Alex Hammond is one of the most familiar faces in British racing, and her Shergar Cup preview column named a selection in all six races at Ascot on Saturday. This ledger, which starts every new arrival on 10 units, settled all six at starting price because none carried a quoted one. The Alex Hammond tips record after one day therefore reads: six bets, six losers, 4.0 units left, and the first name in this series to go on elimination watch.
| Tipster (Publication) | Bank Yesterday | Tips (1u each) | Winners | Current Bank (units) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Wilson (Racing Post) | 10.0 (new) | 10 | 2 (20%) | 16.5 | Alive – top of the table |
| Pricewise (Racing Post) | – | 0 | – | 10.0 (unstarted) | No Saturday column from Tom Segal – starts when he writes one |
| Newsboy (Daily Mirror) | 10.0 (new) | 1 | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Robin Goodfellow (Daily Mail) | 10.0 (new) | 1 | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Rob Wright (The Times) | 10.0 (new) | 1 | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Andrew Asquith (Sporting Life) | 10.0 (new) | 2 (1 void) | 0 (0%) | 9.0 | Alive |
| Templegate (The Sun) | 11.0 | 3 | 0 (0%) | 8.0 | Alive – lead surrendered |
| Paul Kealy (Racing Post) | 9.0 | 1 | 0 (0%) | 8.0 | Alive |
| Oddschecker (oddschecker.com) | 8.0 | 4 | 1 (25%) | 7.5 | Alive |
| Alex Hammond (Sky Sports) | 10.0 (new) | 6 | 0 (0%) | 4.0 | Alive – elimination watch |
The Big Hits
This is normally where the winners live. There weren’t any, so let’s talk about how close it came – because it came close, and that is the cruellest version of a day like this. Shrimp Shady, her Stayers pick, was sent off 11/10 favourite and chased Dancing In Paris home without ever quite reaching him. Bullet Point, the Mile selection with Christophe Lemaire booked, was second at 7/2 behind 10/1 winner Crown Board. Cape Ashizuri, the one she framed as an each-way play, ran well above his 20/1 – and finished fourth of nine, one spot outside the three places, the racing result that pays exactly the same as refusing to leave the stalls. Three of the six finished second or fourth. On a different scoring system that’s a decent column. On this one it was six units, gone.
The Eliminations & Misses
The banker is the wound. “My banker runs here,” she wrote of Hoseki in the Classic, a filly arriving on a three-timer with Saffie Osborne booked, and the public agreed to the tune of 13/8 favouritism. Hoseki finished fourth, never landing a blow, while Archers Bay won readily – a horse advised at 8/1 by Harry Wilson, the man who now tops the very table she props up. Kendall Roy, the self-described “tentative” pick in the Dash, came sixth at 9/1. And Fantasy Believer in the Challenge, a selection she shared with Paul Kealy’s play of the day, finished seventh at 9/1 – one horse relieving two tracked tipsters of a unit apiece in a single race, a trick even Friday’s Brighton Bullet fiasco took two columns to manage.
A fairness note, because this ledger deals in them. Pundit columns like Hammond’s publish picks, not prices, so the rules settle her at SP, and Saturday’s SPs were honest about her chances: two market leaders, a joint-favourite, two 9/1 shots and a 20/1 outsider. No single bet there was foolish. Six of them together, on a card famously decided by the jockey draw as much as the formbook, proved an expensive way to learn that the Shergar Cup does not respect reputations – mine included, and I never had one this size to lose.
The arithmetic is now uncomfortable. At one unit a bet, 4.0 units is four losers from the exit, and the rules are the same for a Sky Sports name as for anyone: hit zero and coverage stops, permanently. Nobody has been eliminated in this series yet. Hammond has gone from new arrival to favourite for the honour inside one card. The consolation is real, though: at Saturday’s kind of prices, a single 9/1 winner rebuilds the bank to double figures in one swing. She doesn’t need a miracle. She needs a horse that finishes one place higher.
Today’s Outlook
Sunday’s big stage is Phoenix Stakes day at the Curragh, with Group 1 action at Deauville and bread-and-butter cards at Chepstow and Leicester. Whether a Hammond column appears today or waits for the next big Saturday, the ledger holds her place and her balance: 4.0 units, no hiding place, every future pick settled the moment it’s published. Second place, as her Saturday proved five times over, pays nothing here.
