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Fat Jockey Selection Analysis

SharpHat

Ante Post Chelt 2020 tipping comp winner
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Firstly, I hope this isn't treading on ryanh97 toes, but i was interested in looking into some statistics around the recent antepost competition. There were 113 entries, which is actually a really decent sample size to do some Crowd Sourced Analytics. This, in a nutshell, is where you get a large sample of 'experts' to give their views on a subject, these are collated and averaged out, and hopefully some insights can be obtained. I hesitate to class myself, or anyone else on this forum as an 'expert' - but if you're spending your free time on a forum about Cheltenham, several months before the festival starts - then you could argue that you have a passion for the subject and are able to demonstrate at least some level of 'expertise'.

A few caveats. Firstly, since the entries were posted we've had the DRF, and some markets have been drastically overhauled since then. Most notably the Arkle, Bartlett, Bumper and Triumph - but most races to some degree have seen changes. The exception being the handicaps where the markets have been less effected.

Second caveat, I've done this for my own benefit as much as anything, i was hoping to identify holes in my own book and try and find some value in what are now very mature markets, which i believe i have succeeded in doing.

If this post is already too long for you, skip down to the TLDR section for the summary.

So, my first job was to get all the entries out of the forum and into excel, simple enough. Then i needed to clean the data.... and oh boy. All i can say is it's a good job this forum tips better than it spells. Cleaning the data, took A LONG time, i have a new found respect for ryanh97 and everyone else that runs the competitions on here.

Once the data was in a format I could use, it was quite straightforward to break it down. I've split it out race by race to find the three most tipped horses for each race, the percentage of votes that were cast for each horse, and the perceived value (PV) of each horse. This PV value is the really interesting one in trying to find any good bets that are still out there, it's simply multiplying its current odds by the percentage of selections across the sample group. And this PV value has given some really interesting results, it essentially indicates how good a bet it is at the current prices. For clarity I've used the current odds on the standard B365 antepost market as of 08/02/2022. At the end of this there is a clear Yankee that has objectively been selected by the forum which is quite interesting.

Finally, I summed the percentage of selections across the top three in each race to try and identify which races we, as a collective on the forum, we are struggling with the most. So without further ado, here are the results -


Supreme
Constitution hill - 38% - 1.14PV
Sir Gerhard - 26% - 1.19%
Jonbon - 21% - 0.83PV


Arkle
*** This race was affected by the Ferny news that came out during the period of posting selections, so ive had to remove all the ferny votes, therefore this race is using a smaller sample size. Additionally this market was affected by the DRF ***

blue lord - 63% - 2.48PV
Edwardstone - 14% - 0.56PV
Haut En Couleurs - 10% - 1.1PV

Given that this market was totally blow apart by the Ferny injury (Ferny was the most selected horse in this race), and Riviere D'Etel only polled 4% of the votes at the time, I'm happy to just disregard this data.


Ultima
Does He Know - 12% - 1.36PV
Remastered - 9% - 1.85PV
Phoenix Way - 9% - 1.5PV


Champion Hurdle
honeysuckle - 90.27% - 1.41PV
appreciate it - 2.65% - 0.21PV
Teahupoo - 1.77% - 0.46PV


Mares Hurdle
Telmesomethinggirl - 62.83% - 2.8PV
Heaven Help Us - 11.5% - 1.49PV
Burning Victory - 9.73% - 1.07PV


Boodles
Gaelic Warrior - 26.55% - 1.85PV
Iberique du Seuil - 16.81% - 3.53PV
Britzka - 15.93% - 2.70PV


NH Chase
Run Wild Fred - 70.80% - 3.18PV
Vanillier - 7.08% - 1.06PV
Capodanno - 6.19% - 0.74PV


Ballymore
Dysart dynamo - 52.21% - 3.13PV
Ginto - 9.73% - 0.87PV
Walking On Air - 8.85% - 0.97PV


RSA
Galopin Des Champs - 89.38% - 1.87PV
Bravemansgame - 4.42% - 0.19PV
Ahoy Senor - 3.54% - 0.23PV


Coral Cup
Gowel Road - 21.24% - 3.61PV
Unexpected Party - 16.81% - 2.52PV
Fils doudairies - 8.85% - 1.50PV


Champion Chase
Shishkin - 72.57% - 1.21PV
Energumene - 8.85% - 0.38PV
Allaho - 1.77% - 0.26PV


Cross Country
tiger roll - 54.87% - 3.56PV
Prengarde - 30.09% - 1.50PV
Shady Operator - 6.19% - 0.68PV


Grand Annual
Buddy Rich - 12.39% - 1.61PV
Thedevilscoachman - 11.50% - 2.99PV
Brave Seasca - 9.73% - 1.26PV


Bumper
American mike - 52.21% - 2.08PV
Facile Vega - 34.51 - 0.34PV
Redemption Day - 7.96% - 0.55PV

*** Data doesn't reflect the Facile Vega demolition job at the DRF ***


Marsh
Bob olinger - 87.61% - 1.06PV
Lhomme Presse - 6.19% - 0.34PV
Galopin des Champs - 2.65 - 0.07PV


