The ledger grew from four names to ten on Saturday, because Shergar Cup day is when every tipping desk in the country puts its judgement in the shop window, and I see no reason the window shouldn’t carry a price tag. House rules for the new arrivals, identical to the old: 10 units to start, one unit on every published tip at the advised price – SP where none is quoted – and when a bank hits zero, coverage stops for good. Anyone checking the Templegate tips today record, or wondering whether the telly experts can out-tip the newspaper men, will find Saturday delivered the full range: a debutant who made the game look simple, a debutante who made it look impossible, and a reigning leader who handed his lead back inside three races.
| Tipster (Publication) | Bank Yesterday | Tips (1u each) | Winners | Current Bank (units) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Wilson (Racing Post) | 10.0 (new) | 10 | 2 (20%) | 16.5 | Alive – top of the table |
| Pricewise (Racing Post) | – | 0 | – | 10.0 (unstarted) | No Saturday column from Tom Segal – starts when he writes one |
| Newsboy (Daily Mirror) | 10.0 (new) | 1 | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Robin Goodfellow (Daily Mail) | 10.0 (new) | 1 | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Rob Wright (The Times) | 10.0 (new) | 1 | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Andrew Asquith (Sporting Life) | 10.0 (new) | 2 (1 void) | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Templegate (The Sun) | 11.0 | 3 | 0 (0%) | 8.0 | Alive – lead surrendered |
| Paul Kealy (Racing Post) | 9.0 | 1 | 0 (0%) | 8.0 | Alive |
| Oddschecker (oddschecker.com) | 8.0 | 4 | 1 (25%) | 7.5 | Alive |
| Alex Hammond (Sky Sports) | 10.0 (new) | 6 | 0 (0%) | 4.0 | Alive – elimination watch |
Two housekeeping notes before the autopsy. Tom Segal did not write Saturday’s Pricewise – the column went out under deputy Keith Melrose behind the Racing Post paywall, and this ledger settles only what the public can read from the named tipster, so Pricewise sits unstarted on 10.0. And the three newspapers’ naps are tracked through the public naps tables; their next-best selections aren’t reliably verifiable outside the papers themselves, so Newsboy, Robin Goodfellow and Rob Wright are settled on their naps alone until that changes.
The Big Hits
Harry Wilson joined the roster by tipping every race on the Shergar Cup card in his free Racing Post column and treating the exercise like a personal audition. Archers Bay, advised at 8/1 earlier in the week, won the Shergar Cup Classic readily under Ryan Moore and was sent off at just 5/2 – the market spent the week agreeing with him, but this ledger pays the price the tipster gave, and that’s +8.0 units. Ninety-five minutes earlier Calendar Girl, put up without a quoted price, had taken the Dick Hern at Haydock at an SP of 13/2. Ten bets, two winners, four more in the frame, +6.5 units on the day. A 16.5-unit bank after one afternoon is the sort of start that ruins a man’s humility, and I’d know.
The only other winner on the sheet belonged to Oddschecker, whose flagship column put up four on Saturday and landed its first of the series when Prince Quattro – advised at 5/2, returned at 10/3 – took the Newmarket apprentice handicap. It rescued the half-unit rather than the afternoon: Nuit D’Eclair and Sanbona Warrior were both beaten at Newmarket, and Leadman, 16/1 each-way in the Capital City Handicap, came home ninth of thirteen with both halves of the bet in his pocket. 7.5 units, second-bottom of the table.
The Eliminations & Misses
Nobody has been eliminated yet, but Alex Hammond has managed a fortnight’s damage in an afternoon. Six selections in her Shergar Cup column, one per race, none of them priced, all settled at SP as the rules demand: six losers. Her banker Hoseki went off 13/8 favourite for the Classic and finished fourth behind Archers Bay; Shrimp Shady and Bullet Point both finished second; Cape Ashizuri, the each-way suggestion, was fourth of nine at 20/1 – one place outside the frame, the same finishing position that emptied two banks at Brighton on Friday. She is down to 4.0 units, and near-elimination inside 24 hours earns its own headline later today.
Templegate began the day on top with 11.0 and gave it all back. The NAP Night Breeze was sent off 9/4 favourite for the Challenge and finished fifth; next best Shrimp Shady chased Dancing In Paris home in the Stayers at 11/10; treble pick Hoseki completed a clean sweep of nothing. That’s 0-from-3, an 11.0-to-8.0 slide, and one winner from six series bets for The Sun’s man. Paul Kealy’s free play of the day, Fantasy Believer, ran seventh in the same Challenge at an SP of 9/1, which leaves the Racing Post’s senior tipster 0-from-2 and on 8.0.
The newspapers arrived in a flat spin. Newsboy and Robin Goodfellow napped the same horse – Nuit D’Eclair in the Sweet Solera – and watched her beaten half a length at 6/4 by 11/1 shot Sugar Yes Please; Rob Wright’s Mysterious Times was turned over at 6/5 in the very next race at Newmarket. All three start life on 9.0. Andrew Asquith’s first tracked bets ended a single unit down through little fault of his own: Alobayyah ran seventh in the Dick Hern, while Danger Bay never made the Rose of Lancaster – a non-runner with a girth gall, stake returned, no bet.
Today’s Outlook
Sunday hands the survivors a Group 1 double to aim at. The Curragh stages Phoenix Stakes day, where Sun Goddess heads the market for the big one and Big Mojo goes in the Phoenix Sprint; Deauville runs the Prix Maurice de Gheest; and the domestic bread and butter comes from Chepstow and Leicester, where Art Lover headlines. Wilson defends 16.5 from the front, Templegate needs a quiet, steadying afternoon, and Alex Hammond needs winners – actual winners, not placed horses – before the trapdoor starts creaking. The ledger counts either way.
