Tuesday 12 March 2019

Philippos rides again!

Cheltenham Festival - Day 1 tips

I've spent three decades making a crust from financial journalism; a bit less from writing about horse racing. Racing's a terrific sport first and foremost. As a betting medium it often gets the cold shoulder from my more po-faced money journalist colleagues.

Well, I don't care. In my experience, the financial services and bookmaking industries have, if anything, converged down the years. Like insurers, bookies are in the risk management business and their aim is to maximise profits for shareholders. When writing about either, it certainly pays to have a certain aptitude for figures which, with a physics degree, I hope I've got.

In three decades, I've reported on just as many spivvy financiers as there are perceived to be bookmakers. In my experience, I've found bookmakers to be, in the main, a pretty honourable bunch.

One, who used to own three betting shops in the Cotswolds, is a very good friend and is as far removed from being a high-roller as is humanly possible. He's built his home (more of a shack than a palace) in a field in Worcestershire surrounded by the 200 plum trees he's planted. Not all bookmakers can net a dividend from their betting business worth £265 million. Looking at you Bet 365's Denise Coates.

At least I've never been gobbed at by a bookie; although that dubious distinction goes to one particularly irate independent financial adviser whom I once had the temerity to question. On another occasion, a fairly cheesed-off financial adviser (not long out of jug) came looking for me in a newsroom armed with a baseball bat. Charming. I had to leggit it down a fire escape to evade his fiscal clutches.

My horse racing tipster 'nom de plume' (or, guerre, depending on your point of view) is 'Philippos'. Ironically enough, Philippos made his debut in the financial world way back in 1994 when a financial hack and former newsroom colleague, Lawrence Gosling, went to work on a whizzy new-fangled Ceefax-style service for City of London traders called Cityscreen. This was the height of cutting edge communication in the 90s, you understand.

Anyway, he needed someone to file early-morning tips and would I be interested? You bet (literally) and so Philippos was born, phoning over copy (these were pre-email times) at 5.30am each morning. Philippos enjoyed something of a following amongst traders, but this time without the baseball bat.

Fast forward to 2004 and the newly-launched sports magazine, Inside Edge, edited by ex-Mirror City Slicker James Hipwell, was looking for a racing editor. I knew James from his days working on, wait for it, The Actuary magazine and took on the role which subsequently allowed me to secure a horse racing press badge (the only financial journalist to this day to do so).

Given our ridiculously long lead-in times, IE's tipsters did pretty well which rather brings us to today.
I've decided to resuscitate Philippos for this year's Cheltenham Festival. Here are my selections for day one which, with the rain having arrived at the course, looks set to be staged on soft-ish going.

With its offers and enhanced placings, the Festival's one of the few times of the year I'd ever considering betting each-way. Good luck!

1.30
Win: Angels Breath (5/1 generally); Fakir D'oudairies (6/1 generally).
Each-way: Thomas Darby (25/1).

2.10
Win: Hardline (5/1 generally).
Each-way: Ornua (14/1), Us And Them (16/1).

2.50
Win: Minella Rocco (9/1 generally).
Each-way: Magic of Light (20/1): Flying Angel (50/1).

3.30 Champion Hurdle
Win: Laurina (4/1 generally).

4.10
Each-way: Momella (20/1 generally).

4.50
Each-way: Good Man Pat (14/1 generally).

5.30
Win: Ok Corral (7/2 generally)
Each-way: Impulsive Star (14/1 generally).








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