Wheres that other horse, oh its won!!

The end of another hectic week and thankfully the ship has been rerouted back on course after the largely unsuccessful foray into North American Sports for the past few weeks on the NHL, apart from one solitary weekend that is!!
Didnt have lots of time on Monday what with the committee meeting at the snooker club and all that goes with it but did spend an hour or so on Youtube looking at some of the significant Aussie races like the Caulfield Cup in the build up to their big one, the Melbourne Cup run early on Tuesday morning UK time.
In the end settled for the main bet on Nom De Ju with smaller each way bets on Ice Chariot and Viewed and it was the latter who did the business, though my return was somewhat smaller than the Aussie tote returns of 40-odd as I had it with the traditional bookies over here.
Had been thinking it might be backed over there as one of their own with legendary trainer Bart Cummings' great cup record also to boot. As it happens there was no money pre race and could even have got around 50s on the exchanges but was seeing it more from a place perspective rather than the win angle so only ended up with 33/1, must have more confidence in myself in the future!!
That said, it was a bit of an anti climax as I watched the replay on arising on Tuesday (no I didnt watch it live!) as I thought the Aussie commentator was calling home "Bude" rather than "Viewed" and was wondering what happened to my third selection when it suddenly clicked!!
Even then wasnt sure what had won the race, the Cumani horse Bauer was closing with every stride in the final furlong and strength in the saddle from Blake Shinn certainly looked a factor to me in the driving finish, even though in retrospect he admitted he may probably have gone for home a fraction too early.
I also backed the greyhound I have been following Boherbradda Mac in the sprint at Nottingham on Monday night and he did the business again, scoring comfortably but at rather shorter odds than expected, being returned at 2/5 as opposed to the morning forecast of 4/6, though as usual with the bread and butter dog markets, no early prices were available.
On that theme, the semi finals of the All England Cup were run at Newcastle last night and Boherna Best qualified impressively though I lost my other two ante post picks who both finished fourth, with only the top two dogs qualifying. Am kicking myself a bit for not backing Dotlands Hit Man when he was 10/1 a few days ago, he won in fine style too in the quickest time of the night so does look a real danger though his price is now as short as 6/4.
Elsewhere have added Cabra Cool to my Waterford Masters roster at 9/4, he has the plum draw in Saturday's final with the no 2 dog a possible non starter due to injury so that would be even more in his favour if it transpires that way. My other pick Ballymac Under at 9/2 has a middle draw but has all on to lead both Cabra and Lark to the first bend the way they are trapping currently.
Had a quick look at Sky's "The Dogs" programme last night and was impressed by Midway Skipper in the Kent St Leger first round heats, scooting away from them around the sharp Crayford track so, having backed her as a saver when she was runner up to main pick Bubbly Totti in the official Leger itself, had to give him a chance for compensation in this at 13/8.
Had a good night on the Premier League snooker yesterday, backed Ding to continue his good record against Joe Perry in the opening match and he obliged 4-2 at the very decent odds of 13/8, his breakbuilding was stuttering a bit but he did at least knuckle down in the tactical exchanges and did enough to see off a largely out of sorts opponent.
In the other match, backed Hendry for the highest break at 4/7 and though its a type of bet that usually has me squirming in my seat right until the very end, on this occasion the Nugget never really looked like piecing together a meaningful contribution and the Scot had the three best contributions of the encounter with an 83 and a couple of 70 odds.
Did have a throwaway few quid on Davis to win the match at 11/2 just in case the lacklustre side of the inconsistent Hendry came to the fore and he did actually have chances in a couple of close frames so the 5-1 was probably slightly flattering in the end, all in all a good night though.
The Bahrain Tournament starts tomorrow with the local wildcards taking stage against the lower ranked qualifiers, though having seen some of their highest breaks being publicised, they dont seem much better than me at my peak so wouldnt expect too many of them to be winning if any.
In fact Habib Subah is supposedly the best of them and the last time he played on the main tour he lost all seven of his ranking matches, six of them by hefty scores, and didnt fare much better in this summer's Sangsom six red international where he won only one of his five group games against someone I've never heard of from Singapore. That apart he lost 5-1 to Joe Swail, 5-3 to Dene O Kane, 5-2 to James Wattana and 5-1 to Tom Ford so hardly seems in the best of nick, the 4/11 for Mark Davis at Paddies looks rather overpriced to me.
Working on the supposition that Habib is the best local, had to have an acca too so have gone against the two with the lowest breaks and the other supposedly inferior Bahranian which means a four timer on Davis, Pinches, Lawler and Campbell paying nearly 2/1.
Have left out Milkins as he seems to be a bit unreliable in the last year and decided to leave out Dunn as he is up against Saudi's No 1 who has a top break of 143 which is decidely better than I could ever manage and couldnt find a great deal of info about him either!
Two other first round proper bets so far, took Bingham to beat Stevens at 11/10, not sure why he is odds against there as Matthew has shown nothing like his best form for a good few seasons.
Also Lee to beat King at evens, Mark has a had a poor start to this year with defeats to McManus, Bond, and Parrott already and only a final frame win over Jimmy White to shout about. Lee hasnt been in great shape either but did beat Andy Hicks 5-1 last time out and he had been showing some reasonable form in the lower echelons this year.
On the outrights, backed Fu at 20s when the first rumours appeared that Ronnie may not bother with the event, he now has a much smoother route if he can get past Dominic Dale in round one, who did beat him 5-3 in their last meeting however.
In the second quarter, taken Cope at 20s and Walden 25s, two up and coming young uns and would rather be with them than the old stagers in the section like Ebdon and Hendry who may find motivation and consistency a problem nowadays.
In the third quarter, gone with Murphy at 9s, though his form this year looks poor, he was incredibly unlucky against Gunnell in his last match when all sorts of things conspired against him and he did win a decent minor event in Germany beating Mark Selby 4-0 in the final so does have some silverware on the table already.
Had to include the new pre tournament jolly Maguire too in the fourth quarter at 6s, had 2pts on him and 1pt on the others, on form he only looks to have Perry to worry about in this section and Joe looked rather out of sorts last night against Ding at Newport.