Having bowled Pakistan out for just 257 in their first innings, England went about their run chase this morning ominously well. My £3 sell of the English first innings run supremacy at 10 wasn't in great shape until a flurry of wickets near the close steadied the ship a little. However, England were still in pole position and my £30 sell of their win index at 11.5 wasn't looking so hot.

That said, I did have much better news over in Ireland where my only horse racing bet of the day did the business. I fancied Willie Mullins' On His Own to land the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park and bought £10 on the index at 11. The race was run at 3.05pm and I managed to scramble my way into a London betting shop to see my selection jumping the last with a clear lead. It was a lovely sight and one which swelled the coffers by £390.

Stuart Broad may be the darling of English cricket, but he's no longer on my Christmas card list. His gutsy 59 not out with the bat took the Lions from 207-5 to 327 all out. His batting efforts steered England to a 70-run lead which cost me £180.

Alfie's been off nursery for a few days with a sore throat, so our usual Saturday morning 'Little Kickers' session was abandoned and I headed to Cheltenham early for 'Trials Day'.

The traffic was awful, so I decided to have an interest in the Ladies Australian Open Final by buying £20 of Azarenka's win index at 14. Things didn't start that well, but she soon got into a rhythm and blew Sharapova away. I was the only person smiling sitting in stationery traffic on the A49 and arrived at Cheltenham an hour later than planned, but £220 richer!

I was unaware that England had lost a few early wickets in their pursuit of just over 140, so was thrilled to find out they were three down by the time I walked into the course. That soon became four, then five and soon six. Suddenly, there was a real chance England could collapse and turn a near £500 loss into a £330 win.

There was still an hour to go until the first and England still needed 70 more with just three wickets in hand. The dream suddenly became a reality and the final wicket fell with just 72 on the board.

The day had got off to a flyer, but it wasn't all good news. Baby Mix pulled like a train in the opener and my £10 buy at 24 looked doomed from a long way out. Carpincho (£10 buy at 11) fared little better in the next and Hell's Bay (£10 buy at 9) failure took the day's racing losses to £440.

Time For Rupert flopped in the big race costing me another £180 and if Alan King's Battonier (£10 buy at 10) hadn't won the next, it would have been a shocker of a day. I stayed and watched the awesome Big Buck's before hitting the road.

After yesterday's mixed bag of results, I began 'Super Sunday' by buying £30 of the total games in the Djokovic v Nadal Australian Open Final at 41. I thought there would be little between the pair and fancied the five setter!

We had friends coming for lunch, so I stopped watching with Djokovic 2-1 up (5-7, 6-4, 6-2) and had to keep sneaking out during lunch to keep tabs on the score. When Nadal levelled the match up at 2-2 (7-6), I emerged with a beaming smile - I think our guests must have thought I had terrible diarrhoea!

I didn't witness the 55th and final game of the match (won by Djokovic), but the £420 worth of profit didn't last long. I opted to sell £10 of Hurricane Fly at 32 in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown as I thought Ruby Walsh wouldn't be too hard on him as the ground had turned heavy. It turned out that he wasn't too tough on him after all, but sadly because he turned into the straight a couple of lengths clear and cruising! It was the easiest £180 I have ever lost, if that makes sense.

Fortunately, I had better luck buying £200 of goals in the Arsenal v Villa Cup game at 2.9. The bet had every chance when Villa went into the break 2-0 up and Arsenal's titanic 3-2 comeback netted me £420.

I've backed Montbazon for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, so it was pretty key that Alan King's five-year-old won a pretty average looking maiden hurdle at Plumpton. He got the job done in the fashion of a 1-10 shot, but his jumping was sketchy at best and he'll have to improve in that department ahead of March.

I played football last night and my finishing in front of goal was more Bendtner than Messi! Anyway, with my Mrs out with mates, I decided to settle down in front of Everton v City.

The game looked tight on paper so I sold £200 of goals at 2.6, but couldn't resist buying £10 of Aguero's goal minutes at 27. I guess I was looking for 1-0 City with a last minute Aguero goal. Well, they say you don't always get what you wish for and a 1-0 Everton win cost me £270 on the goal minutes position, but won me £320 for the sell of goals. Net £50 up just before the end of the Transfer Window!

I won’t be in to watch the football as I’m off to the theatre with my wife to see ‘Dymock Watson: Nazi Smasher’ in the West End. I’ll report back next week, but can tell you I’ve sold £200 of Arsenal/Bolton at 0.8 tonight. Not sure that we can be 0.8 goals favourite against anyone away from home?