Racing Post Ratings hit top form

Racing Post Ratings, winner of the Napchecker Naps Challenge for the last two years, hit top form in November, registering a table-topping 19.2-point yield. Rob Wright of the Times chased the winner all the way to the line, but had to settle for second with 15.2 points while third-placed Fortunatus (Sheffield Star) strengthened his grip on this year’s race with a 13.5-point profit.

Although beaten in the naps race, Rob Wright was able to notch a profit with his full folio of tips, quite an achievement when more than 700 selections were proffered.

In what proved to be a month of plenty, no fewer than 10 of the 18 napsters currently in the race posted November profits. Robin Goodfellow (Daily Mail) was fourth in the naps list with 12.9-points, followed home by West Tip (Western Morning Star), Templegate (the Sun), Marlborough (Daily Telegraph), Glendale (The Scotsman), The Duke (Yorkshire Post) and Kevin Walsh (Irish Post).

Racing Post Ratings boasted a 35% November strike-rate with the 20/1 Greatwood Hurdle (Cheltenham, 18 November) victory of Nietzsche the pick of a 10-winner haul. (Incidentally, Nietzsche was ridden by promising 18-year-old conditional Danny McMenamin, a name it might pay to follow.)

Ratings’ strike-rate was double that of second placed Rob Wright, but as the Times’ napster struck with 12/1 Pipes Of Peace (Kempton, 19 November) as well as the aforementioned Nietzsche, November ended with a pleasing profit. Wright also moved into profit for the year, a significant achievement in its own right.

Fortunatus notched 11 winning selections during November whilst accruing a 13.5-point profit. The strike-rate was again outstanding: 39%. Winners included two 7/1 shots, Blushing Red (Kempton, 12 November) and Jolly’s Cracked It (Ascot, 23 November). A model of consistency throughout the month, Fortunatus’ longest losing run during the 30-day period under review was just three. It means that the Sheffield Star’s napster entered December with a 10.9-point cushion over Templegate at the top of the naps table. An enviable position.

For much of the year the Daily Mail’s Robin Goodfellow was vying with Templegate at the head of the table. A recent downturn was halted by a healthy November yield of 12.9 points. The month began with three winners and, briefly, title prospects were revived. Spiritual Man (9/1, Wolverhampton, 1 November) was followed by Born Survivor (9/2, Wetherby, 2 November) and Presidential (15/2, Newmarket, 3 November). In total, eight winning naps were advised and entering December, Robin Goodfellow sits in fifth place in the overall table.

Nietzsche was also the centrepiece of an 8.2-point yield for West Tip of the Western Morning News, while Templegate napped nine winners including 7/1 Dino’s Benefit (Fontwell, 9 November) in earning 5.6 points of November profit.

Marlborough (4.0 points), Glendale (3.8 points), The Duke (2.8 points) and Kevin Walsh (0.3 points) completed the list of November’s profitable napsters.

In the overall naps list for November, Rob Wright posted an impressive 3.9-point profit (settled to SP) but if you managed to get best prices that profit swells to a mouth-watering 115.5 points. Better still, Templegate’s 12.7-point SP loss is transformed into a 126.9-point profit settled to best odds. Obviously, it would be a Herculean task to get the best odds about all selections, but as I’ve said before it’s worth betting early and, wherever possible, taking the odds.

Date Published: 06/12/2018