Musselburgh 19/4/25 - All The Small Things

The second in our Easter double header and, after the apathy of the betting on Good Friday we were expecting better things on Easter Saturday. This fixture was abandoned last year but has always been very busy. Weather set fair we pitched up on the rail facing the lawn after failing to get the prime pitch at the half furlong pole and ignoring the wily charms of the furlong pole pitches located directly opposite the portaloos and not much else.

As we pitched in our friends the Rossys suggested that we pitch in 6 feet behind our allotted position. Thirsk continues to haunt Simon.

1) Castle Stuart the most inevitable bogey of the day (along with We Dare To Dream) and led to several golf related discussions. The upshot being the consensus was that it is a great course, if a little wide open off the tee, Dornoch was, on balance, better, Cruden Bay has too many blind shots and Moray is the hidden gem of the Western World. Sadly there was plenty of time to chat as, after an early run of bets from a group of lads, one of whom had the obligatory comedy blow up horse in tow (we offered him the obligatory 100/1 in the first) the betting was particularly weak. Again. Maybe it was something we said, or something we didn't. But a quick glance round the ring showed we were all very much in the same boat. Half decent win on Thunder Wonder chopped in half when Castle Stuart got up on the line to place. Our friend Allan also put in an appearance and it was good to pick up with him after the winter hiatus and our sale of Kelso.

2) Three out of the top 4 in the market losing for various amounts and we had a jackpot on Persuasion as betting picked up but was still under par. Places were as good as they could be. Optimism abounds.

3) Small loss on original favourite American Affair which defied the drift and beat JM Jungle which managed to ensure a small loss on the each way market as well despite being in the Goldilocks zone of 7 runners. Some effort that. As an aside Vince Lamour gave us chance to flex our vocal chords though, whilst I have nothing against Erasure, my heart wasn't quite in it and it showed.

4) They kept coming for Align the Stars and it kept shortening. Aimeric and Struth rounded out the losers and we got a decent enough win on Kihavah. Betting was steady but barely 50% of 2023 levels. Despite the win we were faintly dispirited.

5) Nothing sort of book due to nothing happening betting wise. We drummed up just enough on the double to ensure we didn't have a totally one horse book on the jolly which drifted on the off like it couldn't win and Caspi Star halved in price like it couldn't lose. The jolly is still running now and Caspi won with barely a flicker. A small step backwards in the race book and a slightly bigger step backwards in the forecasts. Needed to hit another big one.

6) Another dismal betting heat and we couldn't cash in relative rag, Alessia Fernando. Small win.

7) Loser for close to the max, Zarzyni and a smaller one on Messi lovers pick, Balon Dor. Fortunately neither could win fairly early on and it was just a case of whether we could pick up a jackpot. Then the comms got excited and Zarzyni suddenly got an in running price and then suddenly got an in running win. We were aghast. Good places got us a chunk back but it was still a tough finish.

Could've gone home after two races and saved ourselves 2 1/2 hours of punter push pull with much the same result as we had after 7.

After excellent business the previous few weeks we've had a couple of modest winning meetings but we were nonplussed with the turnover on both days compared to previous years with no obvious reason as to why.

We will, in all likelihood, do all 3 days at Perth this week. Kevin guesting for a couple of days (sans sausage) and Steve reappearing on the Friday. Until then...