Bath Racecourse
Bath – A Brief History
Named in 2017 as one of the country’s best small racecourses Bath hosts around twenty flat race meetings between the months of March and October with the first meeting this year taking place on Friday 7th April.
The first officially recorded races at Bath on Claverton Down were held in 1728 where racing continued until the course site moved to the Lansdown location.
In those very early years the course reached its peak during the 1770’s but the course saw a reduction in the number of runners due to the firm going of the track. Following the transition from Claverton Down to Lansdown, which led to sporadic racing at the new site, a grandstand collapse and the continuing threat from Napoleon, racing resumed in 1811.
The old Lansdown course was located between Beckford’s Tower and Weston Lane and the current track was used from 1831 although there is no record as to why the move took place, but much of the original grandstand is still in use today.
The most notorious story to come from the racecourse has to be the Francasal story. In 1953 a gang of crooks plotted to win a race by running a “ringer” horse, running a good horse under the name of one with a much lesser chance of winning.
The gang cut the telephone wires to the course to ensure that the bookmakers were unaware that the horse was being backed, and consequently the odds at the track would not shorten. In today’s money they stood to win a tidy £1.3 million! But the bookies were smart and queried the problem with the phone line and the cut line was detected and the culprits found and arrested.
The gang pleaded not guilty, claiming that they had “accidentally” switched the horses, and as the jury couldn’t reach an agreement on the case the judge ordered a retrial. The thought was that the case was too complicated for a jury to understand, but in fact one of the jurors had been “nobbled”. The retiral with a new jury led to one man being cleared but the remainder found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
Location
The course is located on Lansdown Hill approximately 2 miles north of Bath City Centre.
There is plenty of free parking at the course if travelling by car and the course can be reached from Junction 18 of the M4 being well signposted on route. If you are travelling from the City Centre, you are looking at a 20-30 minute taxi journey.
By Train: Bath Spa train station is 11 minutes by train from Bristol Temple Meads, you can also reach Bath Spa on the lines from London Paddington and South Wales. Regular connections can also be found from the Midlands. From Bath Spa you can then take the Shuttle Bus Service which operate on race days.
By Bus: The Shuttle Bus Service costs £5.00 for a return ticket picking up from Manvers Street just outside the Bath Spa station, and children aged 15 and under can travel on the bus free if accompanied with a paying adult.
The Course
Bath racecourse is a left handed track with the round course of just over one and a half miles being laid in an oval. The four furlongs home straight has a steady rise and turn.
You can view a map of the course here.
The course is considered a galloping track which offers suitable conditions for stayers who can see out a trip. Located as the highest Flat Turf course above sea level there are no watering facilities, and the ground can become very firm during the summer months if no rain is forthcoming.
The Favourites Stats
All figures are based on data available from 1st January 2020 to 9th March 2023.
An explanation of A/E can be found here.
Favourites (including joint and co favourites) have produced the following set of results:
138 winners from 393 runners 35.11% -0.76pts (SP) A/E (link to 0.98 243 placed 61.83%.
Breaking those 393 runners down between Handicap and Non Handicap races.
Non Handicap: 42 winners from 100 runners 42.00% -11.11pts (SP) A/E 0.91 69 placed 69.00%
Handicap: 96 winners from 293 runners 32.76% +10.35pts (SP) +39.37pts (BFSP) A/E 1.02 174 placed 59.39%.
• Favourites that won their last race have produced – 37 winners from 95 runners 38.95% +1.46pts (SP) +8.48pts (BFSP) A/E 1.01 58 placed 61.05%.
• Favourites that had finished outside the top four on their last start produced – 26 winners from 87 runners 29.89% +1.81pts (SP) +9.95pts (BFSP) A/E 0.95 53 placed 60.92%.
Summary: There is little difference in the performance between those favourites which had won their last race and those which finished out of the places.
Trainers and Favourites:
Here are the best performing trainers when the money is down over the data period.
There are two standouts which are Clive Cox and Tony Carroll
Clive Cox – 10 winners from 12 runners 83.33% +10.36pts (SP) +11.23pts (BFSP) A/E 1.72 10 placed 83.33%.
Tony Carroll (AW Carroll) – 8 winners from 10 runners 80.00% +19.89pts (SP) +23.18pts (BFSP) A/E 2.85 9 placed 90.00%.
Those are impressive results!
Summary: It would appear that we should really be taking note of the Clive Cox and Tony Carroll runners when heading the betting at Bath.
General Course Stats:
• Odds SP: 14/1 and above – 25 winners from 1195 runners 2.09% -623pts ISP -397.20pys BFSP A/E 0.61 130 placed 10.88%.
• Previous course winners provided 86 winners from 638 runners 13.48% –147.98pts ISP -81.00pts BFSP A/E 0.87 211 placed 33.07%.
General Trainer Stats and Micro Angles
Here are a few interesting recent trainer track stats for the last 3 years that will hopefully enable you to identify some winners from the runners at Bath.
Clive Cox: Already highlighted above when his runners go off at the top of the betting market there is a strong chance of profits, but had you backed his runners blindly at the course since the 1st of January 2020 you would have turned a profit each year from a modest number of runners.
Fifteen of those twenty one winners have come when running over the short sprint trip of 5f -5.5f with prices ranging from 8-13 to 14/1.
Micro System 1: Back Clive Cox’s sprinters over 5-5.5f when running at Bath.
Adrian Wintle (AA Wintle): At first sight the returns are good backing Wintle’s runners at Bath.
There is a reasonable strike rate and a profit not to be sniffed at.
But last year was a poor year with just 2 winners from 22 runners and a loss of -14.5pts (ISP) -13.06pts BFSP but 2020 and 2021 produced profits of +20.50 ISP +27.18 BFSP and 31.63pts ISP 43.54pts BFSP respectively.
The majority of runners are in Class 5 and Class 6 races with 0 winners from 5 runners in classes outside of these, and only one of the winners above came in a Non Handicap (although in fairness most of his runners were handicappers).
His handicap runners may though offer some return over the middle distances at Bath in particular in the 8f-10f mark.
11 winners from 39 runners have generated a profit of +40.63pts to ISP +54.59pts to BFSP, and we are going to take a chance that 2023 brings a return to form.
Micro System 2: Back Adrian Wintle’s Class 5 and 6 Handicap runners when running over 8f-10f at Bath.
Earlier on we mentioned Tony (AW) Carroll’s runners when at the head of the market. Taking a closer look at his runners clearly shows that you would really need to pick your runners carefully.
Backing his runners blindly there have been just 17 winners from 176 runners (a strike rate of 9.66%) and you would have lost 54.28pts to ISP.
Those winners in the main have come from running’s over 8f or less (15 winners from 144 runners).
8 of those 15 winners came when going off as favourite (including 1 co-favourite), and you would have made a profit, but unless you have a crystal ball spotting which of those runners will head the betting market at the off is going to be difficult to say the least.
Horses for Courses Micro Systems Update (as at 13th March 2023)
Update: Since the date of publication (23rd January) there have actually been no qualifying selections from the Folkestone Micro systems.
It’s been quiet on the micro systems front as we would expect at this early stage and we are now heading into the turf flat season, but as more courses are covered hopefully the profits will start filtering through.
We would suggest that if you are interested in following these micro systems that you add these into your own tracker such as horseracebase.com
If we have selections for Bath they will be on this page
Featured Image: CC BY 4.0 – X Rated leads at Bath | under the finest front running jocke… | Flickr
