Tote Ten to Follow 2012-13

[Striker]

I don't understand why so many people have made numpty picks such as Sprinter Sacre as their Star Horse. Perhaps they haven't read the rules.

[stevejtr]

IMO this is just a tiebreaker and I doubt it'll have a bearing on the overall compo

[7lb claimer]

It may not but Sprinter Sacre is a barmy choice. The rules are not crystal clear to me though. If a horse wins at say 24-1, in a basic 10 point race, how many points do you get altogether? If the answer is 60, then I suppose handicappers are the way forward in this.

[SamD]

In answer to above query:

The maximum tote dividend points earned by a horse in a race is 50 points. So if a horse was returned at a totewin dividend of £67.50, the number of points earned would be 50.

'Star Horse' scores double points on the Tote dividend points system for a win or place in any race. For example a horse wins and returns the following dividend: £6.20. As the horse is the 'Star Horse' the return will be doubled for a total combined return of 12.40 points.

The maximum combined 'tote dividend + star horse' points is capped at 50 for any one horse in any race. Therefore the maximum total number of points earned by a horse in a £30,000+ bonus race is 100 points, ie
25 prize money points + 25 bonus race points + a maximum of 50 'tote dividend + star horse' points.

[Striker]

It may not but Sprinter Sacre is a barmy choice. The rules are not crystal clear to me though. If a horse wins at say 24-1, in a basic 10 point race, how many points do you get altogether? If the answer is 60, then I suppose handicappers are the way forward in this.

Exactly. Given this new scoring system and the fact that you can't add horses later in the season, it's not unreasonable, as it would have been in the past, to try to nominate a potential National winner in your ten. The madness of most punters doesn't stop at Sprinter Sacre though as there is an extremely close correlation between the most popular picks and the most popular star horses. stevejtr may or may not be right in saying that it's unlikely to have little impact on the outcome, but I think that it certainly could do. But of course it won't if nearly all punters are dumb enough to select star horses which are likely to win at extremely skimpy prices.

If I pick 10 lines SS may be in all my lines, but he'd never be my star horse if I had 100 entries. Gives one hope though seeing that a large number of entrants don't seem to know what they are doing.

I'd rather fancy having the 2012-13 equivalent of Hunt Ball as my own star horse.

Note for steve. Winning just two egg and spoon races at 9/1 will be worth more than winning the Gold Cup at 7/2. What we need is a progressive animal and it doesn't matter if he fails to make the top grade.

[SamD]

Deadline

• TTF deadline to score for whole game is 12:20 today, 16 Nov (time of first NH race at Newcastle).
  Entry placed after that - and up to midnight 30 Nov - is eligible to earn points from the next race each day.

Mini-league

• Private league facility - eg: for syndicate - has been withdrawn; BetFred say the system requires further testing.

Mini-game

• Entry costs £2 for separate contest covering set number of races, eg: in December and at Cheltenham Festival;
  mini-league facility may be available for this.

[SamD]

In reality, deadline is 13:15 GMT.

Runners on day one:

• Fingal Bay 1:15 Cheltenham
  Dynaste 1:15 Cheltenham
  Carlito Brigante 1:15 Cheltenham
  Kid Cassidy 1:50 Cheltenham
  Astracad 1:50 Cheltenham
  Oh Crick 1:50 Cheltenham
  Dodging Bullets 2:25 Cheltenham
  Uncle Junior 3:00 Cheltenham
  Balthazar King 3:00 Cheltenham

[stevejtr]

The Daddies is the stable that has won the most points in the past 24 hours: 25182.6 points


from the news banner. Hmmm

tbh I'm really not sure about the star horse thing. I take Strikers point, but a handicapper would have to go on a real winning run to make it a game changer IMO. Have to say I certainly didn't think about that tho.

[stevejtr]

Note for steve. Winning just two egg and spoon races at 9/1 will be worth more than winning the Gold Cup at 7/2. What we need is a progressive animal and it doesn't matter if he fails to make the top grade.

Possibly - but don't forget that you have to win two, both at very good prices, and your average egg and spoon race won't be a bonus race or worth more than 30k... Also its finding that animal that's the trick...

[Ashers]

How did we all do on Day One?

I have held off until tomorrow.

[stevejtr]

no runners today, some tomorrow and a few on Sunday.

Snickers not a sprint

[GM]

I didn't do it, had problems with the site entering from Belgium kept getting blocked. First time haven't entered at least 1 team for years.

