Mark Pierrepont finished Top Towcester Tipster with a profit of £19.26 throughout the event.
None of the five tipsters made a profit on Saturday night, but Mark did himself the least damage based on the scoring system of £1 per selection, with additional £ bets for each of their ‘star’ bets. In other words, a total outlay of £20 for a 14 race card. They finished:
£19.26 : Mark Pierrepont £13.27 : Mick Conneely
-£28.10 : Peter Harnden -£38.48 : Andy Lisemore -£75.80 : Kevin Boothby
Refelcting on his victory, the winning tipster was quick to praise the wisdom of one of his competitors in his summing up, noting: “As Peter Harnden said early in the competition, the cream ALWAYS rises to the top. He wasn’t wrong.”
Mark’s final set of Derby ‘halfways’ make for fascinating reading.
Even a cursory glance gives some kind of insight into each runner’s ability and consistency. In fact, you could even form some kind of imaginary view of the race.
In terms of consistency, take a glance at the times of Savana Beau. For a dog who would always have traffic to contend with in the early stages, all six ‘first halves’ were within 14 spots of each other.
The second halves aren’t too random either. Clearly he found trouble in the quarter finals – otherwise five runs within seven spots!! And remember these are actual times, no going allowance has been included, though the light and dark blue shadings indicate the slower going.
On a reasonably clear run, expect Kildare to clock somewhere around the 15.60 mark to halfway. In the final he produced his best break and run early, and an identical second half to his semi final.
You didn’t need to see Hello Hammond run to see proof of his stamina. His quarter final clock perhaps gives an indication of his upper limit for this distance with just half a length between his last three finishes.
There was only one line of form to suggest Romeo Magico wouldn’t be leading at the halfway. It came with Priceless Jet’s track record breaking run and a 15.52 first half. Magico was one spot slower.
Now look between quarter finals and final. Two spots between the first halves and nine between the second halves leading to his best run of all in the decider.
Mickys Barrett was always up against it, but improved consistently from the second round onwards and was a credit to his trainer. Some training feat from Jason.
Finally, Priceless Jet, a dog who was labelled as a stayer in view of his Shelbourne Park 750 form.
Even putting aside his ‘everything went to plan’ track record breaking run, if you can cover the Derby course in under 29.40 on four occasions in six races, you are a Derby dog who stays!
