Kelso- No, me neither

We approached Kelso with our usual note of caution, though we decided to move from a small liability to a moderate one as it was a great card and a likely busy Saturday with the weather set fair. We were still painfully aware of the massive hedging profit (not a good thing!) that we'd experienced at Kelso over the years and were not yet looking to take the brakes off completely. The right decision? Read on...

Steve awakened from his winter hibernation and was charged with running the book- he is infinitely better in this regard than me so I was happy to hand the reins over. I was on the front as I am the designated pretty one of the Cairn Bet lineup. Which doesn't say a lot to be honest.

Race 1 and straight off the bat we took a chunky bet on Cuban Cigar which framed the book for the rest of the betting period, and itr continued to prove steadily popular throughout. Cuban was our only loser with 3 fairly decent winner and the outsider, Ultra Violet as the jackpot. Whilst not exactly a blanket finish they were all within a few lengths of each other but, sadly for us, Cuban won and we, of course, lost. We had the moral victory of not standing it for our usual liability that we put in elsewhere but, frankly, I'd rather have had the moral loss and the cash.

Race 2 and we had 3 losers, Richmond Lake, Bold Endeavour and Sholokjack (which was our worst result of the 3). In the closing stages North Lodge (a reasonable winner for us) and Nells Son (the 2nd best in our book) battled out a thriller and Nells just got up on the line to get us nicely in front after a couple. Happy to stand the 3 and we got our reward.

On to the 3rd and Famous Bridge was the biggest loser with Ngolo a small one after connections had a decent each way bet with us. The favourite duly obliged with some comfort and we were back to square one with 4 to go.

In race 4 we were in a bit of a mess. A really big bet on Dingo Dollar arrived right on the off which we took and then messed up the book trying to get it straight, compounded by the left hand (me) and the right hand (Steve) doubling up on the hedge- my fault, will try to make sure it doesn't happen again. In retrospect we probably should've laid half the bet (the liability was enormous) which would've been more manageable and would still have been more than many would lay. I won't bore you with the finer details but thanks to the Bert Logan team for helping us out with a hedge and we managed to get a bit sorted in running but it wasn't a great position. As it turned out we got a break with the 2 outsiders fighting it out and Nuts Well hanging on to get us out of jail. Didn't win as much as we should but could've been infinitely worse. We were modestly back ahead

In the big race we expected to lay the top 2 in the market plus Buveur D'Air which is exactly what transpired- good to know we got something right! Faivoir was another loser, albeit small, and we had good winners elsewhere right across the book. In the closing stages Faivoir was the only likely fly in our ointment as it battled with Cormier for the spoils. We were cheering Cormier in as a good winner for us until Saint Doroux (our barely laid jackpot) came from the clouds at which point our allegiances switched! Bookmaking can be a very fickle business... Cormier was a comfortable winner in the end and we had no complaints looking at a nice profit. As an aside there's been a lot of noise about the fences being omitted for the last 3 races. There was nothing the track could've done, TV dictated the time of the big race and anyone that's been to Kelso knows the situation after 3pm on a sunny day. We could hardly see punters coming from the paddock at walking pace so expecting jockeys to squint through the sun at top speed for obstacles looming up at them is ridiculous. Schedule it at 2:15 if you don't want this to occur.

The 6th could hardly have gone better for us. The patented CairnBet 1 horse book was, in this case a 3 horse book with the jolly, Heartbreak Kid and Dino Velvet our losers, the other 3 being good winners, Dubai Days our jackpot. The fav wasn't going well and a good result looked assured but nothing is ever quite so easy, Hardy Du Seuil rallied on the flat but couldn't quite get there and our biggest winner got us into a lovely position after 6.

The 7th could hardly have gone worse for us. 2 losers at our max liability who were the only 2 in the race. After a quick game of "choose your liability" the hugely bet Wheelbahri was an easy winner and our profit suffered a late puncture.

Overall we had a decent winning day. On the liability side, hard to know if we'd have won more playing it safer but absolutely guaranteed a losing day if we'd have stood what we took as we do elsewhere. The search for the winning combination at Kelso continues but no complaints yesterday in the end. Thanks for reading. Until Ayr (and then Cheltenham) may all your bets be winners but not necessarily with us!