David beating Goliath would warm the cockles at Newmarket

Journalists should strive to be fair so it's only fair to admit that I have a longstanding prejudice against Newmarket's Rowley Mile course. I'm not too keen on the July Course, either.

Claudio Nicolai's unlucky defeat in the 1978 Cambridgeshire didn't help. On the other hand, I'm not sure it really is a prejudice, more an objective appraisal which finds the Rowley Mile course wanting.

On the plus side, it's handy for Newmarket, with all its stables. It's also a fair course, favouring well balanced horses best able to cope with the famous dip. It's not Rowley's (alias King Charles II's) fault that, faced with enough space to stage the Charge of the Light Brigade, jockeys often race in packs. This improves the chance of finding trouble while also making it more difficult for spectators to work out who is in front.

That would be difficult, anyway, because viewing involves staring down the straight as the horses approach more or less head-on. The big screen provides partial salvation but still leaves the pneumonia to deal with, the result of siting the course on England's equivalent of the Russian steppes. Assume that it will be cold and windy and wrap up warm.

Classic clues

Then there are the races. The Craven meeting is where ante-post bets for the first Classics flounder and where hopes that last year's outstanding two-year-olds will prove equally dominant as three-year-olds turn out to have been misplaced.

That isn't true of the opening Wood Ditton Stakes which is for unraced three-year-olds. Godolphin and Sheikh Hamdan run five horses, three of them bought at the sales for 375,000gns (Buldan), $400,000 (Mark Of Approval), and $325,000 (Dawaaleeb).

Elyaasaat (Shadwell Farm) and Night Circus (Darley) were homebred and they take on another Darley-bred runner sold by Godolphin last August for £22,000, now with John Ryan.

That is reminiscent of David taking on Goliath but there is even more of a David in the form of Tallulah's Quest, sold for €4,200 as a foal, for €6,500 as a yearling and for 8,000gns as a two-year-old, when Julia Feilden acquired her.

David got the better of Goliath but it's difficult to imagine Tallulah's Quest matching his achievement. Still, hope springs eternal (add that to the list of silly sayings).

A Match for Betfair?

Meanwhile, at Kempton, every race is sponsored by Matchbook Betting Exchange, an interesting company closely associated with poker and US sports betting but now venturing into the Betfair dominated horseracing arena. At the moment Matchbook's racing markets are limited and it will be interesting to see how the Alderney-registered company fares.

Matchbook offers a relatively low commission rate on winning bets but also charges commission on losing bets, so it's best to stick to winning bets. Sadly, that isn't always possible.

Since 2011 Matchbook has been controlled by Matthew Benham, who also owns Smartodds as well as Brentford FC. Benham is a wealthy, statistics driven trader, poker player and now horserace sponsor. I expect there'll be some special offers.