Musselburgh 16 April 22 - What's in a name?

A little postscript that I forgot about yesterday. We had 3 absolutely delightful ladies betting with us at Newcastle yesterday and after the last they wondered if we would be able to take bets in Autumn on Strictly. We're at Perth, Musselburgh, Kelso and Chester in September so if Elite can set the market up for us, Kev brings his whiteboard, I bring the wife's New Years Eve glitterballs and Steve brings his look of utter disdain and disgust at the enterprise we might just price it up for the lucky punters who attend. Payouts as follows- Musselburgh New Years Day, Kelso February, Perth April and Chester May. You're still my favourites.

Much discussion today about where to stand (we had 2 pitches). Initially we were considering on the lawns at the 1f marker but on further inspection it looked to be a little far out and we passed. Our first pitch went on the lawn at the end of the ring and our second pitch went in the main ring. As a rule you tend to lay more of the outsiders in the picnic area and more at the top of the market in the ring so we felt that would give us more of a balance. We also had Amanda joining us today to add more than a little much needed class and glamour to the CairnBet crew- a fact not missed by our colleagues on the lawn!

First order of the day was to decide on our liability which was a decent chunk but not big meeting full throttle. We felt this would give us enough breathing room to minimise hedging and so it proved generally speaking.

1) Aways. Yes "aways". Our very favourite poultry farmers attended today so we knew we were in for a busy day at the far flung tracks of Carlisle, Newbury, Haydock and Newton Abbot. Plus Ireland. I took most of the bets and after much to-ing and fro-ing both sides of the battle were happy, both showing a profit after steady wins on our side were offset by a big win on an outsider which we had a bit back on so our friends won more than we lost on that one. See, the good guys and the good guys can both win!

1B) CairnBet bingo in the first with maximum losses on DirtyOldTown (12/1) and Last Hoorah (25/1) plus a half liability on Atrium (4/1) and a smallish one on the favourite Spirit Catcher (7/2). Not for the last time today we had 2 liabilities heading affairs and at least the smaller one (Spirit Catcher) won to give us a losing start but not an insurmountable deficit this early on.

2) Another "eyes down, look in" job as losers were scattered liberally across the book with 2nd favourite Gioia Cieca, Zip and the outsider Rains of Castermere at full liability and Geometra Ginty half way there. This time we had winners going to the line vying for our money and the winner Gweedore was a tidy result for us.

3) In what was becoming a theme we had 2 losers vying for the honour of how much dent they could put in our book- the winner Zarzyni being the marginally less smelly option than the 2nd horse JustAnotherBottle. Couldn't lay the favourite for love nor money and it ran for us but sadly not well enough. Raasel, Copper Knight and Call Me Ginger rounded out the bad side of the book though at least Call Me Ginger allowed me to make the most predictable gag of the day, literally every single time we took a bet on it. And some of those that bet it were ginger which made the gag even funnier. Unless you were Amanda who heard it 14 times in 20 minutes. Bless you Amanda. Small ahead but only small.

4) The (al)most predictable lay of the day was Dark Jedi. Picnickers, parents of Star Wars obsessed kids, 50 year old kids with Stormtrooper t shirts, they were all on it and we stood it for the max along with the aptly named TheMaxWeCan. Half max liabilities on the favourite Zero Ten and Alright Sunshine. Enemy won for what looked like a jackpot until we put the places in and discovered half a jackpot. Still better than paying out in Corellian Dollars or Sith Lord Shillings on the 2nd horse.

5) This was a mess of a book and part 1 of our "What's in a name" double header. Little Betty was our new most predictable lay of the day with parents of Elizabeths, Lizs, Lizzys and, of course, Bettys, queuing up to get a £2.50 each way at the ludicrous opening show of something in the region of 40/1. Those fivers add up more quickly than you realise and 5 minutes later and it was 18/1 and any value in our book was long, long gone. An Ugly Betty if you like. It was a max loser along with a half loser on the fav Thunder Moor. As is often the case, the worst book throws you a lifeline in the shape of the winner Miss Jungle Cat which was nice if not spectacular supplemented by a nice place book and a skinned forecast. A decent lead at this point but like the FA Cup semi final there was to be a sting in the tail.

6) Part 2 of "What's In a Name" this time it was Rose or Rosy betting Rose Bandit (11/1). Supplemented by gardeners and possibly even highwaymen. On and on the Rosys came and our liability hit max, the only break being lumps on the favourite Khabib which also was a max loss for us. In a re-run of a couple of previous races a nose split them in the CairnBet max loss irrelevance stakes and the places also looked ugly. A race summary confirmed they were as bad as feared and our worst result since Cheltenham was confirmed on an 11/1 winner that was heartily cheered elsewhere in the ring. We called in next door for official verification of our misery. He had the good grace not to laugh. Warts and all.

7) Could it get worse? Well, not exactly worse from a financial point of view but it was close as the max loss favourite beat the absolute jackpot 2nd favourite after hitting 20s in running and looking like it couldn't win if the rest of the field had jumped off and had a cup of tea. Heartbreaker for us and a wall of noise from the stands. At least we didn't lose on the places this time.

In summary we'd have been better off with a catastrophic equipment failure after 5 and we'd have got out with a nice win instead of a small one. The sages always suggest you should lock it up when you're ahead but if we knew whether what we laid was going to win or not we'd be on a beach. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Perth festival from Wednesday. We are very much hoping our friend Graeme (@theformanalyst) will be joining us for one of the days and guest starring by running the book for a race or two. Until then...