The Eider meeting was exceptionally quiet. In fairness the crowd wasn't helped by the mass exodus down south by 50,000 sports mad Geordies watching a Cup Final in a sport that my team used to be quite good at, some of which would've presumably attended this fixture otherwise.
If you're not interest in the mildly tedious musings of the changing economics of being a bookmaker please feel free to scroll down a screen or two to get stuck into the mildly tedious betting blog.
We're thinking, quite seriously, of selling our pitch at Cartmel. I couldn't have comprehended even considering that even a year ago, not even 6 months ago. Cartmel is a great track for us- it's busy at virtually every single meeting, the Tatts enclosure has a limited pool of bookmakers (25 of which only 20 bet in the main ring) and we generally win very well there overall. So why sell now? Expenses. Not expenses for the general public or even cost of living affecting punting as Cartmel hasn't been affected by this, but we all live in the North of Scotland. It's pretty much impossible for us to commute to Cartmel on the day of racing so an overnight is required the night before. There's always a one day gap between racedays so a 2 day race meeting is a 3 night accommodation necessity. I've just booked our accommodation for the May Bank holiday weekend and the absolute cheapest option (in a static caravan) when extrapolated over the year is going to come in at the thick end of £2000.
Then there's petrol. I drive a diesel Sherman tank. Kevin also drives a diesel tank- his is older but has heated leather seats and a pop up sat nav in the dashboard that's great if you want to drive on the roads of 2010. He may even have a gun turret. Kev's radio also seems to only be capable of playing middle of the road, tortuous crap pop and I'm incapable of rectifying this. It's a tough call which one is worse but at least they do about 55 to the gallon. Steve drives a little thing that's faster but can't hold the gear and needs refuelling at the end of his drive. From my point of view I was fairly ambivalent to travel distance until recently as the 45p a mile tax allowance covered most of the cost at the end of the year but clearly no more. All in all this has led us to the inconceivable idea of selling one of our most profitable pitches and reinvesting closer to home.
Spoke to a bookie in the North East who's given up going to Perth despite having a very good number (and another absolutely cracking track) for the exact same reason. So will bookmaking become more regionalised again? For books that are looking closely at their sums then, yes, I think it will. If we're likely to give up a profitable pick at a busy track then guys travelling 3 hours to stand on the back line somewhere must be having the same thoughts. The festivals (for us Ascot and Cheltenham) will remain, as it's one trip for 4 or 5 days but even they must come under scrutiny for many, particularly from poorer pitches. If you don't have a decent number at Cheltenham it's a huge ask to get your expenses back as a travelling book will be looking upwards of £5000 for the week.
So unless we're prepared to walk 500 miles then Cartmel may very well be off the agenda. At least we won't be walking 500 more... onto some betting. With the emphasis on "some"...
1) We took coppers and we won coppers. One of our small bogeys (Mavis Pike) was nabbed on the line by one of our small winners (drifting original fav Ici La Reine) but when you're taking 25 bets the blood isn't going to be pumping either way.
2) We prayed for a non runner but we didn't get one so we were playing with a 90% place book and hoped that the win side would prop up the inevitable losses in the each way market. There was only one result where we couldn't have lost on places so it was damage limitation on that side. One of the other books was win only so, inevitably, we were asked for an each way bet at their win only prices. We politely declined. We did lose on the places, but only small, and won enough to give us another miniscule nudge forward when the drifting short priced jolly made hard work of it but eventually prevailed. We won a fiver on the skinned forecast as well. That was my sausage and chips sorted for the way home.
3) The French Open was the 3rd heat and it was hard to tell whether the Geordie punters, or the scouse bookmaker mangled the accents the most. I probably got it on the nod. It was like watching a modern day Allo, Allo. Anyway, we lost on Baron de Midleton who beat our only winner Heroique De Mauld. We laid the forecast as well and my sausage supper was downgraded. Kevin's haddock was a distant dream.
4) The first race where we actually took enough to make a book. Not a lot but enough. We stood Caithness for half of what we took (mainly to Scottish folk pining for home) and Hashtag Boum for half of that again (either to Twitter users or punters who thought they were getting former the Gold Cup winner). Reminded me of when Everton bought Ibrahima Bakayoko years ago. A load of my mates thought they were signing Ibrahim Ba... We thought we had the jackpot as outsider Si Elegant was cruising but flattened the second last to let jolly Blue Fin take charge. Elegant finished in style but it was too little, too late and a great win turned into a modest one. Sausage was back on, haddock wasn't.
5) Honestly- don't know what to say here. As a less than articulate ex footballer once noted "it's deja vu all over again Jeff". And it was. Originally a 14 runner handicap for the big prize of the day won by the jolly backed in and in and in to 7/4 which didn't go well, suffered a slipped saddle and still got up. It was a small winner for us so we can't complain, especially as the 2nd and 3rd horses were both losers but I fear that we won't be in that position in a few weeks at Ayr.
6) Was there really still 3 races to go? It was getting noticeable colder and the 2 races where we took enough to make a book were likely to be consigned to our memory banks. Two losers, Five Star Getaway and Easy As That. 2 in it with half a mile to go (see horses above) and at least we got the better loser. Places were ok as they are likely to be in a 7 runner which got us half the win book loss back but another tip toe in the wrong direction.
7) 6 runners down to 4. In typical CairnBet fashion the winners were in the middle of the book, the jolly a loser and the outsider, Stainsby Girl, was a boring 0-0 draw (which is also what I got on the way home watching the footy on the phone as Kevin drove). Sage books will note that we didn't cash in on the outsider of the 4 and they'll be right. Modest bookmaker twirling from all but us.
8) We didn't take a lot but we stood a couple of them for half of what we took. They were the only couple that could win from a long way out of course and the liability difference was 7 quid. Or Kevin's fish supper, if you like. Despite the worst of the two winning he still got his dinner.
I worked out my share of the wages when my little fella asked me how we'd done. About 4 quid an hour so, despite a very small win overall, how did we feel about the Eider? Down. And that, ladies and gentleman, will be the high(low)light of this and any other blog. You're ever so welcome.
Kelso next week and then the Cheltenham rollercoaster thereafter. Strap yourself in. Until then...
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