Pertemps
dunboyne - 28.32% - 3.11PV
Winter Fog - 16.81% - 2.85PV
Sire du Berlais - 9.73% - 1.65PV


Ryanair
allaho - 93.81% - 2.11PV
Energumene - 2.65% - 0.14PV
Saint Calvados - 1.77% - 0.19PV


Stayers
Flooring Porter - 44.25% - 1.99PV
champ - 31.86% - 2.23PV
Klassical Dream - 19.47% - 1.36PV


Plate
Fusil Raffles - 17.70% - 3.71PV
Gabynako - 13.27% - 2.25PV
Noble Yeats - 12.39% - 3.22PV


Mares Novice
brandy love - 31.86% - 1.75PV
Allegorie De Vassy - 31.86% - 1.19PV
Dinoblue - 17.70% - 1.41PV


Kim Muir
floueur - 21.24% - 2.33PV
Death Duty - 20.35% - 5.29PV
Frontal Assault - 13.27% - 1.46PV


Triumph
vauban - 48.67% - 1.58PV
Fil Dor - 26.55% - 2.38PV
Pied Piper - 6.19% - 0.20PV


County
echoes in rain - 25.66% - 2.82PV
West Cork - 14.16% - 1.55PV
Saint Felicien - 13.27% - 2.78PV


Albert Bartlett
Journey With Me - 42.48% - 5.52PV
Hollow Games - 14.16% - 1.55PV
Eric Bloodaxe - 12.39% - 4.21PV


Gold Cup
Galvin - 47.79% - 2.62PV
A Plus Tard - 34.51 - 1.38PV
minella indo - 8.85% - 0.57PV


Foxhunters
Porlock bay - 43.36% - 5.63PV
Bob And Co - 19.47% - 1.75PV
Winged Leader - 11.50% - 0.86PV


Mares Chase
Concertista - 35.40% - 1.32PV
Elimay - 27.43% - 1.92PV
Mount Ida - 15.04% - 1.05PV


Martin Pipe
Chemical Energy - 40.71% - 5.29PV
langer dan - 12.39% - 1.36PV
Mr Fred Rogers - 9.73% - 1.65PV



******* TLDR ********


The most popular horse on the forum is ALLAHO for the Ryanair (94% of selections), he also scores a respectable 2.11PV showing that his current price (5/4 B365) is still decent value.

The most selected horses were -

Allaho (94%)
Honeysuckle (90%)
Galopin Des Champs (89%)
Bob Olinger (87%)
Shishkin (72%)

There's a big dropoff between Bob and Shishkin, so clearly the top 4 are far and away the most selected, i wouldn't put anyone off backing the 4-horse accumulator (best price 15.5/1 unibet). Although history tells us they won't all win.


Of the horses currently priced between 2/1 and 10/1, the following are the most popular -

Run Wild Fred (71%)
Telmesomethinggirl (63%)
Tiger Roll (55%)
Dysart Dynamo - ballymore (52%)
American Mike (52%)

However there are few issues here. Firstly RWF is a forum favourite and has been widely tipped here all the way since last March, so its unclear how much he's been selected purely out of pocket-talk.
TigerRoll obviously is a legend so that may be influencing selections for him.
The forum also believes (or hopes) that Dysart Dynamo goes to the Ballymore, and American Mike's votes were taken pre DRF, so would not poll as highly now.


Of the horses at 10/1+, the following are the most popular -

Dunboyne - Pertemps (28%)
Echoes in Rain - county (26%)
Gowel Road - Coral Cup (21%)
Floueur - Kim Muir (21%)
Death Duty - Kim Muir (20%)


*** Best Value Still Available ***

When you factor in the PV score there was a standout Yankee that was head and shoulders above the rest -

Porlock Bay (12/1 B365) - Foxhunters
Journey With Me (12/1 B365) - Albert Bartlett
Chemical Energy (12/1 B365) - Martin Pipe
Death Duty (25/1 B365) - Kim Muir

Obviously JWM destination is up in the air, so if you don't want to take that risk then you could sub in with -

Fusil Raffles (20/1 B365) - Plate

Porlock Bay being the best value selection on the whole forum is.... unexpected, but i think we can take that with a pinch of salt and more likely reflects the disdain that a lot of people have for that race, so just picked last years winner by default. With that in mind some people may prefer to sub in the next best in the list which was

Gowel Road (16/1 B365) - Coral Cup

Any combination of the above represent pretty good bets in my opinion, and I've placed a few yankees based on these results myself already. But more importantly, these are OBJECTIVELY this forums best bets. Every year we get a few different members to pick the 'forum yankees', i would argue that the above are more representative of a 'forum yankee' than any individual could pick, so it will be interesting to see how they perform.


*** Toughest races ***

The Ultima and Grand Annual are standouts as the two toughest races, where the top three selections make up just 30% and 34% of the total selections respectively. Although this was done prior to Spectre's Galahad Quest selection (who polled just 5% of the votes at the time). It's interesting that this years Naiad pick just happened to be in the race with the widest range of selections across the forum, if Spectre gets this right it really will a monumental piece of tipping.


