I don't want to use this site to appeal for cash but we will soon be launching a crowdfunder to pay for Welsh Dave to be chipped as the poor lad was wandering around the car parks of Cheltenham for several hours last night looking forlornly for his lift. It's not live yet but when it is check out www.welshdaveschipappeal.co.uk (please don't let that be a real site...)
Fish and chips x 2, battered sausage and chips and we're watching the footy. I think I have given a fascinating insight into CairnBet crew's personal life so, without further ado, here's what happened today and, without spoiling anything too much we did hit our long awaited well bet 40/1 shot. And also lost heavily when an 11/8 shot got beat.
1) A pretty uninspiring looking betting heat led, unsurprisingly, to a pretty uninspiring take and a very uninspiring book with El Barra the loser, Bob Olinger the taker, Galopin Des Champ a modest winner. and the outsider of the 4 an unlikely looking jackpot. The favourite looked an easy winner until, from what we could see, it cleared the last and then stumbled on landing leaving Bob Olinger a fortunate winner and leaving us as we were.
2) We stood the jolly, Alaphilippe, for the max with Sire Du Berlais, Sassy Yet Classy and Ballyandy our other losers. The winner Third Wind was a decent winner for us but others at a similar price were worth a lot more. Books around us reported that they had to back it back to make it a winner so clearly some interest in the ring which gave us a good, but not spectacular, win.
3) Allaho was a red hot favourite and, whilst we took plenty of decent bets on it, we didn't take the massive lump needed to make it a big loser. We don't lay online so it was a very, very small winner for us with Eldorado Allen and Shan Blue the losers. Allaho won incredibly easily and the places were kind so we got away with a small profit where we would normally expect to lose on this type of race at Cheltenham.
4) In the Stayers we laid Flooring Porter and Thyme Hill and duly lost our full liability. Flooring Porter had a comfortable lead throughout and was never really pressed and we felt we never had a chance of getting it beat and so it proved. One forward, one back.
5) A "normal" looking book in this with Imperial Alcazar and The Glancing Queen big losers along with Spiritofthegames and we got our lump with Coole Cody beating a couple of our bogeys into 2nd and 3rd place. Big sighs of relief but this was to be as good as it got for us.
6) It's gone pretty well for us with our system so far- we've got away with a few traditional layers' losing days but our luck was to run out here with the winner Love Envoi a big loser despite beating the shortish priced favourite Dinoblue (which was, in our defence, also a loser!) Mighty Blue rounded out our bogeys and the cheers of our colleagues wasn't replicated on the CairnBet joint.
7) Our frustration continued when, in the last, our 3 bogeys, Frontal Assault, Mister Fogpatches and Come on Teddy were all beaten early. Steve mentioned that we couldn't lose which was technically correct but we had laid the eventual winner, Chambard, and it was barely a winner though the places helped a little but we knew a big result had passed us by. I told Kev the other day, when we had a great result on a joint favourite, that we needed to remember that when we didn't cash in on a rag. Today was that day.
We felt that we overperformed the results Tuesday and, to some extent, Wednesday- today was the absolute reverse and was way worse than par. Take it on the chin and move on.
Lot of talk about a 5th day at Cheltenham but I just can't see how. We have witnessed processions and coronations in lieu of racing so many times this week and the situation can only get worse with at least 2 additional races (and the likelihood of more as time goes on). The opening race today was a 2 horse race masquerading as a 4 horse race. And it turned out to be a totally uncompetitive one at that. This is the pinnacle of the jumps season and to see the top races reduced to whether the hotpot can jump a clear round is a disservice to all involved and cannot be dressed up as anything else. A quick glance at the text commentaries this week reveals a slew of "readily", "easily" and "eased".
Next blog likely to be Sunday to cover Gold Cup Day and the fixture at Newcastle on Saturday as on the road until late tomorrow night and Saturday night.
Until then...
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