Musselburgh 14/9/24 - The Rule of 4

Rule 4s are not in the bookmaker's favour. They're just not. Google it. Or ask our friend SD. The deduction never covers the chance of the withdrawn horse winning. Never. Value is always removed from the book. Always. And yet, they are the biggest bone of contention we get on course. Always. 3 non runners more or less on the off yesterday- don't get me wrong, most folk understand, either up front or when you've explained it. But some people just won't accept it. Not only that, they get abusive. "Robbing b******s" was a refrain yesterday; far more often than it should've been. We are human beings. Do you go into Sainsburys and call the checkout staff "Robbing b******s" when a tin of beans goes up 10p? No, I didn't think so. I am always happy to explain why a rule 4 happens, how it's calculated, and why it is in the punter's favour but, sadly, some folk are not interested in listening. They just want to call you a robbing b*****d in front of their mates to feel hard. And, whilst I'm on the subject, why is there still an assumption that our default position is a lie? It's not. Rant over. How did we get on?

1 ) Every other bet on Annandale and Little Ted. We were happy to stand both for the max and got our reward with a solid start on joint favourite Without Delay plus a nice little place top up too. Under way.

2) Couldn't really get enough on drifting original fav, Kirkdale, but did take enough on the bottom 5 in the market to get a decent win on the new, and smashed up, favourite Antonin Dvorak. Two favourites but we'd laid elsewhere and were off to a good start.

3) Bit of a nothing book in truth, couple of small liabilities on 2nd in the list Monticristo Boy and Unmistakeable. Punters couldn't count on the 2nd fav though and we got a gentle nudge forward on another winning favourite, Lady Roxby- apologies to our esteemed colleagues.

4) Dingwall out on the off. Horrible situation as we'd laid it relentlessly. So we had a rule 4 and a place change to explain to the queue which snaked back to the bar. Small loss on Molten Sea with jackpot Mon Etoile second after hitting 1.02 in running. Much gnashing of teeth.

5) The first "result" of the day and it was a jackpot for us. Knights Affair and Yorkindness were the only two they wanted- if I was being uber picky it would've been nice to get a bit more out of Robert Johnson- but a monster win was not to be sniffed at.

6) Showtime Mahomes the obvious lay in this one and it was as popular as expected. Clasina the other bad one and both drifted obligingly on the off. Solid win on another well backed favourite and spectacular places meant we were on the right side again.

7) A score draw in the win book but the monster place market of the day meant we had another good result to finish.

All in all we had a great day on what was traditionally a poor set of results. We're acutely aware that we've dodged bullets all day and got out of jail. Onwards to the 2nd part of our Musselburgh double header. Hardly an "until then" given it's back to back! But, until then...