I've had quite a few of you asking when I'll be opening up the doors for the NTF Summer Service...
As things stand racing is set to return on the 1st of June at Newcastle.
Things then slowly start to pick up off the back of that meeting, with the 2000 Guineas and the 1000 Guineas scheduled in for the 6th and 7th of June.
Whilst I'm delighted to see racing making a comeback, I'm personally not going to be deeply involved in the first week of racing.
I'd rather sit and see how things pan out first as it's likely to be a tricky week on the punting front.
Furthermore it's not going to be easy to apply my usual 'Race Trends' approach to the major races. For starters we are looking at...
Both Guineas being full of horses ALL making their seasonal debuts...
The Coronation Cup has been moved from Epsom to Newmarket...
Royal Ascot will have a ton of horses also making seasonal debuts, some/most of the 2yo races will be packed with horses making their RACECOURSE debuts...
The Brigadier Gerard Stakes has moved from Sandown to Haydock...
The Coral Eclipse (Sandown) will only be open to 4yo+ horses...
...and that's only scratching the surface!
From my usual Race Trends approach that's going to prove tricky...that's not saying that ALL Race Trends will be redundant, some/plenty will still hold up...but overall I'd be inclined to hold fire with my full-scale trends approach until later in the season.
I've plenty other angles I use to approach my punting/analysis so it's not a major worry in the slightest, but even still I'd much prefer to watch the first week of racing and see how things are panning out, rather that dive in head first and resume normal punting activities...the key to successful punting is often knowing when not to bet... and my many years of experience is
definitely telling me the first week back after a worldwide pandemic is one of those times...🤨
Obviously if I see an opportunity to get the money down on a horse I'm following - a Well-Handicapped 3yo or a Handicap Sleeper - then naturally I'll look to take
it, but I'll be wanting a serious amount in my favour in the early skirmishes before getting my money down.
So with regards to the doors opening on the NTF Summer service...I'll be looking at the second week of June at the earliest I'd say...
And more important than anything I've mentioned above, I also have to factor in the health of Mrs NTF, who is still, unfortunately, suffering the aftereffects of Covid-19. There is improvement but it's a slow road and some days are worse than others, so again, I'm in no real rush to open up the doors to the service, I'm happy to sit on things for a bit longer...