RSSCategory: Australian

I think I’ve spotted a trend!

I think I’ve spotted a trend!

I must admit, the Melbourne Cup Carnival has got off to a slow start for me this year. So I thought I’d better check on whether I was underperforming, or whether there was something else going on.

Something else in going on.

I took the first two days of the Carnival from my records and analysed total turnover in the markets for those two days. Obviously it started from a lower base some time ago, but the peak was in …

04/11/2015 | By | 2 Replies More
Melbourne Cup meeting  – Day three

Melbourne Cup meeting – Day three

I was going to post up a breakdown of the big day, but the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the post race period put paid to that. Couldn’t bring myself to post enthusiastically about proceedings given that. In case you don’t know what happened the BBC has detailed the unfortunate set of circumstances.

From a trading perspective things went pretty well. I don’t expect to set records on every major race meeting now, due to the time I’ve been in the …

05/11/2014 | By | Reply More
Melbourne Cup Meeting

Melbourne Cup Meeting

Me and the Melbourne cup go back a few years now. Many moons ago I got interested in the ‘race that stops a nation’ and learned that it really did stop the nation, they have a national holiday today.

So, intrigued, I got up at 4am one dark winter Tuesday to see what all the fuss was about. Nothing really happened apart from a lack of sleep and I returned to bed disappointed. Back then I had converted have the …

05/11/2014 | By | Reply More
Melbourne cup

Melbourne cup

Me and the Melbourne cup go back a few years now. Many moons ago I got interested in the ‘race that stops a nation’ and learned that it really did stop the nation, they have a national holiday today.

So, intrigued, I got up at 4am one dark winter Tuesday to see what all the fuss was about. Nothing really happened apart from a lack of sleep and I returned to bed disappointed. Back then I had converted have the …

04/11/2013 | By | Reply More
Australian racing invites back traders

Australian racing invites back traders

Good news from the ever changing world of racing today as Betfair confirmed that the recent announcement from racing Victoria meant that conventional trading was going to be possible again, at least in the state of Victoria.

Previously a turnover charge was levied on activity and that killed the prospect of backing and laying in the same market. Now Victoria are saying they want the charge levied on net activity in the market. So they benefit from new revenue and …

20/06/2013 | By | Reply More
Racing Victoria ups the ante

Racing Victoria ups the ante

A statement from Racing Victoria this morning seems to up the ante of fees generated from bookmakers, any higher and you would think it would make sense for them to buy a bookmaker rather than going through the hassle of collecting it from them.

Despite seeing $44m, an increase of 25%, in the amount they are getting for racing, it seems that’s not enough so they are upping the rates again. It seems a dangerous tactic, but as with these …

10/05/2013 | By | Reply More
Black Caviar triumphs again

Black Caviar triumphs again

Black Caviar clocked up win number 25 out of 25 this morning at Randwick racecourse in Sydney.

She strode to an easy victory in the Group One TJ Smith Stakes. Her appearance completely overshadowed the running of the $1.5 million Australian Derby. Priced at 1.18 she accounted for £1.74m of £1.76m in matched bets on the race.

More speculation around her possible appearance again at Ascot still hangs in the air, as does the prospect of her meeting up with …

13/04/2013 | By | Reply More
Caviar, served on a plate

Caviar, served on a plate

Tomorrow sees the return of Black Caviar to the racing track.

She will be running  in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley tonight / tomorrow morning depending on your location on the planet.

Nice little quote from the Adelaide now: –

“”If anybody has backed Black Caviar every start they are obviously a long, long way in front,” TAB’s Matt Jenkins said. “If they had the foresight to put $100 on Black Caviar at her first …

21/03/2013 | By | Reply More
Black Caviar – 23 out of 23

Black Caviar – 23 out of 23

Black Caviar returned to action today after a long break since her narrow victory at Royal Ascot.

Running in the self named, ‘Black Caviar’ Lightning Stakes at Flemington, she started well eased to the front and romped away from the field to win easily with a course record.

The underlying market was really interesting. From a very short price early on she drifted out gently before a bit of panic set in pushing the price right out. It settled back …

16/02/2013 | By | Reply More
Melbourne cup

Melbourne cup

I’ll be interested to see what the Melbourne cup does overnight this year.

