Regular CairnBet follower will know we tend to avoid midweeks like Leeds avoid defending but the promise of good weather, 8 races, plenty of runners, the appearance of Corach Rambler and the Royal patronage on the day made us go against the grain and rock up for a normal Monday meeting for the first time since 2015 in teh expectation of a decent crowd.
Unfortunately for us, we were not the only bookmakers seduced out of their midweek slumbers and the front line stretched up to the bar. We have a good pick at Kelso and hoped that would be enough to generate sufficient business given the surfeit of books on the day.
It was still a bit of a "test" case for us so we had our usual training wheels Kelso liabilities in place with the option to reduce a bit if the business was less than brisk. Steve was otherwise engaged/mildly disparaging so Bryson stepped in to fill the breach for the 2nd time in 3 days. He left his phone in my car from Saturday and, when I messed up my departure timings, along with needing to pick up petrol I feared he'd be camped on his doorstep for half an hour, paper in hand. A quick text only confirmed my inability to get hold of him when my glove box immediately buzzed and lit up.
1) The opener was a 14 runner affair or 3 1/2 runners if you were being honest. Hard to know how to play it so we went with a small liability on the jolly Jimmy Chou Pecos and small winners dotted around the rest of the book. The 2nd favourite gave us a nice start, but business was relatively quiet so "nice" is in context...
2) Coniston Clouds for the max here and, whilst the betting remained modest, it was just on the right side of workable. Lissen to the Lady for a half and On We Go for a small one. A similar move forward to the first as Hashtag Boum won but the 2nd, Warriors Story, was a jackpot (again in context) so joy was tempered with mild frustration. We had the expenses, we had Bryson's wage and, as we were closer to home that Saturday, we were foregoing the fish supper after racing.
3) Max on Thunder in Milan plus halves on Where's Hector, Fever Roque and Don't Tell Allen but it was a tale of what might've been again as tiny winner Azof Des Mottes just held on from fast finishing jackpot The Jad Factor. Places were nice though and doubled our very modest win.
I hope I'm not breaking protocol here but CairnBet stepped into a new echelon of respectability as Kelso's Royal visitor had a tenner with us on, I believe, Lucinda's Thunder in Milan. Cash as well. I said "Cash is King" and she said "my brother is actually". At least that's how it happened in my head. It will next time. In reality I was on the back, Bryson took the bet and said "I hope we're lucky for you dear" and I said "best of luck, love". A trip to the tower potentially awaits. It was only after about 20 seconds when Bryson commented "that was Princess Anne", and then noted that he didn't recognise her at first as he thought she would be a bit taller. Aye- relative height- that's what you look for when recognising one of the most famous people in the country... At least I had the excuse of having my head down at the time. Anyway we can now add Princess Anne to a long list of famous CairnBet patrons which previously consisted of Dave Spikey and Alan McInally. I expect that question to pop up on Only Connect in the next series. I'd imagine it may be the only time she's addressed as "love" all year as well...
In further Royal news Mike tells me that the palace will now be furnished with a multitude of Mick Walsh pens. I'll look out for the signing of the next Royal proclamation with interest to see if if the signing instrument involves orange and black...
4) The betting activity dropped in line with the number of runners. Though maybe it was the excitement. Not much we could do with the book which was barely formed- 2 losers, Domanlouis and Bavington Bob and 2 winners, Slanelough and Marown so, of course, the 0-0 draw (St Arvans) won and we remained static. Betfair decided to withdraw the wrong horse from their forecast market so we had to set the market up manually which is a bit of a laborious process and we ended up laying the 4-6 forecast to boot. Dumb bunny. For you Zootropolis fans.
5) Betting was again modest (and would remain so throughout the day) and we had liabilities on Rae Des Champs, Animore and Lady Hamilton. Ravenscar the jackpot and it was cruising until Ian from the Sam Black team punctured my optimism by telling me it never finds. And it didn't- he wanted it too. Atlantic Dancer did at least hang on to beat Rae Des Champs but "modest" continued to be the order of the day. Standing a couple at the bottom of the market for the places gave us a further move forward and we were tiptoeing quietly towards respectability.
6) At least we were until the jolly Ballydonagh Boy lost us the (revised lower Kelso) max and we only avoided the dreaded "worst result in the book" by a fiver. No consolation and a step backwards, especially in the context of a quiet day.
7) We needed to land one of our near misses and we finally did with Hierachy giving us our best result in the book and easily our best result of the day despite being 2nd favourite. Heart Above (one of a couple of bogeys along with the jolly Speed Davis) nearly broke our hearts but we got a good one in the end. Tip toe became reasonably decent jump and, unless we had a disastrous last, attending was going to prove the right decision.
8) Desperately quiet end meant that we weren't stuck out on anything much, Lisnamult Lad, Northern Cardinal and Nae Bother At A being the small losers. Lune De La Mer beat two of the losers and, whilst it was barely a win itself, it was preferable to the 2nd and 3rd.
Overall I'm glad we attended but that may be because we got on the right side of a few, rather than it necessarily being the correct decision based on turnover. Though if I have, indeed, broken Royal protocol then my next blog may very well be from a room overlooking the Thames.
Friday at Ayr no longer workable for us- realistically only the 10 books in the paddock and the likely 5 on the rails will take enough to justify the cost so The Scottish National meeting on Saturday next for us when Kitty's Light will inevitably lead to blogging tales of woe.
Until then...
Commentaires