks to a solid October performance, Marlborough is strongly placed to claim the 2019 Napchecker Naps Challenge. The Daily Telegraph’s naps king posted a 6.4-point yield, a figure bettered only by Kevin Walsh of The Irish Post with a 10.9-point return.

Newsboy of the Daily Mirror and the Mail’s Robin Goodfellow tied for third with 2.8 points, but, Glendale, who led the table at the start of October, incurred a 5.1-point October loss. It meant that a 2.1-point lead for Glendale on 1 October dissolved during the course of the month. The Scotsman’s napster now trails Marlborough by 9.4 points with just two months action to come.

Marlborough has been in tremendous form all year; October’s tally was a sixth profitable month out of ten so far this year and takes the overall 2019 profit to 35.9 points. (Remember, all the profits/losses quoted in this article are to SP; it’s often possible to take advantage of best-odds guarantees, so profits could well be higher). October’s strike-rate was over 44%, maintaining a level of consistency that has been apparent all year.

The month began slowly with just two of the first 12 naps obliging, but thereafter there was little that Marlborough could do wrong; the month’s final fifteen naps yielding ten winners. Best priced of the month’s successes were Road To Paris (5/1, Lingfield, 3 October and Prince Of Harts (Windsor, 21 October).

As mentioned, top place in October’s listing went the way of Kevin Walsh, whose 10.9-point gain was a fifth winning month of 2019. Thanks to winners of the calibre of Magen’s Moon (6/1, Plumpton, 21 October), Mullarkey (11/2, Kempton, 1 October), Global Tour (11/2, Ludlow, 9 October) and Sirobbie (5/1, Uttoxeter, 18 October), Walsh had secured a handsome profit with a week of the month to run. This allowed him a spot of indulgence with a flurry of high-priced naps including two at 25s and one at 50/1. None obliged, but interestingly, the 50/1 nap Ardera Cross, who finished well down the field in a Carlisle hurdle when entrusted with Walsh’s money, went on to win at Carlisle the following week at 22/1.

Newsboy’s seven-winner haul was headed by 6/1 Bath winner, Manucci (16 October), while Robin Goodfellow secured a 34.48% strike-rate with ten winning naps from 29 selections, including Bellevarde (4/1, Nottingham, 30 October).

West Tip (Western Morning News) wasted a chance to close on the leading two in the overall 2019 table when posting a modest 0.6-point October loss. A 31% strike-rate is not to be sniffed at, though. A bigger loss looked on the cards, but the last three naps prevailed. With 9 points, West Tip remains in third in the 2019 race, and if anything calamitous should happen to the top two, they could still claim an unlikely victory. Much the same could be said for fourth placed Garry Owen (4.4-points), although a 2.9-point October loss hardly helped matters.

STOP PRESS…STOP PRESS…STOP PRESS

Thanks to an 8/1 Ayr winner (Elvis Mail, 2 November), Glendale have cut Marlborough’s lead to just 1 point (33 to 32) after five days of November action.

Date Published: 07/11/2019