This is the first time it has been run since the turnover tax was implemented in Australia which the objective of protecting the incumbent operators in the market. I think the outcome, so far, has shown that traders don’t dominate the market in the manner people previously assumed. Turnover, as far as I can see, on most big races is pretty much the same as before and …

05/11/2012 | By More
Lots of good quality racing

Lots of good quality racing

It’s the time of year for marathon trading sessions. Lots of quality racing around, just none in the UK!

UK racing starts in the early afternoon, then morphs into evening racing. Today and tomorrow we also have the Breeders cup in California late into the night UK time. As that ends we immediately switch to Melbourne Cup meeting at Flemington.

In theory you could trade on just racing from just after midday right through to 7am tomorrow morning. It would …

02/11/2012 | By More
Betfair implement new turnover charge

Betfair implement new turnover charge

News from Australia this morning that Betfair are to implement a turnover charge on customers, full details: –

https://betfair.com.au/turnovercharge/

In case you were not aware, a high court ruling this year in Australia has switched the law from a gross profits tax to a turnover based revenue fee for racing. This doesn’t affect the well established and politically well oiledl, but slightly ancient and backward thinking, incumbents in Australia; but does have a significant impact on the new entrants like …

27/07/2012 | By More
Black Caviar to romp home carrying the Aussie flag?

Black Caviar to romp home carrying the Aussie flag?

Ascot trundles on this week and all is well.

I feel a bit like I am going through the motions this year. Yes it’s nice to get a really good week, but year on year there isn’t the sort of growth in the underlying market I would like, I’ll explain more in my final ‘a question of scale’ post at some point.

It’s been a manic couple of weeks so I’m looking forward to getting a break in the near …

23/06/2012 | By More
Black Caviar makes it 21 out of 21

Black Caviar makes it 21 out of 21

Wonder horse Black Caviar stepped up this morning to register her 21st victory out of 21 races. Going off at an SP of 1.06. A total of £2.39m was matched on the race at 07:50 this morning UK time. £2.374m or 99.4% of that was matched on Black Caviar.

Black Caviar was never ever in trouble in the race at all and the Jockey, Luke Nolan, did nothing other than sit on her and steer her. Without any effort she …

12/05/2012 | By More
Black Caviar – New records all round

Black Caviar – New records all round

This morning we saw Black Caviar step up to win a record 20th race in a row. Number 21 is already planned and number 22 could be a royal Ascot showdown with Frankel. Amazing.

If this happens, the race of the decade could be on the cards. While this race could be massive, with Ascot just up the road from me, I’d be tempted to take a day out of trading just to see this race.

In the race today …

28/04/2012 | By More
Betfair loses key Australian court case

Betfair loses key Australian court case

Racing officials in New South Wales are rejoicing after a years-long challenge to their race fields legislation was this morning thrown out by the High Court.

Read more here – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-30/racing-nsw-wins-court-battle/3922762/?site=melbourne

Betfair Australasia chief executive Giles Thompson says he respects the court’s decision but says it will reduce the competitiveness of wagering on racing in NSW. “A turnover fee will place extreme pressure on our ability to continue to offer our customers what we believe is the best product in …

30/03/2012 | By More
Black Caviar makes it 19/19

Black Caviar makes it 19/19

Black Caviar the wonder from down under, put in another good performance early this morning 05:10 UK time, to get win number 19 out of 19 and move within a whisker of an all time record.

She went off at 1.15 but traded as low as 1.12 pre-off. The race was a bit closer than other recent efforts and she traded out to 1.49 in play. 99.2% of all money wagered was on this horse, amazing!

18/02/2012 | By More
It’s 4:50am and -10c outside

It’s 4:50am and -10c outside

But my day has been well and truly warmed up by witnessing Black Caviar complete a bloodless victory in the big race of the day at Caulfield, Melbourne. An effortless victory brought win number 18 out of 18 races. The crowds were packed deep to witness this equine miracle.

In total £2.9m of £2.91m was matched on this remarkable horse and it went off at an SP of just 1.08! I had to transfer funds equivalent to a small house …

11/02/2012 | By More
Alternative racing today

Alternative racing today

With the UK racing looking like it is heading for a weekend white out, it’s worth looking at other alternatives at this time.

This morning in Australia we have a meeting at Moonee Valley that usually brings half decent liquidity. Over £200k was traded on the 10:15 which, while below normal UK volumes, isn’t half bad. You also have Meydan racing on today where volumes have been picking up nicely. That comes on line a little later in the morning.…

03/02/2012 | By More
The long day…………..

The long day…………..

