Hamilton 21/8/26 - 8 becomes 6

Apologies for the absence of a blog last week at Perth. Family bereavement and a lot of stuff to sort out. Suffice to say that we were a grand down with 3 to go, clawed it back but we were wage free. Not what you're looking for on the busiest day (and only Saturday) at your local track but it is a notoriously hard place to win.

There was much excitement at an 8 race card at Hamilton until we saw the 1/20 shot in the 3 runner first and the 1/2 shot in the 3 runner 3rd. 8 races became 6.

Pitched up in 17 and for the 2nd week running we neighboured Monty. He's very good at attracting punters and we knew we had to be on our game. Matthew was on the front for us so we had the edge in the handsome stakes to try to counteract the lag we suffered in banter. It's all very good natured, however, as it should be.

Busy meeting this one and we were optimistic. Weather set fair, busy crowd early on despite the first race being brought forward. All systems go.

1) Except not really. What do you do with 1/20 in a 3 runner? The various options taken by various bookmakers included "distance", "without the favourite" and "York". We opted for a forecast and an optmistic 3 race treble picking up the shortie in race 3 as well as the 5/2 shot in the 2nd (went off 15/8). Main interest was in the rags with a few trebles and we eked out a small win on Pikachu which went straight to the front and, consequently, didn't have to catch em all. 2nd time we've made that gag - doesn't get any better for age. Lost small in the forecast. Water trod. Move on. 2) Got stuck in to Wild Dahlia which was already an early bogey as the 2nd leg of the aforementioned treble. Stood it for the max but failed to cash in as long time leader, and absolute jackpot, Krissy was snagged on the line by 2nd favourite and teeny tiny profitable Polygram. No records set here. No criticism of off course bookmakers as they have a different cost base with different challenges but fair to point out that we were 9/4 on the jolly on the off and I see it returned 15/8. We rarely do extra places/BOG etc but often times we can just be very good on price, especially at the top of the market. As an aside I (well, Matthew actually) noticed, as they came down the hill, that we had an eye watering place liability on Sharona - fortunately it's still running now.

3) Another snoozefest in the main book but the forecast threw up a lump on 3-1 which set the book and gave us a lovely win when 1 battled back to beat 3 on the line. A truly unexpected bonus. For those of you who don't follow Jerry "numbers not names" Nakassama was your winner and Lord Dor your beaten shortie.

4) Bingo book alert with 4 bogeys and we thought we finally got moving from a main book point of view with a decent win on 2nd favourite Evanesco who beat the 2 biggest bogeys, Yabher and Salamanca City but then we put the places in and 50% of the win profit magically evaporated. Sigh.

5) And a max loss followed on Eternal Sunshine which we couldn't keep them off. All very frustrating. Jordan Electrics still managed to haunt us, despite not winning for the first time in about 100 years at Hamilton, as places were, once again, not our friend.

6) And then a genuine jackpot. Almost a skinner. Our slow limp turned into something of a sprint and we were feeling rather Hunky Dory. You're welcome.

7) Small loss on the favourite in race 7 for which we were grateful to the backers of 2nd favourite Dandy Magic which was the max. Places covered the loss and added in a Fish Supper or a Happy Meal depending on your age demographic

8) The withdrawal of JM Jhingree on the off (well bet, all stakes refunded, no rule 4 due to price) made something of a mess of the book but a genuine skinner to finish on Thistle Nil brought 80% joy and 20% frustration at the loss of the JM top up. As a wiser book than me observed, however, it may have won.

2 monster results late on gave us a cracking winning day which looked impossible just an hour or so earlier.

That's it until Musselburgh when we "enjoy" the Lederhosen of Oktoberfest. In September. Until then...