The Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Service or BAGS as it's affectionately known has been around almost as long as betting shops themselves and is now 40 years old.
You have to weigh up all the pro's and the cons when placing your dog with a contracted trainer at a BAGS track. You may loose a bit of control with your dogs but the prizemoney does pay the kennel bill. You can't have it all ways.
For those who don't know, BAGS is the company that negotiates the contracts with greyhound tracks to supply live racing to the nation's betting shops via SIS, and it's certainly come a long way since those heady first days of 1967. Way back then the service comprised of just four tracks and acted purely as a safety net in the winter when horse-racing was abandoned to give us punters something to bet on.
Through the years the service has grown on an almost yearly basis to the extent that BAGS now stage a race roughly every seven minutes throughout the day from 11:00 to 21:30 - that's well over 80 races a day.
Over the years many tracks have come and gone, with the closure of Walthamstow, like Hackney one of the mainstays of the service, a particularly sad loss.
Many people see BAGS racing as just a numbers game. Six dogs, same colours every time, perfect for a quick punt without any need to know anything about the form, and maybe that's why it's been so successful - nearly one in five bets placed in the shops is on a greyhound race. Others complain of its repetitive nature, citing every race as being deadly competitive - the term 3/1 the field is often banded about, and that nearly every race is over the bog standard four bend trip. Personally I'd like to see a bit more variety. Races for Open Class dogs seem to go down well when they're included, and just because a short-priced favourite is included it doesn't mean it will win.
But that aside BAGS remains a good punting medium, and often those so called impossible races are not quite as mind blowing as they first appear. I'd always suggest keeping a close eye on any track bias, including when it suits front runners or finishers, and staying on the right side of improving puppies and bitches returning from season. Stay away from short price good things, remember the tracks get bonus's for beaten favourites!! I still love trying to find one or two on a Monday or Friday afternoon.
A enjoyable mid day session of racing at Monmore Green today. There was not a space to be had on the car park and the stadium appeared to be packed to capacity. To get to the front of the queue to place a bet felt like you had backed a winner given the achievement. Mart Burt brought home the money in the Christmas Kennel Stake. With two in the final it was difficult to split the pair. As the traps rose the Burt trained Questhouse Leigh recorded the fastest sectional of day and was away and gone. The winning time was 29.08 and the distance was 4 and 1/2 lengths. The Open races saw smart performances from Swift Jade, Big Cats, Killough Belles, Cabra Fly and Droopys Ivanovic. The pictures are as follows 1) Droopys Ivanovic 2) Swift Jade kicks clear 3) Questhouse Leigh 4)Swift Jade 5) Off and Running 5 ) First Away