*** Conclusion ***

I hope someone has found this useful, as a book builder I've used it to identify and plug some holes, whilst also identifying some of the better value bets that are still out there and topping up on those. Thank-you to ryanh97 for all his work organising the competition which i have a new found respect for, and thank-you to the 113 people who submitted there entries.







*** edit - accidentally posted in members area so moved it ***
 
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This is brilliant mate, it would (probably) be too much work, but doing similar things multiple times across the year based on what people think at that time would be extremely interesting. Using myself as an example, I win more off AM than FV, but I think FV wins now. Before DRF I wasn't sure which of the two. Before FV's debut it was AM. Would be interesting to compare the PV across timepoints and how profitable it proves to be!
 
Great Post. I can't even imagine how long this took to do.

Some minor things I noticed:

Champion Chase %s are quite a bit below 100% with the third horse getting around 1% of votes. Are some missing from your data?

Bob Olinger PV doesn't look correct based on the % picked.
​​
 
Great work mate, and really interesting results!
 
This is brilliant mate, it would (probably) be too much work, but doing similar things multiple times across the year based on what people think at that time would be extremely interesting. Using myself as an example, I win more off AM than FV, but I think FV wins now. Before DRF I wasn't sure which of the two. Before FV's debut it was AM. Would be interesting to compare the PV across timepoints and how profitable it proves to be!

Yeah this is a great idea, we would have to be abit stricter with making sure people follow the set format when posting tho otherwise it would become a right ballache
 
Great Post. I can't even imagine how long this took to do.

Some minor things I noticed:

Champion Chase %s are quite a bit below 100% with the third horse getting around 1% of votes. Are some missing from your data?

Bob Olinger PV doesn't look correct based on the % picked.
​​

Yeah this is actually correct, someone early on missed the Champion Chase off their entry and then a few other people copied that post - so the numbers for the CC are abit less
 
Great Post. I can't even imagine how long this took to do.

Some minor things I noticed:

Champion Chase %s are quite a bit below 100% with the third horse getting around 1% of votes. Are some missing from your data?

Bob Olinger PV doesn't look correct based on the % picked.
​​

You're spot on with Bob Ollinger tho, I've updated it now
 
SharpHat Really interesting post and thanks for doing it. I may even end up doing the suggested bet :biggrin-new: :cheerful:
 
Yeah this is actually correct, someone early on missed the Champion Chase off their entry and then a few other people copied that post - so the numbers for the CC are abit less

Ah makes sense :encouragement: top work.
 
Any combination of the above represent pretty good bets in my opinion, and I've placed a few yankees based on these results myself already. But more importantly, these are OBJECTIVELY this forums best bets. Every year we get a few different members to pick the 'forum yankees', i would argue that the above are more representative of a 'forum yankee' than any individual could pick, so it will be interesting to see how they perform.

A superb post, well done.

I think everybody should back the suggested yankee and look forward to this evolving.

Just to note, the reason we pick captains for the forum daily yankee's and overall yankee is to encourage participation and new members to get involved, so this won't 'replace' that, but very much deserves its place. Just like the monthly yankee's do.

Well done again, love stuff like this.
 
Excellent read.
Why don’t you put up your preferred four for the forum charge yankee…
 
That is a top piece of work Sharp Hat. And the conclusions all make sense too.

Thanks for putting what must have been a considerable amount of time and effort behind it.
 
You can always rely on this forum for one thing.
Just when you start thinking this Cheltenham festival obsession is taking over your life.
Someone posts something that demonstrates to you, that at least you're not as consumed as some others are.
So relax and crack on.:loyal:

:encouragement: So thanks for that Sharphat. :love_heart:

And an excellent piece of work :applause:
 
Great work SharpHat - enjoyed reading it and the logic applied. Is the Perceived Value metric a well established and accepted method or was it devised by yourself for this exercise? Either way I like it as it puts easily understandable numbers to lots of often confusing words :encouragement:
 
Great work SharpHat - enjoyed reading it and the logic applied. Is the Perceived Value metric a well established and accepted method or was it devised by yourself for this exercise? Either way I like it as it puts easily understandable numbers to lots of often confusing words :encouragement:

No the PV was just something I invented as it seemed to make sense to me, and made it easier to see discrepancies in price vs popularity
 
Excellent read.
Why don’t you put up your preferred four for the forum charge yankee…

If I were to select 4 using this method it would have to be

Porlock Bay (12/1 B365) - Foxhunters
Chemical Energy (12/1 B365) - Martin Pipe
Death Duty (25/1 B365) - Kim Muir
Fusil Raffles (20/1 B365) - Plate

The top 3 came out clear above everything else and I'd be confident in them having solid place claims at least. In fourth spot I'd love to have JWM for the bartlett, mostly because I'm heavily invested in that result myself, but everyday it appears less likely, so Fusil is a decent sub at the prices