Today we have an interesting session. UK racing trundles on from afternoon to evening racing, then the Breeders Cup meeting comes on line in the US. As the Breeders cup meeting on the Friday draws to a close, we then morph to Australian racing and the final day at the Melbourne cup meeting. The remarkable Black Caviar runs again tomorrow and is a incredible 1.06 to win it’s group one race. I think that’s untradeable, but I am tempted to …

04/11/2011 | By More
R&R

R&R

The Melbourne cup went pretty well and I’m looking forward to finishing off the whole carnival in style if I can. I’ve put a few other things on the back burner this week to focus on the meeting. I’m feeling too old to burn the candle at both ends and get away with it! It was interesting to note that matched bet turnover on the Melbourne cup was lower this year than last. It reached about £3.6m vs. £4.4m last …

02/11/2011 | By More
My Melbourne

My Melbourne

Me and the Melbourne cup go back a few years now. Many moons ago I got interested in the ‘race that stops a nation’ and learned that it really did stop the nation, they have a national holiday today.

So, intrigued, I got up at 4am one dark winter Tuesday to see what all the fuss was about. Nothing really happened apart from a lack of sleep and I returned to bed disappointed. Back then I had converted have the …

31/10/2011 | By More
Melbourne cup carnival is here

Melbourne cup carnival is here

The race that stops a nation isn’t too far away now, but the action really kicks of in Flemington today / tomorrow, depending on where you are in the world.

We have a number of very high profile, rich prize money racing in Melbourne this Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and next Saturday. It should prove to be a real feast of high quality racing.

From a European perspective there is the issue that most of this takes place in the dead …

28/10/2011 | By More
Good start to a good day

Good start to a good day

Got up early this morning to give the Caulfield cup a bash and got it just right for a really good result.

We have a ton of really good racing at Ascot today so that should produce some really good potential as well. I am sure everybody will be keen to see Frankel run again and at such short odds you would expect the win to be a formality.

Such short odds in such a big race will mean the …

15/10/2011 | By More
14 out of 14!

14 out of 14!

Black Caviar was out again at Caulfied this morning and made it 14 starts and 14 wins. Impressive stuff, as was the amount of money backing this undefeated horse. I slept on the sofa for the first part of the night so I could get up in the early hours to have a look at the race. Wouldn’t it be great to see a match up with Frankel? What a race that would be!

08/10/2011 | By More
Black Caviar

Black Caviar

Just got up early to have another look at Black Caviar who was running at Doomben this morning. As expected, she delivered her 13th win out of 13. Quite a feat and she is causing a significant amount of interest in the racing world and also from a betting perspective. Went off at 1.22 this morning with £1.7m out of £1.8m was matched on just one runner.

14/05/2011 | By More
Doing a Moonee

Doing a Moonee

Tuned in to the William Reid stakes this morning at Moonee Valley in Australia to check on the market and progress of the best sprinter in the world at the moment, Black Caviar. I doubt if many people outside of the UK have paid much attention to this horse but having seen the odds on it get shorter in each successive race I think it’s obvious something special is going on here.

Even at the remarkably short odds she was …

25/03/2011 | By More
Some winter cheer

Some winter cheer

One look at the racing card will echo what you will have seen for the last month or so, abandoned racing. It’s the worst period I have known in my ten years on Betfair, pretty bleak. Boxing day usually brings a whole slew of opportunity and some top quality action at Kempton. Today, out of the 11 meetings due to take place today, only one hasn’t been abandoned as I write this, and there is a real prospect of that …

26/12/2010 | By More
So you think?

So you think?

Bart Cummings trained ‘So you think’ steps up in the early hours of the morning UK time to see if the legendary trainer can bag his 13th winner of the Melbourne Cup. There is $6m up for grabs in this year’s race spread across the field. Given the form that the favourite is in, this should be a very interesting race and betting heat. The price ‘So you think’ has come in a fair bit already and ‘Shocking’, last years …

01/11/2010 | By More
Derby day

Derby day

Isn’t the Derby in June? Yes and no, if you are in Australia, early tomorrow morning (UK Time)  is Derby Day in Victoria. This kicks off the Melbourne Cup carnival and a week of top class Australian action. On Tuesday we have the race that stops a nation, the Melbourne Cup.

As I have leant more and more about this carnival of racing, the more I realise it’s significance and I’m actually quite excited about it this year. I don’t …

29/10/2010 | By More
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