We start with an apology for our copyright infringement from yesterday and we aim to put right our wrongs by giving due credit to our friend Mr Swanny for his contribution to yesterday's pun fest. His were the good ones.
On the track for 11am with pitch in at 12 noon and the intervening hour was spent hovering over various weather apps with the rest of our bookmaking fraternity. At 11:55 the rain had left Dublin, crossed the Irish Sea and was sauntering across Anglesey as the, literal, sea of green, yellow and red lit up the rain radar like the most depressing traffic light you've ever seen. Met Office told us sternly that the heavy/torrential rain was coming at 3:00 but the Beeb Weather app optimistically suggested it was a light showers job. Accuweather flipped and flopped and Twitter showed us lots of dogs dressed up as Dolly Parton and offered us all help to decide whether we were raving fascists or lefty wokies with no possibility that we could possibly be anything else. Which didn't help us much finding the winner in the getting soaked maiden stakes.
We decided to trust Auntie Beeb, more in blind hope than expectation of accuracy, and pitched up at the sunny end of the street near the ice cream van. We needed 6 clear weather races to justify our pick.
1) The ice cream van end is always a slow starter and today was exactly the same. Swanny offered us refreshments but was concerned that the teeny tiny ice cream flakes may have been subject to a rule 4 so we all passed and moved on. 5 losers, 5 winners as is not unusual for us and our worst result (Red Mirage) got us off to a poor start. The only saving grace being the take was so poor that our "half what we take" liability didn't put us in a bigger hole. The book was completely hedge free so we were morally happy but financially miserable.
2) Another totally hedge free race was nice but the book was pretty dull with small losers (Bakersboy and Mujtaba) and small winners (the rest) and Baryshnikov was one of the smaller winners. We hadn't got our losses back but we had made a dent and we did have the absolute delight of a lovely chap, who may have already been on his 6th pint, manfully trying to pronounce the winners name and he was clearly unfamiliar with Russian ballet dancers/ham actors and settled for something that sounded like he'd asked Kazakhstani Alexa. We eventually settled on "tenner on 7". Oh and we won 20 quid on the forecast which I'd forgotten we'd even laid.
3) 4 runners, not many bets, 1 loser. It won. We even laid the forecast though we won in that market overall. Another step backwards and we were staring down 3 days away from home with nothing to show for it. Apart from a great game of golf. You can't eat golf though.
4) The floodgates finally opened in the big race, metaphorically if not geographically, and we took enough bets to finally get stuck in. And we did get stuck into Frankie's favourite Falcon Eight. We took enough on the race to lay to our maximum liability in the win and place market- other losers being The Grand Visir and It's Good To Laugh. We got them all beaten but didn't feel like we got as much as we'd have hoped with the winner, Cleveland. The decision to take on Frankie's in the place market did pay further dividends though and we won more in the each ways than in the win. We were ahead but the rain clock of doom was a ticking.
5) Couldn't lay the original and drifting favourite, Kings Lynn which meant it was running for us and was our best result. Blue de Vega and Acklam Express were half liabilities and our worst results. The winner, Flaming Rib, was a bore draw and we barely made a move.
6) The other big runner handicap got the interest of the crowd back as the skies darkened and we prayed for another half an hour's grace. We got a lovely liability on Heart of Soul in the win and each way market and supplemented that with further liabilities on Bamboo Bay, Arctic Fox, Iconique and Casting Vote. Heart of Soul shortened on the off but we were still hopeful. Less so when it hit odds on in running with a furlong and a half to go. Kalaroun took over though and was our absolute jackpot- it couldn't hang on though and Haseefah triumphed which was also a cracking result for us. Kev thought the fav (Scampi) had got up and he was delighted to be stood corrected.
7) Rain down, rain down. Come on, rain down on me. From a great height. In truth we were lucky to get 6 races in before the heavens opened and the 6th race was our best result of the day to leave us nicely ahead. The mass exodus began almost immediately and we barely took a bet. Small liabilities on aptly named Hydroplane plus Call My Bluff, Chase The Dollar and Dance to Paris and small winners on the rest. Bellatrixsa obliged and we won on a favourite- it's not as common as people believe to have jollies running for us but it can happen and it did here. Small top up.
In summary our biggest bit of luck on the day was the rain staying away long enough to get us a long awaited result in the 6th which meant a respectable week for us despite a less than inspiring take, especially on Wednesday.
Right, that's it until Perth Ladies Day next week- the doorbell at my uncle's where I'm staying has just gone, the curries are here, the beer has been popped and, if everything tastes as good as it smells then it's Friday, I'm in love...
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