diamond_for_life

As for the offer races it’s been a mixed bag since I last posted on here. I don’t know if everyone got the same but Paddy Power let me use the offer on any race I wanted for 2 weeks. Proved very useful but they have quickly taken that from me again and it’s a £2 bet at Cheltenham today. Bollox. Skybet offer I think has been pretty poor other than 1 decent result and with Virgin I had a couple up. Betfair gave me a free punt on the exchange last week but nothing this week. We know how bookies work but the better I do in the offer races the worse the offers become the following weeks. The bookies are getting worse with their offers and promotions as the weeks go on so barely touch any of these sites other than for the offers so I can see them restricting me shortly. Still mainly use the exchange for my single bets and 365 for the Antepost market

So as we hopefully know last years antepost bets were a thing of brilliance for me and I haven’t been on the thread in a while so I thought I’d come on and update you on how my antepost went over Christmas. Always like to be honest. We kick off with the the supreme and last year I couldn’t have been anymore confident on Facile Vega even after the blow up at the Dublin Racing Festival. Wasn’t to be as it finished second to the impressive Marine National. This year I felt just as positive with Daddy Long Legs till it absolutley blew up in the Leopardtown race I mentioned to watch closely. The conditions that day were brutal to say the least. I cashed out the 16s for a few pennies loss and reinvested at 40/1 in the hope it still goes there after an impressive DRF appearance. Not very optimistic though. My British hope Willmount tried the step up to 2m4f I’m assuming to run the Ballymore and let JDR run as favourite for the supreme. It didn’t ever look like getting home so I am again hoping they take the smart decision and keep it at 2m and go supreme. Out to 25/1 so again cashed out for a few pennies loss and reinvested at a bigger price. As this race goes I can’t say I’m impressed with the Moscow winner Mystic Power and anyone on JDR should be highly confident especially if it canters in today. Last season the Ballymore was my peak last year in terms of ante post confidence. Ended up on it quite heavily and it delivered in great style. This year I am every bit as confident in Ballyburn. Looks a machine since stepped up in trip and although you never know with Willie Mullins if he runs this in the supreme I will never forgive the man. 8/1, 6/1 and 5/1 so again happy to keep on it. I just pray Mullins sees sense. Mare Hurdle it is still very much Gala Marceau at 8/1. Up against Ashroe Diamond today and I think a good run even without winning leaves me very happy. Lossiemouth also runs today too in another race. The Arkle is still simply Marince National easy stuff there that won’t waver. The Champion Hurdle I have left a small play on Impaire Et Passe only because of loyalty to what he did for me last year. Talk of going stayers but I don’t think it wins that either got comfortably out stayed by Teahupoo but doesn’t win the champion hurdle either without a lot of luck to say the least. Heart ruled the head. As far as day 1 goes still nothing in the Ultima, the National Hunt or the Boodles. As for the rest of the week Allaho now out is a sore one. Didn’t have loads on it but 8/1 at the time was a bargain. Nothing on the race yet but Thelme injured in the stayers and that has hurt a lot of people antepost too. My other hope I haven’t mentioned runs today in a potential warm up clash against Burdett Road and that is Sir Gino. Hoping a good win n today and then onto the Triumph. Chantry House and Langer Dan a few of my handicap horses but these are with no confidence. William only look at these handicaps a week or 2 out same as I did last year. As for the gold cup GDC looked unreal over Christmas and looks a good good selection to do it again and a special mention to Hewick who ran a blinder at Christmas. Me though it’s a speculative punt e/w on Ahoy Senor. We will see how today goes but I really thought he was going great guns last year before the fall. Also becuase I’m a sucker for a story too after the Christmas run I took Shihskin too. I pray this horse gets it big day and I really thought that was it. Was very unlucky. Again there won’t be much change from me till the DRF next week. I want to take Aurora Vega in the faint hope it goes to Cheltenham in the bumper but not bet anything yet as there is talk of wanting to get it over the jumps. Sky Bet now completely. Changed how the free bet works (made it much worse the fucks) so not wading in heavy with my own money

Maybe in the minority but that is a dreadful time for a game of football. Would rather it have been Saturday at 3:00 and left off the tv. The good thing is being at home and not through in Edinburgh and I know we don’t get a say but the only good thing about that was it wasn’t Monday evening.

Sunday at 5:00. Look I know being moved to be on the tele is a relatively rare experience for us but I’d much rather Saturday at 3:00 and not be on the tv. What a pish decision that is.

Pubs there is plenty the main ones probably still being Cue Here and The West Fan that fans use (apologies if I’m missing one). The stadium also has a bar. A decent burger though your probably better bringing one with you. Plenty places that do pub grub around the town centre.

It’s petty as f**k, it’s years past its sell by………………………but it’s still pretty effective. Gets me most times.

