The Guardian's 10-win Ascot spree

Thanks to two winners in the last week of the month, the Morning Star’s Farringdon topped the June Napchecker naps table with a 20.5-point return. Long-time leader Glendale (The Scotsman) finished second with 17.3 points, with the Mirror’s Newsboy third on 16.1 points.

Rob Wright (the Times), Fortunatus (Sheffield Star), Templegate (the Sun), the Guardian and Kevin Walsh (Irish Post) also secured positive returns during the busiest period of the Flat season, which included the Derby and Oaks and five days of frantic action at Royal Ascot.

Nine days into June, Farringdon was toiling near the bottom of the list with 3.5-point loss, having gained just one win. The success of Reina Del Mar (7/1) at Newbury on 10 June heralded a change of fortune, with the following two naps also obliging. But, on the morning of 20 June, Farringdon was almost 15 points adrift of leader Glendale. That day’s nap, Classical Milano, won at 5/1 over the sticks at Hexham. This win was followed by two more: Ice Cold In Alex (14/1, the Curragh, 25 June) and Mabre (6/1, Windsor, 28 June). That last success propelled Farringdon to the top of the table. Three losing naps followed, but as Glendale and Newsboy were unable to capitalise on this, victory was secured.

Having finished second to Templegate in May, Glendale began June in cracking form, posting four straight winning naps including Glengarry (13/2, Redcar, 1 June) and Snowfall, the runaway Oaks winner, at 11/2 on 4 June (Epsom Downs). For much of the month, Glendale boasted a strike-rate in excess of 50%, but four losing naps at the end of June, pushed that rate down to 42% - still in impressive win-to-runner ratio.

Newsboy recovered from a slow start to pick up winners at regular intervals with Wonderful Tonight, who won the Hardwicke Stakes on her seasonal reappearance (5/1, Royal Ascot, 19 June) and Chichester (11/2, Carlisle, 23 June) catching the eye.

Newsboy also dramatically reduced Templegate’s lead at the top of the 2021 Napchecker naps challenge. At the end of May, the difference between the two was 12.5 points. Now it’s down to just 1.4 points (Templegate 47.6 points, Newsboy 46.3 points).

Chil Chil (17/2, Newcastle, 26 June) and Create Belief (6/1, Royal Ascot, 18 June) were among Rob Wright’s nine-win haul, which earned an 8.9-point yield and fourth place in the table. One place behind Wright came Fortunatus who, thanks to a sequence of five straight winners between 24 and 28 June, transformed a losing month into a winning one. 5.2 points down with seven days to go, the Sheffield Star’s napster ended up with a nice 6.3-point profit and an impressive 39% strike-rate.

The challenge of posting a profit with all tips eluded all-comers last month. The Guardian fared best of the UK-based tipsters with a 110-point loss to sp, but anyone canny enough to have obtained best available odds on all selections would have acquired a 110-point profit.

The Guardian and Rob Wright of the Times were both in blistering form during the five days of Royal Ascot, despite the meeting throwing up several big-priced winners. The Guardian ended with a profit of almost 63 points, thanks to a 10-winner spree which included 18/1 Perotto (17 June), 12/1 Lola Showgirl (16 June) and Berkshire Shadow (11/1, 15 June).

For his part, Wright also landed ten winners, with Juan Elcano (16 June) heading the roll-of-honour.

July promises to be another hectic month, with Newmarket’s July Meeting looming. Racing Post Postadata have made an encouraging start, and after three days action, they are showing a massive 45.4-point yield.

Date Published: 05/07/2021