Tom Segal with tales of the unexpected on Super Saturday - including one of the 'weirdest market moves' he's ever seen

Rather than being known as Super Saturday, I reckon it should have been called Silly Saturday because everywhere I looked unfathomable things were going on.

It all started in the first race at Ascot, where those drawn in high numbers decided to forget what had clearly been a golden highway the day before and switch to the middle. I don’t have a clue what the riding instructions were for the well-backed favourite King’s Lynn, but if they were to come away from the best draw and give yourself no chance whatsoever then that has to go down as a seriously bad call.

To make matters worse, later on the card three horses came up nearest the stands’ rail in another handicap on the straight course and they beat all those who raced up the middle by miles. I just don’t get it, the least you can ask of the jockeys and trainers is to pay attention and that, along with great talent, is why Ryan Moore continues to be a class above the rest.

I don’t get the obsession with coming wide on the round course at York either. The jockeys continually elect to come middle to stands’ side on the round course yet all the sprint races tend to be won by horses who raced middle to far side. I just don’t know why few try the shortest route anymore – surely in a big race like the John Smith’s Cup it’s worth a shot. The horse who raced nearest the far side in the straight was the 50-1 shot Astro King and he would have won in another stride.

After that I watched a race from Chester to see that a low draw was rubbish and you needed to come wide and finally there was one of the weirdest market moves I’ve ever seen in the July Cup.

I know Aidan O’Brien wins lots of big races and, after Auguste Rodin’s Lazarus-like return in the Derby, you can never write one of his horses off. However, how anyone could back Little Big Bear after his three runs this season and his injury in the lead-up to the Newmarket race was amazingly strange.

Even when he won at Haydock he didn’t do much off the bridle and he had the advantage of a huge track bias.

After that, Shaquille gave him a five-length head start and beat him pointless at Royal Ascot. It’s very easy after the event, and punters are clearly expecting Little Big Bear to bounce back to his two-year-old form at some stage, but he was tailed off last in the July Cup and that was surely much more likely than him winning the race.

My issue is that when I first got into racing no horses came wide at York, no horses switched into the middle at Ascot and low draws always won at Chester. Maybe it’s watering or maybe the jockeys all decide before the races where they are going to go but boy does it make it hard for punters with unfancied horses winning these big-field races more often than ever.

A reminder to keep things simple

I was watching the Scottish Open before the racing started on Saturday and golf commentator Tony Johnstone said something very interesting. He suggested that if you were to ask all the best golfers when they putted best, they would almost all say when they were kids.

The point he was making is that as soon as they got good, they all thought they had to try all the new putting techniques and started thinking too much about it.

When they were young they were fearless and free, and surely that is the state of mind all punters should really try to get into as well.

I know for a fact that the more I have to work at finding a winner the less likely I’m going to achieve that goal, especially in the big-field handicaps.

It’s possible to make a case for loads in that type of race and I’m sure the key to being successful is to trust your instincts and use the factors that have worked well for you in the past.

I’m sure these putting gurus help lots of people get the ball in the hole more often, but I reckon it’s less about changing their grip, ball alignment, or anything too technical and more about decluttering their minds and getting them to think clearly again.

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