So this is going to start a bit seriously. Kelso was restricted to a crowd of 500 who were all members. There is a lot of discussion that events are non essential and appear, therefore, to be an easy target for Covid restrictions. There appears to be little consistency in these regulations. I have looked hard and I am struggling to find any evidence that these types of outdoor events contribute to increased Covid spread as the overwhelming incidence of Covid spread is indoors, yet large indoor shopping centres remain open and the crowd who were denied access to an open air event could view that event on tv in a pub. This scarcely appears credible. There is an example in Wales where 200 people wanted to watch a rugby match outdoors. 50 were allowed and the remainder could, legally, only watch the game by all entering the clubhouse and watching through the window. It would be funny if it wasn't so ridiculous and wasn't impacting so many people's businesses, livelihoods and wellbeing.
On the subject of what is and isn't "essential" I gave some thought to just this particular event and came up with the following who were impacted financially.
1) The racecourse themselves who lost the ticket income of approximately 3500 people plus hospitality, food and drink sales etc
2) The businesses who run the concessions within the racecourse
3) Approximately 20 on course bookmaker firms who were unable to attend plus the 4 of us who did and saw turnover of approximately 30% of the usual amount.
4) The hotels, restaurants, shops and pubs of Kelso who would have benefitted from the increased trade generated.
5) The employees, many of whom would be temporary, agency, zero hours workers who lost a day's work.
Back of the envelope calculations would suggest dozens of businesses and hundreds of employees were negatively affected and I'd imagine most of them would consider this type of event "essential". And this is just one relatively small event amongst many, many others that have been either cancelled or dramatically scaled back. For us, and many others in events, hospitality and tourism, the Christmas and New Year period is absolutely essential to bridge the financial gap from November to mid March. We have lost 3 meetings (1st, 2nd and 3rd Jan) and have seen this meeting's turnover reduced by 70% Approximately 40% of our income from November - March is derived over the Christmas period. Any grants we receive (if, indeed, we do) are likely to cover less than 10% of our lost income (based on the published Welsh model). This is income I can never replace. It is essential to me and my family.
It was a strange atmosphere with such a small number of folk milling round such a large area and many people commented on it. This is normally my favourite meeting at Kelso- a good crowd with everyone still in the festive spirit. Yesterday was semi funereal. There was also a temporary suspension in the ongoing punters v bookmakers battle- so many punters with kind words and understanding- I swear some of them even wanted to lose to us! If anyone who punted with us yesterday is reading this, your consideration was very much appreciated.
Onto the racing then. We had a couple of lumpy bets during the day and one of them was for Famous Bridge at 4/5 in the first so we got off to a flying start at Kelso for a change. The winner, Ned Tanner, was nibbled at late and we felt we had a chance. It was always going better but heart was in mouth over last. One up for the good (ish) guys. Punters made it 1-1 in the 2nd as Grand Voyage came home comfortably. Another lumpy bet and a steady influx of tenners and twenties and the game was up for us. Still ahead but a reduced margin and the momentum lost.
The 1:17 was a tough one for us. Cedar Hill led then lost the lead and looked in trouble. Sadly (for us at least) there was a rally from the last and punters went 2-1 up. We were still a little ahead but the steak and chips was looking increasingly potato based.
The final lumpy bet of the day came in the 1:52 on Ladronne and it came in before the 1:17 had even started. We hedged some back in the ring (thanks to our colleagues for helping out there) and things were further complicated by the withdrawal of Coopers Cross shortly afterwards (still before the 1:17 went) which meant a likely 10p reduction, but it was unlikely to be announced on track due to the timing, so we envisaged a tricky conversation with the punter if Ladronne obliged. Thanks also to John (Betting Ring Manager) who we made aware of in the event. Ladronne's price collapsed from the 11/2 we laid to 9/2 in the reformed market and it eventually went off at 7/2. We feared the worst, particularly when it hit evens in running but it faded badly shortly afterwards and never looked the winner. The favourite, Sounds Russian, obliged comfortably from the skinner, Uptown Harry, in 2nd but it was, in reality, a bullet dodged and the favourite ended up being a smallish winner for us.
The 2:27 went the other way. The favourite was a small loser for us but the eventual winner, Millarville, was much the same. Local horse, local jockey, very popular on track. What looked to be a decent result wasn't and the places hurt us further having laid a number of each way bets on both of the 2nd and 3rd horses.
The 3:00 was a poor betting spectacle. Soft Risk hovering around 1/5 before going off 2/9. Not a lot of interest in the ring and, to be frank, we didn't really play hard in this one. The each way market was horrible from our perspective and it was nice to dodge the places bullet which could've been horrific as we only laid one each way better across the first 3. Small win and we were slightly ahead going into the last.
Cudgel was relatively popular but the main money horse in the ring was Prince Dundee. It really was a 2 horse job from a long way out and it was our best result v our worst. Both Lucinda's... Buddha Scheme was going much better but the traditional bookmaker pessimism kicked in until it cleared the last and was then never in danger.
In the context of the reduced crowd and low turnover we ended up having a fairly decent day. Thanks again to all our smashing punters, particularly the lovely lady clutching Bert Logan's winning ticket from back in October who proceeded to clean up at Newbury and the chap from hospitality who regaled us with terrific stories all day and heartily and genuinely congratulated us on our day at the end.
I was hoping to post again from Musselburgh (twice) and Ayr but our travails and (hopefully) successes will now have to wait until Kelso again on 16th which is the next time we're out.
Happy New Year to you all. May all your bets be winners (but not necessarily with us!)