Final one of 3 blogs today and my creative juices may not be flowing freely at this stage, if I'm being perfectly honest, so it may be a short one. Though my favourite daughter is watching "Yes Day" for the 80th time so I may linger longer here after all.
It was student day- I'm in a small minority in that I like student days. This one was Edinburgh and St Andrews universities so the tweed factor was turned up to max. As was, in fairness, the polite factor. They seem to be directly proportional to each other.
We diligently explained how each way worked. We diligently explained how odds worked- we initially went with "what you bet on the right you win on the left" until it became apparent that they all came to the conclusion that, if something was 7/4, their only option was to bet 4 quid. Or, more optimistically, 40 quid. So we went with a quick explanation of 2/1 then said you divide the number on the left by the number on the right to get the odds to one. Someone immediately asked if 5/2 was bigger than 2/1. I explained that it was two and a half to one. "Is it?" they asked. I enquired if they were a maths student, they were but didn't have a calculator. I suggested they didn't go into pharmacy. They had the good grace to laugh. I still liked them, each and every one.
1) 3 runners for the biggest prize of the day. But it was competitive and we did have a viable forecast market to play with. And explain... We had Indispensable for the max until a really lovely American student (there are a lot of American students at St Andrews- most of them wanted card bets which were about an evens chance to go through) came in with a surprisingly lumpy bet on Ziggy's Queen on the off to turn it from a nice winner into a bore draw. It won. I cursed, for the first and only time that she had cash rather than a Wells Fargo pre paid job- they never went through. She told me how much she'd won on NFL backing the right ones that were losing at half time. I think we probably dodged a bullet. Won a few quid on the forecast.
2) Anyone, and I mean anyone, who has ever read this blog will know that we had the 1/3 favourite and 5/2 second favourite onside with the 3 outsiders losing us maxes. We'd have preferred the odds on shot but settled for the 2nd in and supplemented with another few quid on the skinned forecast.
3) A solid win on a mid range one- Tulekya in this case. Venetian the popular one. I said Venice was nice this time of year- I think most of them were thinking of the blinds in their student digs.
4) 4 runners and, in surprising fashion, we effectively almost had a free swing at the 2 outsiders. They were never in it and the small loss on Princess Karine was offset by the small win on the forecast.
5) They just wanted Blue Antares. We stood it for the max. Steve liked the jolly and didn't chase it hard so another nice result for us as it came home with plenty to spare.
6) Bookend book with top and bottom in the market losers and another jolly obliged, this time for a small loss. We were still pleasantly ahead in the context of the day but wanted a nice finish.
7) And we got it. Doomsday was battered by the undergraduates, perhaps because it was getting late on a Sunday and hangover Monday was becoming an all too real prospect. It didn't win, it didn't threaten and we had a surprisingly good win on yet another top of the market winner.
So there you have it. A very quick run through for our 3rd blog of the day and now I'm off to take my aforementioned daughter to panto rehearsal (Snitch the baddie's cat if you're interested- tickets a tenner in advance). "Oh no you're not" you cry. And, that, ladies and gentleman, will be it for another week. After a marathon blogging session only fitting to leave you on the weakest of weak gags.
Perth in a week or so next for us. Until then...
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