No ordinary weekend for racing as the sport crowned its greatest ever flat horse in Paris on Sunday. Sea The Stars grabbed it all but aside from that, one of the bets that got our racing punters moist was our 'Longchamp Crazy Horses' special. Simply a prediction on the racecard number of the winner x second x third, it was one of the most volatile bets we've ever laid and stakes on the market were cautious to say the least, with the biggest stake being a £5 sell. £5 you say? But when I tell you that the sell was at 1,900, it changes a few things. The punter could pretty much expect number 18 to be his first multiple (Sea The Stars) but what would follow? Fame and Glory, number 15? Conduit, 2? Well almost, but in the perfect order for the client. Mick Channon's Youmzain (1) completed a hat-trick of second finishes in the race, leaving the punter without a care as to what came in third. As it happens it was racecard number 16 (who cares about the horse) to give the market a make-up of 288 and scoop our man £8,060 of pure volatility.

Not so much a Bad Trade but a Bad Promotion this week as the egg landed firmly on the face of our promotions department. You may have been one of the clients who took advantage of our Hotshots promotion on the Chelsea v Liverpool game. Basically we were offering a refund of up to £200 on any losses made if you bought Hotshots and none of the named players scored. Anyway, the 'Hotshots' in question were the rubbish Drogba, crap Lampard, useless Gerrard and good for nothing Torres (can you tell we're bitter?). But surely one of them would score. Well you guys didn't seem to think so as we saw hundreds more bets than we expected on the market. Save us Hotshots! Not to be. Drogba ran through the Scouse defence twice but preferred the assist instead of the goal and both Torres and Gerrard spurned chances to save marketing red faces (and jobs) as the promotion ended up causing a £50,000 blow to our hip for once! I think they call that pieces!

Football The red half of Merseyside will be left wondering if their season has already come off the rails. Can Rafa turn things around? The Reds are down four points on our Premier League Championship Index to 24-27.

It was a long time coming, but Portsmouth finally got their first league win of the season after defeating relegation rivals Wolves 1-0 at Molineux. And with games against Hull and Stoke to come before the end of the month, the South Coast club will fancy their chances of racking up some badly needed points. Pompey are (positively) down two points on our Premier League Relegation Index to 28-31.

NFL The NY Giants maintained their 100% record at the start of the new season, beating Kansas City 27-16 at the Arrowhead Stadium. And with three of those four victories coming on the road, the Giants are already looking like a team that will take some beating. The New York side are up three on the Super Bowl Outright Index to 41-44.


Mildly interesting / useless sporting fact

Forget Medusa, forget Collina, forget Big Train. There has never been a better stare than this from Roy Maurice Keane.