Yes, I know I've used this headline before but it summed up day 2 and who doesn't love a reprise of the quote from the footy player who said it on live tv?
I'm trying to get this one out at 11pm whilst my infinitely better half is watching Coldplay on Glastonbury. And, yes, she's "singing" along. She has many gifts, my lovely lovely wife; holding a tune isn't one of them. Though compared to my crooning, she's Natalie Merchant. I work on the basis that if I only ever sing the one note at some point it'll be the right one.
Yesterday was all about the smash up followed by the hose up. Bear this in mind when you peruse the next 8 races...
1) Wiltshire 13/2 into 7/2. Described as "comfortably" in Racing Post. Fortunately we'd laid City House, Kings Lynn and Strike Red around it. Moderate win, terrible places but it was at least a positive result, however small, on the 9th race on the run won by one of the top 2 in the betting. In fairness, there may have been a 3rd favourite in a million runner race yesterday but they're all merging into one at this point.
2) Top two in the market for the max became first and second in the race. Max loss. Behind on the day. Miles behind for the weekend factoring in the expenses. And yes it was 9/2 into 7/2. Depressing. 10 on the run. We had our spades out and we were digging our own pit of misery.
3) Another race, another max on another jolly, another easy win. I wanted to go home. At least it didn't move much in the market. Miles behind. The earth was being shovelled out. The Misery Pit was becoming a well. And a bloody deep one. Bernard Cribbins was gearing up for a rendition of "Hole In The Ground" and the copyright holders to The Ring were eyeing up more royalties. 11 on the run.
4) Stood the top two for maxes again along with perennially well bet, at Newcastle, Zoffee. Respite. Glorious respite. OneSmoothOperator normally also popular at Newcastle but we largely steered it to have a very good result and places were, finally, kind. We'd, at least, paused digging and, whilst the light at the end of the tunnel was still distant, at least it was no longer ring shaped. We even filled in a couple trowels full in our quest for parity.
5) Original favourite wins after a big drift at Newcastle. I know, you think I'm quoting The National Enquirer or, even more unlikely, The Daily Star, but it really, really happened. We stood United Approach for max and, inevitably, Local Hero. We got the 3rd in and won a reasonable chunk in the win market and had a dream of a place result to double our money. Covering expenses now looked possible for the first time.
6) We got the mini diggers in. We filled Bernard's hole. We planted the bulbs and Newcastle became a vibrant field of daffodils and tulips. Metaphorically. Misery was replaced with relief. Rice was upgraded from "boiled" to "fried" on the off chance the chippy was still open when we got home. We'd stood Invited and Dutch Finale for maxes and came rather close to a skinner on Against The Wind- given the first 11 races it felt rather aptly named.
7) Stood a couple at the top and got a small win on the one we missed, Bystander. Places nudged us forward. Inconceivable just 90 minutes earlier. For the record it was 9/2 into 7/2, yep.
8) Baltic. All they wanted. 100/30 into 5/2 and our day ended the way so many races had. Watching a smashed up favourite hose up. Max loss to finish.
All in all we got wages. Not spectacular, Saturday at Ascot or Scottish National, or even New Years Day wages, but wages from nowhere are sometimes the sweetest.
Psychologically, it was pretty mind numbingly awful for long periods of the last couple of days watching stuff halve in price, hit odds on after 2 furlongs and win motionless. I also know that sounds like sour grapes. It isn't, it happens, I'm not blaming anyone, it's the nature of what we do and it's part of the job, but it still stings when you feel like you're going up the down escalator and it's faster than you are. Ultimately we escaped last night and we hit 3 terrific races on the spin to get us out of jail.
A break for us now as we're not out until Hamilton in a couple of weeks. Until then...
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