The second day of Irish Champions Weekend comes up on Sunday at the Curragh. Five group class races on the card in front of the ITV Racing cameras as well as a fiendishly difficult sprint handicap to kick things off. The opening race has the hallmarks of a potential placepot buster so let’s get stuck in.
We’ve studied the card and these are the myracing selections for the Curragh Placepot.
LAUGH A MINUTE has not quite got back to his UK form for this yard. He wasn’t beaten far in a similar race here in July from seven pounds higher and now has the excellent Gavin Ryan taking off another three pounds.
ONE VOICE has progressed all season, narrowly beaten in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. She was in front of Magic Wand that day which sets the standard.
GLASS SLIPPERS won the Prix de l’Abbeye at Longchamp last October, coming alive in the autumn. She hinted when behind Battaash last time that she is coming back to form.
BUBBLES ON ICE looks massively overpriced here. She ran well against the boys at this track in the Phoenix over a trip too short, doing all her best work late. Back against the girls and up a furlong, she can potentially boost the dividend.
BATTLEGROUND has done well after being beaten on debut. He’s not flashy so it’s hard to tell just how good he is going to be but he certainly shapes as if he has better to come.
SEARCH FOR A SONG won this race last year, surely targeted specifically for a repeat bid. She shaped well last time over a trip too short, the return to fourteen furlongs looks a big plus.
The Tote Placepot is a pool bet where a punter has to pick out a horse in each of the first six races at particular meeting and in order to be successful, all six runners must place.
Everything runs through the Tote pool betting operation. The size of the pool is determined by how many people play so naturally the more money bet on the Placepot the larger the pool will be.
That pool is divided among the winner so the more winners there are the smaller the winning dividend will be.
Would you like to bet on the Tote Placepot with a risk-free bet? Tote is the official provider, follow this link below to claim your risk-free bet of up to £10 and then follow these steps once you have opened your account.
When you are putting on your Tote Placepot bet, you can choose how brave or safe you would like to be. You can choose one horse in each race or you can choose multiple in a race. There selections are referred to as ‘lines’ in Placepot terminology.
If you do decide to add multiple lines in each race, this of course will increase your chances of picking a horse that will place. However, the more lines you place the higher the stake will be.
In order to calculate how many lines in total you have, multiply the number of lines in race one by the number of lines in race two by the number of lines in race three and so on until you get to race six.
The minimum stake per line is generally 10p. The minimum total stake is £1 so you will need a minimum of 10 lines at 10p to meet minimum requirements.
For example, if you bet £1 lines on a 36-line Tote Placepot, the total stake would amount to £36.
The place rules are the same across the industry and are as follows:
1-4 runners: Win Only
5-7 runners: 2 Places
8+ runners: 3 Places
Handicap 12-15 runners: 3 Places
Handicap 16+ runners: 4 Places
Tote have to make their money somehow so 27% is taken out of the total pool and then the remaining 73% will be divided among the winners of the Placepot.
For example, if the pool is £200,000, the amount taken out of the pool will be £54,000. This means £146,000 will be split among the winners and each winner may have a different return based on how many lines they have.
The best payouts tend to be on days where favourites struggle to reach the frame as favourites are very popular choices for Placepot bettors.
At the end of a meeting, Tote will publish the dividend which will show what a punter would win in return for a £1 staked winning bet. Your return will be determined by the amount you stake per line and also by how many of your lines were successful.
You can work this out by multiplying the amount of winning lines in each leg together to get your total winning lines.
To then work out how much you have won, simply multiply your stake per line by the amount of winning lines you have.
For example:
If the Placepot has a dividend of £1,000 to a £1 stake and you have three winning 20p lines then you have a total of 60p going on the dividend so you win £600.
Or:
If the Placepot pays £150 to a £1 stake and you have three winning £1 lines, your total of £3 of winning bets means you win £450.
If one of your runners turns out to be a non-runner, it will automatically go on the SP (Starting price) favourite. If there are joint or co-favourites, the lowest racecard number will count.