Musselburgh 21/3/25 - Groundhog Day

I may have used this title before but, let's be honest, it would be apt if I had. Though the headline could just as easily have read "CairnBet in turn up at midweek fixture shocker". We were tempted by the 17 degree temperature (didn't happen), the prospect of 2500 punters (didn't happen) and a competitive looking card where anything could win (pretty much didn't happen)

We have a decent pick at Musselburgh and, after the initial swarm of bookmakers to the tunnel left slim pickings in that area we decided to pitch in at the end of the line nearest the lawn to pick up the "sunbathers" and were delighted when our friend George pitched in next to us. We knew the banter would be decent even if the turnover proved not to be.

The meeting turned out to be workable but not spectacular. So what does "workable" mean for a small business like ours? For the 2nd time in a week I'm going to share some figures with you. We did the following;

• 428 bets (61 per race)

• Cash taken £5117 (£731 per race)

• Average bet size £11.95

• Highest bet amount £100

• Overall book value £695 (£99 per race)

• Expenses £145 plus petrol

I would further suggest this was slightly higher than we were expecting and is the reality of the vast majority of meetings we'd class as workable. If you're really interested the cut off point for us is 45 bets a race. Over time, if we do less than that, we lose (counting expenses). So we don't go if we don't think we'll take more than that.

1) We have a new shiny board and on it we put our new shiny Daily Double. Two of them in fact. We'd never really advertised doubles and trebles before but, flushed with their Cheltenham success, we thought we'd have a go here. Spit Spot in the first and your choice of jollies in race 2. And it proved relatively successful as we laid 185 British Pounds, mainly paired with Summerground in the 2nd. The jolly was a small loser, primarily due to the last bet of £100 (biggest of the day!) in the double with the aforementioned Summerground and we thought we had a chance when there was a stupendous drift but, alas, not to be as we took a little backwards step but, on the plus side, we had all that lovely liability rolling on the 2nd race.

2) Yeah, that lovely liability thing? Didn't work out well as Summerground pulled off a last to first to win easily and we did our max for the day (which, eagle eyed amongst you will note, is around half of what we take on average). Who's stupid idea was it to put up the double? Right working out, wrong answer and all that. We had the value but we certainly weren't eating it.

3) And the misery looked set to continue as another max, Belfrina, hit about 1/5 in running and our 3 good results all laboured. But Inappropriate kept finding and gave us enough to wipe out our losses and put us a fish supper in front in the book. Sadly the expenses were nearer a sit down curry for me, the wife and kids with a pint chucked in, but we were back within touching distance. We even nicked the naan breads in the unlaid forecast.

4) 3 losers out of 8 as we ended up with a book where quantity of losers outweighed quantity of liabilities. We thought we'd got a virtual skinner as the outsider, Ofaolains Glory nearly pulled off a "led all" job but got nabbed by the jolly, Rockola Vogue despite a somewhat "colourful" jumping display. Still a half decent winner for us, though we were suitably quiet as we know most of our colleagues will have had it as a loser. TheirSheGoes (presumably grammatically incorrect for copyright purposes rather than by accident) allowed us to flex our vocal muscles on every bet. A bloke visibly winced as he went past - I explained that's why I was a bookie rather than the second coming of Michael Stipe. Expenses covered and we were a little in green on top.

5) Stood the top 3 in the market as we pulled our "proper bookie" pants on. Punxsutawney Phil gave us the opportunity to repeat the gag which had failed so spectacularly at Perth a year or two previously. It failed spectacularly here as well but I was undeterred. "If it wins it's got to go round again" I cheerfully offered with every bet. Bemusement was the general response but one chap replied "Why?" in a faintly aggressive undertone until I explained. Aggression gave way to pity. I'm not sure which was worse. Literally nobody got the gag which, in a marvellous piece of synergy, was exactly the same as the last time I tried it and, no doubt, the next time I do. Anyway, it looked like it was also going to pull off a led all before, again, being snagged late on by Fierce Warrior which won for us, but not as much as we hoped.

6) Bingo book back in operation as 4 losers floated around various parts of the ledger and this time we did cash in with the barely laid Kingston James which pushed us into a good wage territory, even more so when we put the dream place results in. A good finish here and we'd have had the most unexpected of midweek surprises.

7) Not to be. Chanonry Point is a lovely part of the world - a small peninsula between Fortrose and Rosemarkie home to a spectacular golf course, a pretty lighthouse and a gaggle of dolphin watchers congregating at its tip. Chanonry Point, the horse was not, for us, a lovely result however as we hit our "max for the day" liability and it won at a literal canter. Noisy stands make not for happy bookmakers.

A decent wages day - better than sitting in the house pining for the end of the interminable international break I guess.

Steve and Simon head on down to Aintree next for us whilst I go to Newcastle the same weekend. Until then...