Ayr - Scottish Grand National 18/4/26 - Our Time In Eden

The National bandwagon rolls on from North West England to the West Coast of Scotland and, whilst the location changes, the 6:30 alarm call doesn't. A quick piece of toast and a coffee (double shot, obvs) whilst catching up with some nerdy online, turn based board games, and we blinked in the sunshine as we loaded the final bits into the car around 7:40. Steve would've been on the road earlier for the rendezvous at Perth for 8:15. At least Matthew and Steve could get a doze in the car, my eyes fixed resolutely on the A9 as we headed west. Matthew, who doesn't sleep in the car, was cat napping by Auchterarder though he, like my Uncle Ken used to claim, was inspecting the inside of his eye lids.

If the home straight was like the car park it was going to be tough going as the search for faster ground through the maze of cars was relatively fruitless and we relied on brute force and ignorance to get the gear through the swamp. Matthew provided the brute force, I, as usual, provided plenty of ignorance.

Not seen Steve since September until this week but we were now doing our 4th day in little over a week. It felt like the good old days. Steve on the back, me spouting rubbish on the front, the only difference being Junior shaking his head and looking faintly embarrassed at his old man. That's a Dad's job, in bookmaking as in life.

We pitched in the old silver ring, known locally as the bongos, and we hoped to drum up plenty of business. Great to work next to Tony who we only see infrequently, and also brilliant to see Jamie running the Jimmy Latham pitch.

1) Back on home turf and we know we're going to lay Lucinda's so no surprise that Traprain Law was one of the bogeys along with Sans Bruit. As you know, bookmakers love the sound of silence and that is precisely what we got as Moudan was as smashed up off course as it was completely ignored on course and, despite going off 2nd favourite, was the best winner in the book. We were "without noise" in the stands - come for the betting, stay for the Duolingo...

2) Diamond Dealer withdrawing half way through the betting meant a hasty re-price and the knowledge that we would spend the 20 minutes after the race explaining what a rule 4 meant. 2 "Lucindas", two bogeys, Big John Wayne being the more popular of the two, we presume name based, but I Wish You was nearly as popular. For the 2nd race running we got the best winner in the book with Pounding Poet who beat Big John who looked a bit leggy.... A quick check next door confirmed much the same with them. We liked the habit and we weren't keen to break it.

3) Race 3 was Lucinda free but we fancied Ooh Betty would be popular on the name stakes, and so it proved. Captain Hugo was our other bogey. Inconceivably we landed the hat-trick with Dedicated Hero once more the best winner in the book, beating the 2 bogeys to put the sprinkles on the cherry on the cake. A quick check next door and, again, much the same. A daft saying really, as a cherry rarely improves a cake...

4) This was getting silly. We've never seen anything like this. Game Colours the winner and, yep, it was. Fox's Fancy who was struggling early and 2nd place World of Fortune the losers.

5) I'm embarrassed to say... took a tenner and a five on the winner Kap Vert. That was it. This was starting to feel like an out of body experience. We might get one "best winner" every 3 meetings or so. We'd just had 5 on the run. Apologies to punters. This simply never happens.

6) Could it continue? Is there such a thing as fate? No, it couldn't and no there isn't. 5/6 favourites unlikely to be losers in a tented village area so we eked out a win after standing West Hill Verde and Stride On. No complaints in fairness.

7) 7th race, same as the 6th. Ok win on fav which had drifted alarmingly. Stood Keops Des Bordes and Coconut Man for completeness.

We'd scratted around the Thursday and Friday of Aintree week for expenses and, all of a sudden, we hit two monsters. I was tempted to call the blog "Monster" but it really isn't much of an album, with a couple of exceptions. Our Time In Eden a better description and a much better record.

Apologies for the 2nd meeting running to our punter readers. We know we'll lose a few followers (!) and we'll do our best to have a poor Perth next week to make up for it. Until then...