I've written a pretty chunky stand alone piece so will have a very quick trot through our books from the weekend for the sake of completeness and also for the masochists out there that are still interested in what we do. And the sadists out there that enjoy reading on the off chance of us losing on a rag. There won't be a hint of the "P" word (which still isn't a word) as that's been done to death by me elsewhere today.
1) If you ploughed through our Cartmel "Shout" blog you'll know of the eternal search for something new, and possibly even witty, to say. In the first race I was given an absolute gift. Bloke stood there in a Stone Roses T shirt- full on lemon job- looking at our board. He eventually goes next door. I look sad and tell him that I just wanna be adored. You've got to admit, it's a beauty. He doesn't even look at me. Not even a smile. I wonder if it's like the kids in my son's high school class that have all taken to wearing Nirvana T shirts (bleached- you're welcome) and he just liked the lemon. He looks too young to have been at Spike Island (yes, I was, before you ask). I resolve to persevere and make it my personal mission to get a bet off this guy at some point. Book wise we have the patented 50/50 split standing Cosa Sara, Chinese Spirit and Victory House and get off to a cracking start as War Defender justifies favouritism. Just. 99% of the horse lost but the 1% at the front got it on the nod. Phew.
2) 3 losers out of 7, including max+ on On Borrowed Time (Steve either really didn't like it or he was checking his Fantasy League team on the off) and we ducked the winner again, Due Consideration, which was backed in to favourite, fortunately not with us. Nice move forward. I made the same gag with the same guy in the same t-shirt with the same result that he went next door. I was better off financially but suffering emotionally.
3) Normal book alert as we got stuck into the top 2 in the market and had another nice plus with 3rd in Zaphea. And, no, I still wasn't adored. Next door was getting every penny he had. I asked for commission, they told me he'd won on the last. I gracefully withdrew.
4) At this point I was going to make a resurrection gag but, knowing my crowd pleasing luck, I'd have done it just as the local church outing wandered by and probably wouldn't have got the context. I did, however, start singing. When I got to the line "You adore me" there was a group of ladies passing by. Obviously. Still, they had a bet, even if not offering up any unrequested adoration, possibly just an element of disgust. Jolly opened 1/2 - if you've read this blog before you know we'll have 5 losers out of 6, and we did. Shocking, shocking book as the jolly drifted to evens and we had a value free offering. Fortunately it still ran like a 1/2 shot and won by half the length of the track. We were in "better to be lucky than good" mode. 4-0 to us on what were less than promising looking results. But still no Stoney bet.
5) Stood the fav again for the max along with Black Friday- we like a bit of value. You're still welcome. Dodged them both but only got a score draw when 2nd favourite Showtime Mahomes won. I made Kansas City Chiefs references on every payout. Nobody batted an eyelid. And we were a resolute 0-5 from our lemon clad friend.
6) Enough was enough. I begged, I pleaded, I pointed out that I'd made the same bloody "I wanna be adored" gag for 2 1/2 bloody hours. It worked. We got the bet. Turned out to be a really nice guy and we traded gig stories. We won nicely again as we stood Lechro and Bobby Shaftoe to a crowd full of Roberts or sea shanty fans. Either way the jolly gave us win 5 out of 6.
7) And we got his bet in the last. He said he needed a winner. I told him "This is the one"- come on, you'd have been disappointed if I hadn't. Our luck ran out as the drifty "Whiskey Priest" gave us a losing end to the day. That church outing had the last laugh. I've been asking for 7 race cards for 2 months and when we finally get them back, we'd have been better off with 6.
In the end a very nice result overall, winning 5-1 on results that wouldn't have looked promising on paper. The vagaries of the system. Somewhat disappointed with the overall level of business though. Cost of living continues to chip away and I shared my concerns with our friend Bert. He, quite rightly, told me we were bloody lucky to win and should count our blessings. He's a wise man.
2nd part of the Musselburgh double header to come after dropping off my favourite daughter for panto rehearsals. In truth she's our only daughter and she once pointed that out to me. I reassured her that, if we ever did have another one, she'd still be in my top 2. Top parenting. And, as promised, not a P word in sight. Keep fighting the good fight though. See you shortly with part 2.
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