32red

The 32Red Handicap Chase is likely to prove the biggest betting heat of the day on a competitive card at Sandown and it’s no surprise that several of the big national hunt yards are represented.

Nicky Henderson runs two with November’s Cheltenham winner Tanks For That heading the weights and available at 9/2 with Paddy Power. The choice of stable jockey Barry Geraghty, he has plenty in common with stablemate Dave’s Dream, however, as both departed at the fourth-last behind Astracad at Cheltenham last time. Dave’s Dream (10/1 with William Hill) has still to win in handicap company over fences and remains high enough in the weights, while King Edmond (8/1 with Paddy Power) was raised 7lb for winning at Ascot last month, though regular jockey Tom Cannon again takes off 5lb with his claim and his partner has been on good terms with himself in general since the autumn.

Hold Fast could also be interesting as he’s weighted to reverse running with Newbury winner Rileyev (5/1 with Paddy Power) on better terms. The eight-year-old was having his first run for Paul Nicholls that day so is likely to improve and can be backed at 11/2 with William Hill, though he can take the odd liberty with his fences which won’t aid his cause on the tricky Esher circuit. Nomcheki‘s comeback second at Chepstow seems a long time ago now and he’s worth opposing at William Hill‘s 25/1 while Darceys Dancer (16/1 with the same firm) may struggle at this level and Pret A Thou (9/1 with Victor Chandler and Paddy Power)  likes very soft ground, which he had when just touched off in the Castleford Chase at Wetherby over Christmas. That leaves All For Free.

This is undoubtedly a step up in grade for Martin Keighley‘s six-year-old but his chase career has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few weeks. He annihilated a field of novices at Ascot and also had plenty in hand when scoring under a penalty at Ludlow five days later. He’s possibly the only one of these still on an upward curve and looks well worth a bet to complete the hat-trick at William Hill’s 9/2.

Further to reports that online gaming operator 32red is likely to be publishing lower than expected results for the final quarter of 2009 comes the news that bookmakers Blue Square are reconsidering their presence on British racecourses in the foreseeable future – perhaps the end of this recession is a bit further away than some analysts are predicting! 32red concentrate most of their marketing on casino and poker so it comes as something as a surprise that they are attributing recent disappointing figures largely to the fact that their customers won more than expected during October. Now I’ve seen Oceans 11, 12, 13, etc. and in all of those movies, the alarm bells began to go off pretty quickly should ‘the house’ start losing. 32red obviously know what they are doing, but I can imagine some of those Vegas ‘dons’ spinning in their graves at the thought of the clientele coming out on top. Blue Square, meanwhile has ceased trading with immediate effect on all 14 tracks where they hold a license. It appears their pitches aren’t making enough money to justify a continuing presence on-course, meaning their blue logo is unlikely to be a common sight in the ring at racecourses including Sandown, Epsom and York in the near future though, it’s believed, the firm has no plans to review its sponsorship programme which includes several high-profile races and the backing of the upper end of English football’s non-league pyramid. As in most cases of this nature, there are likely to be some staff contemplating a career change in the weeks ahead. On a more global stage, we all know that India is the call centre capital of the world. Well, with favourable trading conditions still existing on the sub-continent, it’s just possible we’ll be seeing some of the UK bookmakers making a move on its potentially lucrative gambling industry in the near future as well. Betfair, Ladbrokes and William Hill are all in talks with local operators in the mountainous state of Sikkim. Goa, incidentally, is the only other Indian state where casino gambling is currently legal.