HK updates, etc.

[my miss storm cat]

Originally Posted by my miss storm cat

AA on SCMP had him... he's been on fire.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Aitken and Bell in scintillating form


SHIHAM RAMIZ


Followers of leading South China Morning Post's Racing tipsters Alan Aitken and John Bell went home with two of the big exotics at the New Year's Day meeting, with Aitken landing the 183-1 treble with his top selections and Bell the third double trio at odds of more than 3,900-1.
It was a mighty finish to the first meeting of 2008 for Aitken, our chief racing writer and Bell, our resident form analyst-journalist.

Between the pair they correctly found seven winners as top selections. Aitken, aka Hats, tipped the $1,277.50 quinella in race seven as well as the $1,844 treble, while Bell found the three placegetters from his four selections in both races nine and 10 (the two legs of the third DT).

The feature race, the Chinese Club Challenge Cup (Pocket Money 1, Down Town 2, Floral Pegasus 3) was the primary source of the big dividends, with Bell's second selection Down Town injecting the value into all multiples. The race 10 Quinella paid $1,681, the Trio $2,441 while the third double trio paid $39,034 for a $10 investment.

Aitken's front page tipping features have been almost gild-edged this season and so it proved once again, with Pocket Money bravely seeing off the high-class field, despite an unfortunate wide trip. The John Size-trained Pocket Money paid a win dividend of $83.50.

The in-form tipster landed six winners on December 23 meeting at Sha Tin and another three on December 26 . His other winners at this meeting were My Home Town ($22.50, second best bet), Craig's Dragon ($35, best bet) and Congratulation ($71). That result took him to the top of the Straight Bets poll, both by number of winners and profitability.

Bell's winners also included My Home Town and Craig's Dragon, as well as his best bet of the day Never Look Back ($35).

Aitken and Bell are dominating the tips panel this term, almost across the board. Craig's Dragon was Aitken's 17th winning best bet (Nap) of the term, at a profit of $216.50 (surveyed on $10 win only investments). His four winners for the day took him to 76 with a profit of $119.00.

John Bell's big afternoon cemented his place in the quinella standings, adding four more for the programme to take his season's tally to 80, with followers who have been level staking his quinellas at $10 each ($60 per race) now showing a profit of $1,419 after 31 meetings.

Bell is also looming dangerously on the Trio poll, where he currently sits second to statistics editor Vincent Wong (Shannon).

The best team of experts in racing are yours, for every Wednesday night and weekend race meeting, in the big liftout guide of the South China Morning Post, or online at www.racing.scmp.com.