Clickbait pish to me that one.

Bit of a long post but I feel the need to put fact to some of the things that has been brought up as a lot of people are getting the Darvel Story and EK story and mashing them together. Most things I wouldn’t defend though. I’m in on way defending the signing policy at EK. Both the amount and calibre of the players brought in is staggering. EK however do not need Mick Kennedy’s money. They were still spending before this and have a huge backing financially already. They will have been consistently one of the top budget sides in recent seasons. As we know it doesn’t always guarantee success though so that’s why this season is happening. This season they have ramp led it up after previous failures and they have heavily backed Mick to get them up. Like him or loathe him Mick knows how to spend money and spend big in a smaller league. Colville Park and Darvel both big fish in a wee pond when they did what they did financially and now EK is the same. The play off game was a shambles and personally I’m not convinced with him as a manager yet but as I say he is used to money. He also talks a good game convincing many people of what he can do. Darvel thought he was the messiah as do many on social media. Again not saying I’m convinced but many are. For all we ripped the pish on here for his Aberdeen speech it worked and plenty of people loved it. EK clearly see value in him and whether folk want to see it or not it’s not just cause he has a bit of money but he could be offering a contribution who knows. Facts still remain EK don’t need it. Other clubs did. Last thing was a post regarding Ferry. Not going to ever talk about anyone else’s experience and I don’t know how it went at Broomhill but he is a good coach and I would happily have people working under him from my experiences.

Couldn’t tell you the last time I felt so shitty about losing a player.

Poor D’Jaffo that desperate about the lack of attention they quoted their own post which no one gave a shit about. One poster in conversation about Aitken makes us a cohort too. Any attention is better than no attention for some.

What do we do with our Saturday now. I’ve taken the news quite badly. Not because I think Dunfermline are at that but because this could mean me spending time with the family. Sad times.

Just go and take it easy Megwa. Enough that your good but not quite good enough for first team duties and come back to us safe and sound. You’ll be Hibs right back next season anyway. What’s another 6 months.

Exactly this we couldn’t get near the goals to test him hence their centre halves being my picks for those positions

Going to be quite bitter here and say we have arguably 2 if not 3 of the best fullbacks in this league albeit 1 injured longer term. Purely based on what I’ve saw though. Dabrowski for his performance in the 1-1 draw. Full backs I’d genuinely take ours Centre Halves Holt, and Gallagher as in two games we couldn’t lay a glove on them. Wide players Fotheringham, L.Chalmers and Hylton all stand out. Centre mids I found tougher but I would say Sibbald and Stanton Strikers are a bit more obscure but the 30 mins Jakubiak played against us he looked unreal and pretty much ended Taylor Sinclair’s season that will live with me all season and also very very impressed with Bird at Arbroath

Only 2 bets today and both offer races. Couldn’t have come closer without winning. Paisley Park absolutely has my heart in the racing game haven’t felt that sad to watch a horse lose in a long time. Burrows Diamond also ran a stormer too and was the Sky bet offer.

No idea if signed for anyone but was Danny Handling decent for Edinburgh? I know he scored a few against us last season Also John Robertson was decent for them against us and has been released by Linfield. Just throwing 2 random attacking options out there

So far mate I have 3 larger interests Marine National in the Arkle, Allaho in the Ryanair and I’m on Gala Marceau for the mares. I have a few bigger prices stuff like Daddy Long legs, Blizzard of Oz, Apples Away, Ahoy Senor and Killanney King but don’t think there is much value so far. I’m interested to focus on the Ballymore, The Boodles and the Bumper over the next few weeks. Also tomorrow will decide my cross country horse too. Will keep you posted. The handicaps I won’t look at till February unless one jumps out as I got stung with a few last year.

As predicted Constitutional Hill’s prep is still disrupted and whilst much the best horse I opted to take it on with Impaire Et Passe rite enough. Ante Post bet number 2 for Cheltenham with 3 more added today

It’s the hope that kills you with the antepost betting lol so excited beforehand and then pumped from a mile out for both Love Envoi and You Wear It Well. On a more positive note 3 other horses bet today and 2 of them offer races. Will just leave these here and remind everyone I love the jumps haha

There we go bye bye constitution hill and bye bye Shiskin. You Wear It Well 13/2 Ante Post, Love Envoi was 5/2. 80p rule 4 likely for those betting yesterday is gutting.

Willmount first to go today and certainly not the last.

