NATIONAL HUNT SEASON 2017-2018 REVIEW

The National Hunt season is over and just in time the first classics on the flat taking place at the Newmarket Guineas Meeting this coming weekend.

In fact it’s just over four weeks to Epsom Derby weekend and not long thereafter to the 5 day Royal Ascot Meeting!

This post reviews how the National Hunt season proper (September Listowel Harvest Festival meeting through to the Punchestown Festival) went for Full Members of the Bet Alchemist Service.

The season started pretty well with an excellent November but poor December. However, the rescheduled Welsh National saw us have the winner Raz De Maree onside and even though advised in December it is marked down as a January results due to the race been run on the 6th January. It sure was an excellent start to 2018 with January returning profits of +49.80 thanks to our six winner Ballyhill 9/1, Raz De Maree 25/1, Buywise 20/1, Doctor Phoenix 13/2, Wakanda 9/1 & Moulin A Vent 4/1.

February was a losing month but March was very good thanks to a decent Cheltenham Festival. Big priced winners Summerville Boy 12/1, Rathvinden 7/1,  Bleu Berry 28/1 & Le Prezien 16/1 ensure the festival was a success.

April sees the end of the jumps season and it was not pretty with the form hard to decipher. It was a tough month with the losses mounted up with a horrible final day of the season at Sandown and Punchestown from a betting perspective only of course!

A shame to end the season on a low point but as we can see from the above the overall picture was much more positive thanks to +40.82 points profit.

Full Members enjoyed a tidy 17.08% return on investment (ROI) with those betting to £50 stakes accumulating £2,040.82 (Tax Free) to their betting banks thanks to 40.82 points profit generated. Who believes each way betting doesn’t pay? Not us!

Below is a table containing an overview of all bets and

results for the 2017-2018 NH season.

The Win and Place strike rates were excellent for a value betting service where we hit combined win and place percentages greater than 32.31%.

Nicky really concentrated on quality over quantity once again this National Hunt season and it paid off handsomely. In fact the results mirror very closely those achieved during the previous two National Hunt season of 2015/2016 & 2016/2017. During both those past jumps seasons the BetAlchemist server enjoyed a win/place strike rate of 33%

The win/placed runners percentage over the recent three jumps seasons are almost the same at 33% which is remarkably consistent betting. Of course, in view of the rather lacklustre end to the 2017/2018 season at the Ayr & Punchestown festivals it was frustrating not to have achieved a higher return on investment along with win/place strike rate this time round. Hey, there is always next season to hit a higher return!

In the table below please find a Monthly breakdown of point’s profit:

Full list of 2017/2018 Jumps Season Winners

Buywise

Raz De Maree

Summerville Boy

My personal seasonal highlight was Buywise who finally landed a big pot in the veterans chase final at Sandown in January. This horse was placed more times that we can count in big handicap chases at Cheltenham finishing fast but all too late. Jumping issues had been his achilles heel. At sandown which is a proper jumping test of any chaser Leighton Aspell rode Buywise cold and the horse jumped a fantastic clean round to win cosily.

There is no getting away from the fact that the Cheltenham Festival has become the "main attraction" of the National Hunt season. A Cheltenham festival winner is special and thankfully we enjoyed backing four winners this season thanks to Summerville Boy, Rathvinden, Bleu Berry & Le Prezien.

Less we forget it all starts again next September but before then we have all the Flat Racing festivals to enjoy such as the 5 Day Royal Ascot Meeting, 5 Day Glorious Goodwood Meeting & 7 Day Galway Festival which is a mixed meeting of both Jumps and flat action.

There you have it, a quick review of the 2017/2018 National Hunt season. An excellent few Months work overall.

Honestly, I am most looking forward to getting stuck into the big field flat handicap sprints. I've heard many professionals say over the recent months that the jumping action is so dominated by the major stables such as Nicky Henderson, Willie Mullins, Paul Nicholls & Gordon Elliott that the best value is found on the flat. I have to agree and just look over the coming months how the winners even in Group 1 races are spread around relative to the jumps. Of course there is a higher volume of racing on the flat and that lends to opportunities for everyone to win good races and accompanied prize money.

All our latest winners can be found listed in our Results Section at Latest Winners List . A full breakdown of all bets placed since the Bet Alchemist service went public in December 2012 can be found at Results Since Live .

P.S. > If you are really interested in value betting and long term betting profits where all that is required is a little patience and a betting bank - why not join the Full Bet Alchemist Service

Best of Luck,

Nicky

P.S> Links to 2015/2016 & 2016/2017 NH Season Review Below:

http://www.betalchemist.com/blog/national-hunt-season-20162017-review-26-51-roi/

http://www.betalchemist.com/blog/national-hunt-season-20152016-review-34-29-roi/