Green. It's taken me all these years to shoehorn my 2nd favourite album into a CairnBet title. "In My Tribe" by 10000 Maniacs is number 1 in case you're wondering. Which you probably aren't. And I'm not sure I'll ever squeeze that one in.
So I really don't want to spend hours on this but, yet again, Twitter goes mildly ballistic with claims that most bookies green up. They don't. They just don't. When you're betting with a bookmaker on a racetrack they are almost certainly standing horses. In Scotland, where we are based, I know of one bookmaker who doesn't stand horses. One. For us it is the worst possible method to use and we're not the only ones who come to that conclusion.
So a bit of context. I'm not claiming the majority of racecourse books are regularly standing horses for 5 grand either (though I know one that does) Most bookmaker firms are small one and two man concerns who understand the benefit of keeping as many bets in the book as possible but also can't have an unlimited liability as we don't have unlimited cash and we still have to pay our bills. Personally, we normally have liability levels in the region of £500 - higher for places like Cheltenham or busy days. No, it's not eye catching or earth shattering but we can lose £3500 or so every time we go out. I'd suggest we are probably around the middle range for liabilities for small firms.
So when you bet with an on course bookmaker you are having a proper bet. That bookmaker is almost certainly standing horses. It's a friendly rivalry and if you win on a well bet horse, particularly at the top of the market, we've probably lost. Enjoy the banter and don't listen to the noise
And before we dive into the nether regions of our books we were joined today by Simon who has just got his licence and is now getting some on course experience with us. We hope he'll be guest starring with us a few more times in the coming year as well. Even better, he's a good guy, got a great work ethic and, most importantly, isn't threatening my status as the CairnBet designated pretty one...
1) 6 runners. 3 losers (General Office, Jackpot De Choisel and Glory and Honour). One of our big chances, Holmes St Georges, was absolutely smashed up and then absolutely fell early. Jolly Monmiral wasn't helping much either and we had a 1 v 3 situation a long way out. Fortunately our one beat the other three and we were off to a monster start, our mood punctured only slightly by a rotten place book. We're never happy but we were working on it.
2) Everyone has a National now. Everyone. Today's incarnation was the Edinburgh one. Stood the top two in the market plus Universal Folly in the middle. We were never in it from a mile out as Inis Oirr was always winning. A Lucinda favourite was, at least, the best worst result and we got our reward for standing a few in the each way market which were all resolutely unplaced to end up giving us a 0-0 draw. Like Forest late 70s...
3) And we were never in it again as the jolly, Afadil, was never losing. This time it was a step backwards and there was little point considering the places as they were as distant a dream as Winona Ryder was when I was 20.
4) Bookend book, the winners Florida Dream and Ottizini being the bread in the liability sandwich with 3 losers in the middle. Ottizini led but was always going to be caught. Until it wasn't. Our other result wasn't in it so for the 2nd time today our winning one beat a losing 3. And, yes, it was jackpot. I allowed myself a celebratory hop. At my age I could easily have done myself a mischief.
5) They kept coming for Anglers Crag in the last 5 minutes. Fortunately not on course and we had a winning fav. We hang our head in shame. Another solid result, though Steve was bemoaning a dose of seconditis with Captain Quint. It was just the 11 lengths easing down. I was happy and Simon broke into a smile. I told him it wasn't always like this.
6) And we had another monster result in the last. We got stuck into Superbolt and had a couple of other losers in the middle. We lose on Bashful at a Family Fun Day in July with a plethora of mums of Disney princesses but not on a February Saturday when the wind comes through at 35mph. A great end to a great day and we've now had a couple of big wins on the run.
Student Day tomorrow. Will our fledging good run continue or will the good students of St Andrews and Edinburgh take us to the cleaners? Along with their tweed waistcoasts.
Until then...