Cheltenham 11/3/26 -

As is always the case in a festival week, a very quick trot through the book before I go to bed (9:30 at latest)

Though before I start, hats off to my doppelganger who appears to have infiltrated the Cheltenham background music box as we have Stone Roses, The Cure, Happy Mondays and Lightning Seeds on an infinity loop. Lovely.

Quietest day of the week and turnover was pretty modest and if anyone in this blog complains that we won't get a rag skinner on Gold Cup Friday they'll get my boot up their backside.

1) Stood 3 at the top of the market but couldn't cash in on King Rasko Grey which was merely a score draw topped up by a nice place result. 36 bets didn't bode well... Took a 20 euro treble and this was the first leg. 500/1. Was prepping my neighbours for a few race 3 hedges... 2) Two bogeys, the inevitable Romeo Coolio and leg two of our 10 grand payout, Kaid Dauthie. Kitzbuhel led all and it was a stress free end as the only challenger, Final Demand, was similarly profitable. No £10k payout then. After the Kitzbuhel win, would it all be downhill from here though? You're welcome.

3) Twitter grief incoming as we win on a jolly. In our defence we stood 4 of the top 6 in the market plus another couple at the bottom but we know there'll be ire for which we apologise profusely.

4) Round and round they go until the favourite wins. Except this year when it didn't and we took full reward for standing the top 3 in the market for various amounts. Best result of the day.

5) And the gifts kept on giving. Liabilities on Majborough (though not as much as expected) and Leau Du Sud and a solid result on 2nd favourite Il Etait Temps which was smashed up in such a way we had an element of confidence which evaporated when Maj hit 1.3 but then proceeded to hit pretty much every fence thereafter.

6) Another 4 of the top 6 stood and we hit a genuine skinner. We also made mockery of yesterday's assertion that we always lose on pixel photos as the rag, and genuine skinner, Martator defied being 13/8 in the photo and we were on the right side of quite the difference between first and second. Kevin mentioned that you never get these results on Gold Cup Friday...

7) Stood 4 of them and one of them won. Matthew told me my book wasn't very good. In slightly fewer words. Cheeky sod. Can't dodge bullets forever. Places eased a little of the loss but we ended with our first minus of the day but we had a decent day despite a slightly disappointing bet count.

Wind and rain tomorrow. Until then...