My selections would of been

Boston Bob
Big Bucls
Cinders & Ashes
Cue Card
Flemenstar
Grand Crus
Riverside Theatre
The Package **
Simonsig
Sprinter Sacre

Interesting to see how they do

[stevejtr]

Had Al Ferof in last years...

Disappointing runs from the first two in the betting

[stevejtr]

Sacre Bleu

http://www.attheraces.com/article.aspx? ... b=&day=Sat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Striker]

Having Sprinter Sacre as the only horse in all my lines, I'm relieved that he's been withdrawn on that going.

[Ashers]

I didn't do it, had problems with the site entering from Belgium kept getting blocked. First time haven't entered at least 1 team for years.

My selections would of been

Boston Bob
Big Bucls
Cinders & Ashes
Cue Card
Flemenstar
Grand Crus
Riverside Theatre
The Package **
Simonsig
Sprinter Sacre

Interesting to see how they do

You can still enter this

[Ashers]

I have four lines with Al Ferof in one.

[stevejtr]

Nice one. Form tailed off last season (which is why I didn't pick) but an excellent run today with a big weight in desperate ground.

[stevejtr]

Having Sprinter Sacre as the only horse in all my lines, I'm relieved that he's been withdrawn on that going.

Have Darlan in quite a few too. Now also confirmed as a non runner

Agreed Striker. In the long run it would do more harm than good

[Ashers]

Nice win for Hurricane Fly.

Keep those points coming.

[7lb claimer]

See they're updating scores within an hour or two, which is a big improvement. Not a bad start for me. I had Al Ferof in 8 lines out of 21 as it was one of the few capable of improving and competing at the highest level. Best position after that was about 2000th so it's competitive to say the least.

[Ashers]

Moved to 1473.

Would say there are a lot of team with Al Ferof.

Looks like entry levels are 13k +

[7lb claimer]

One of my teams on one point is 34000th. And there will be plenty of zeros.

[Ashers]

One of my teams on one point is 34000th. And there will be plenty of zeros.

How do you get one point?

[Striker]

An odds point.

There will be quite a lot with zero points at this stage. Based on the 1 pt being 34,000, I'd hazard a guess at 45,000 entries to date.

Also there will be a considerable number of late entries as one hasn't lost much for any entry not intending to include Hurricane Fly. For such entries you can balance not having the Paddy Power winner with additional data over the next one or two weeks.

[Ashers]

I would agree, but Al Ferof winning I can not see anything but an entry entered before yesterday winning.

Potential 100 points already behind.

[stevejtr]

Not so sure. Plenty of big guns not run yet and they'll all avoid Grands Crus most likely. If Al Ferof wins again then the scenario you suggest is likely.

8 of my 15 stables have yet to post a score

[SamD]

Yes, with rules and points changes since last year, it's possible that a new entry before end-Nov deadline can succeed.
Proviso might be to exclude Al Ferof, top scorer and 20th most popular pick, from any future line.

Some comparisons...

2011-12 NH prize winners:

• J1 Haleemab (Rugby) 703
  J1 Simbo's Joy Of Ten (Romsey) 703
  3 Haleemab (Rugby) 694
  4 G Zammit (Stafford) 690
  5 Haleemab (Rugby) 688
  J6 Brown Town (Cannock Wood) 682
  J6 R Lynch (Kilmarnock) 682
  J8 Haleemab (Rugby) 681
  J8 S Horwood (Hemel Hempstead) 681
  10 Haleemab (Rugby) 676

And top ten horses:

• Big Buck's 135
  Sprinter Sacre 112
  Finian's Rainbow 99
  Neptune Collonges 87
  Synchronised 86
  Kauto Star 79
  Riverside Theatre 79
  Cape Tribulation 77
  Quel Esprit 77
  Rock On Ruby 77

2012-13 leaderboard after four days:

• 1st LRS4 148.4
  2nd Losing Run 136.4
  3rd goodall21 136.2
  4th ncynic10 136
  5th DingdonggetsaFlyer 134.6

And top five of 25 horses who've scored to date:

• 1st Al Ferof 59.1
  2nd Wishfull Thinking 26.6
  3rd Hurricane Fly 26.1
  4th Uncle Junior 20.6
  5th Our Father 15.5

[Ashers]

I didn't do it, had problems with the site entering from Belgium kept getting blocked. First time haven't entered at least 1 team for years.

My selections would of been

Boston Bob
Big Bucls
Cinders & Ashes
Cue Card
Flemenstar
Grand Crus
Riverside Theatre
The Package **
Simonsig
Sprinter Sacre

Interesting to see how they do

You can see now

[Ashers]

Nice win fro Captain Chris at 7/2