Musselburgh 2/8/24 - Carnival of Sorts

A quick turnaround for us as on our way to Hamilton shortly so it really is a rapid trot through the card today. Purists only. I'm expecting "Views 10"

Phoned the course and they were expecting 1500-2000 more than previous years so, despite the threat of rain, we felt the lawn was probably the right shout if we were unable to get the end pitch on the frontline or the prime picks by the tunnel. We are pick 5 and they went picks 1-3 so the lawn it was!

1) Stood Military Girl for the max with Winchurch a bore draw and we got off to a solid 1970s away leg in Europe with the aforementioned 0-0 on Winchurch. Didn't win us any money though. The ring rejoiced, we didn't. Vagaries of the system and all that.

2) Unsurprising bookend book standing the short priced jolly, Curious Rover, and the inevitable Eeh Bah Gum which had the winning lawn combo of "rag" and "funny name". The wife is from Yorkshire as well but I still didn't want the iconic phrase to win. Looked like we were chalking up a loss on the favourite but Cover Point got home and gave us a cracking win with only Rock Melody a better result. Places couldn't have gone better either. We were away.

3) Treble Winners and, the inevitable Caledonian Dream and, this time, we couldn't lay the short priced jolly and we got a better result on Toy Soldier than the price would suggest. Vagaries of the system and all that.

4) Another bookend job with the heavily bet Fanzone at the top of the market and Apache Angel at the bottom. We thought we were getting the jackpot on Port and Starboard as it cruised (you're welcome) and then ran aground (you're welcome again) and we had to settle for "decent" on Doomsday instead of "monster".

5) Steve was in good form. Good moaning form at least. I diligently asked every single punter for the number in every single race, including a lady clutching a racecard with the following exchange

"£5 Wee Fat Mac"

"What's the number love"

"Sorry, number 2"

"£5 Havagomecca"

"What's the number love"

"Sorry, number 3"

"£5 Cuban Rock"

"What's the number love"

"Sorry, number 6"

"£5 Ski Angel"

"What's the number love"

"Sorry number 5"

So, when a mildly tiddly Irish chap, who was having his first bet of the day with us, rather aggressively shouted "£5 on Sixcor" (which was number 7) I decided to park my customer number training for this one selection and go with the name and move on. Steve, of course, issued a ticket for a fiver on number 6. Followed by world class chunnering about asking for the number.

As an aside we had a reasonable win on Glory Fighter.

6) Cuban Cigar (obviously, as it's Lucinda's) and Star of Markinch (obviously as it's a place in nearby Fife) the bogeys and Parikarma the super, duper, extra sprinkles on the top jackpot which went past the toiling jolly, Tafsir, before inexplicably emptying out and the jolly went back past and we cried. Places were great and another reasonable win but the jackpot sailed off into the sunset.

So a bit of luck here, a bit of heartbreak there, a loss on a traditional result, a couple of wins on a couple of shortish priced favs and one cracking result in an allsorts day meant we ended up with a very good win overall more by dint of steady wins rather than anything spectacular- Faldo rather than Seve if you like. A carnival, of sorts.

Hamilton in a few short hours. Until then...