In reply to the post from D total I can always give my reasoning for my bets and although not in the know my research on racing is always extensive. For instance my early thoughts on the supreme. The main British focus is on Jeriko Du Reponet and Willmount. JDR impressed on debut but it’s a race and performance that could mean something or nothing. I’m happy to take it on at this stage. Willmount Looked very impressive indeed but I don’t fancy the British raiders to topple the Irish who already look team handed. A dream to share looked fantastic last season but I have a sneaky suspicion we might see it in the Ballymore as we might with JDR too. Mirazur West is a horse I’ve yet to see but is short in the betting. I was never into the hype surrounding Ballyburn and it was well beaten by Firefox who is impressing for Gordon Elliot who’s is flying at the moment. Down Memory Lane I like but not as much as Daddy Long Legs who cantered its debut. Most of the Irish hopes will meet at Christmas time and as I previously stated the winner is going to shorten massively and potentially for favourite. I’m praying that is daddy long legs. we shall see though. It’s exciting to me regardless. My next bet will be tomorrow after Constitution Hill is scratched. I’m hoping this interrupted campaign proves costly come champion hurdle time. It’s just whether I want state man or Impaire Et passe. My loyalty likely to favour the later.

Nice one mate I think Willmount is my pick in terms of the best of the British hopefuls for the Supreme so fingers crossed your rite and I breath a bit easier come Cheltenham. I took Love Envoi antepost as there seemed no way Henderson was running his star on heavy before the Christmas hurdle. You wear it well is very impressive too and hopefully one of us is celebrating after the race. Few horses at Navan I will keep an eye on other than that not much for me is worth a bet tomorrow but I will get a look at the offer races

We have stepped up a division and are looking better defensively than we did last season. Im not the best at researching statistics but by the looks of things we had conceded 23 goals after 14 league games last year. Last season we shipped about 3 a game on average to Edinburgh, conceded 10 in our games against Queen of the South, lost a 3-0 lead to Dunfermline, I could go on and on about us defensively last year. This season it’s 10 less conceded after 14 games. and other than Arbroath we haven’t had another doing. I admitted my naivety on thinking going forward we would damage teams in this league but we need to play with what we have. We are not individually strong enough to hurt teams and the way we play is to have high possession and minimise opponents chances. The slow build up play at times is no accident. Absolutely concede it can be frustrating as f**k to watch but it’s how we are going to play this season and I’m happy with that. I also get there’s an arguement to playing more attacking and we could get a few more goals but we also get get carved up by better teams than the ones who carved us up on occasion last season with pretty much the same back line we had then too. The defence deserves so much credit for how they have started this season. I always say I would never single players out but yet again I feel players are being unfairly targeted/treated and we still have fans with hugely unrealistic expectations of where we are as a club. People are quick to praise McStravick and rightly so but they then scapegoat McGregor every week without fail. Let’s be clear here though McStravick is another young lad still learning and will make plenty mistakes too. As I say hate doing this but he gives the ball away plenty (costly against Dundee Utd), he lasted what 10 mins on the park against Arbroath too. I’m not criticising the lad in any way, I want him to keep doing what he does and I love the excitement he brings he is potentially my most exiting player since I first clapped eyes on prime Willie McLaren. What I’m saying is can we take off the tinted glasses we have for some players and realise all players will make mistakes, make poor decisions and have bad games. It happens. Especially at this level. Lewis McGregor is a young lad who has had a torrid time at Morton. His confidence must have been in the gutter and he is trying to build himself back up. I get frustrated with him and I have moaned about his final ball or missing a chance but he is the most dangerous winger we have at the club. There is absolute no denying his work rate and he never stops trying. He misses a chance he goes again he doesn’t go hiding. That’s more than some I’ve saw over the years at Airdrie. He is what 19. Top class wingers are inconsistent and we expect what from him exactly perfection?? Gallagher was league 1 player of the year last year and folk still said he wasn’t good enough so I’m not shocked it came around again this year. People saying his lack of goals this year make him ineffective tell you what next time he plays watch how he moves round the park, comes deep, drags players about and creates space for others. Again I’m no Pep or Jose but the work that boy does that goes unnoticed is astonishing to me. We have some players in that squad struggling and we have some who are sadly not good enough for this level. The above mentioned are no where near the bottom of the list of things we need to worry about though. We are relegation favourites this year and on paper we probably have the smallest/least experienced team for this division. Again not saying happy clap nor am I saying accept sub bar garbage. Get a sense of realism though. We are not late 80s early 90s Airdrieonians. We are small fish in a big pond in the championship never mind going beyond that. Still seems to me people see us a far bigger club than where we currently are.

Hey mate first serious bet this week is on Daddy Long Legs for the supreme at 18/1. Absolute shot in the dark but couldn’t help but be impressed and it’s the best 2 year old (I think) I’ve seen this season especially with Mullins being very quiet. will find out more if the clash with Down Memory Lane happens this month at Leopardstown. Watch this race closely on the 27th. You’ll likely find a good few Cheltenham candidates in this and the winner should go near favourite for the Supreme after it.