Australian Open
 

Initial 6 unit bet:

Stuart Appleby to win 11/1 @ Sporting Odds
Taking a risk here as no other books (outside Australia anyway) have priced up yet.
Can't see that he should be this price, or that he will be with anyone else.
Let's hope fortune favours the brave ...

2nd 6 unit bet:

Aaron Baddeley to win 33/1 @ Stan James
Surely a ridiculous price and should not be more than 22/1 at the very biggest?

3rd 6 unit bet:

Rod Pampling to win 33/1 @ Stan James
Same comment applies as with Baddeley I think.

5 unit lay @ Betfair:

Lay Baddeley at 26
A couple of firms have chalked up 25/1 for him so I'll now be happy to get out at that price.
I'll also keep an eye out in case we have to up it a couple of points.

5 unit lay @ Betfair:

Lay Pampling at 22
Virtually all firms go 16/1 now so we can see what a rick that was by Stan James.

5 unit lay @ Betfair:

Lay Appleby at 11
Could possibly go in half a point lower but with excellent trades above I'll take getting out at 11 now.

Update:

Amount of bets laid on Betfair since each lay recommendation above:
Baddeley £600 @ 26 and below, Pampling £525 @ 22 and below, Appleby £850 @ 11 and below.
Slightly annoyed to see the Racing Post to go for these three this morning as there is now sure to be
further shortening of the prices on Betfair and we could have done even better with our getting out prices.
Still, I wasn't to know these would be tipped and we've still secured nice enhanced prices on our players:

1 pt Baddeley @ 72/1
1 pt Pampling @ 92/1
1 pt Appleby @ 15/1.

(You couldn't be blamed if you wanted to trade-in some of the enhanced odds for your original 3-point outlay.
If you laid 2 more points on Pampling at the current 21 and 1 extra point on Baddeley at the current 26, both
of which could still go lower, you'd have recouped your three point outlay, thus ensuring a no-lose week, but
still have profits of around 16 pts if Appleby won, nearly 50 pts if Baddeley won, and over 50 if Pampling won.
And that would be before any laying mid-tournament! For the purpose of this column, though, I am going to
go for the bigger win and sit with the spending of the three points and hope for some fireworks from our boys.)

Summary:

Annoying that the player to take the title this week was one of our picks last week but then I'm happy
because Stanley tipped him in the Outright betting! Why can't Lonard play like this outside Australia?

A poor show from our three names, even though Appleby went into the final round
as favourite he quickly went backwards. All three had serious chances, we had
massive odds on two of them but that's the luck of the draw, I suppose.

Merry Christmas and a profitable New Year to you all!