Musselburgh 4/2/23 - Log Bait (and betting)

I appreciate that some of you come here for the betting update but, realistically, after the last blog, the majority of you will now surely be more interested in my Clash Royale (Google it then come back) progress. So here it is. With some betting below it.

As the keen eyed observer will have noticed my teenage son has built me a "log bait" deck. This, I now understand, is to play low value crap attacking cards to tease out my opponents higher value defensive cards so I can get (wait for it) a "positive elixir trade" and can then continue my mini onslaught with further slightly crap cards with a view to getting "chip damage" (which, coincidentally, is what Kevin got when he came out of Dunbar chippy without getting salt and vinegar on my chips) when my opponent is suffering an elixir shortage. A Dart Goblin is particularly satisfying in this regard. I am "running for a mark", if you will, with the intention of staying ahead of the handicapper.

This is all rather splendid until my infinitely superior opponent in Tokyo or San Jose or Scarborough drops some massive thing with steel balls for arms on my head and I frantically, and randomly, jab at the phone. Occasionally Junior rewards me with a "nice skelly army predict, Dad" which I shamelessly bask in rather than telling him I pressed the wrong button in a mild panic.

My son also convinced me to part with 40,000 (virtual) gold coins in order to secure myself a spiky log which runs over stuff. This seemed an unnecessary extravagance until I ran into the Twitter thread regarding the price of Guinness at the festival and, in comparison, my spiky log largesse now seems more like shopping at Lidl rather than Waitrose.

That covered, if you're still with me, let's have a look at what happened today at Musselburgh.

Kevin is on holiday (yes, again) so it's the dream team of me and Steve this weekend.

We arrived with the intention of setting up on the lawn to service the inevitable bar. There was no inevitable bar. Even more distressing was the massive hot dog concession plonked down right in the middle of the bookmaker's pitch area. John the ring manager suggested that if 3 bookmakers chose to bet there we would need to snuggle up on the cubic metre of space allocated to us. We urgently needed a plan B. Plan B duly arrived in the shape of the next to end pitch in the main ring. We'd need to walk further for a bratwurst but we expected to be busier.

As we set up Steve wondered whether the flashing light on the laptop was normal. Given that it immediately shut down we felt it probably wasn't. We were at 0% battery and I couldn't find the charger. Things were unravelling. It was probably Kevin's fault. We got some power, we were up and running. 45 minutes later we wish we hadn't.

1) I believe it's Notlongtillmay. So did 90% of the crowd. We laid our biggest bet of the day on it at 100/30. It went off 11/4. We stood it for max. It had won a mile out. Shocking start.

2) The second was another National iteration. Edinburgh National this time. For completeness Scotland is also home of the actual Scottish National plus the Borders National and the Highland National. Frankly is there a racetrack that doesn't have a National? Even the flat ones. We shamelessly sold it; at one point I thought we were gonna get a bet on Red Rum. Flower of Scotland was the inevitable lay of the day for the enhanced max along with Truckers Lodge and Slipway who were consistently bet and Captain Cattistock who was the subject of the one chunky bet off a very nice chap who was sporting an owners' windcheater. Bogeys finishing 2nd and 3rd is always nice when the virtually unlaid jackpot Magna Sam won handily. We were ahead though Steve muttered something about getting chinned on the places again but my joy was only tempered by giving a chunk back on one away bet on the jolly at Sandown which looked well beaten half a mile out before rallying in unexpected and disappointing fashion.

3) The pseudo National was the high point from a business point of view as the take on the 3rd was disappointing. We stood the two outsiders in the field plus Outlaw Peter which won the award for incongruous name of the day award- has there ever been an outlaw called Peter? Pete maybe but not Peter. We eagerly awaited "Assassin Barry" in the 5th. It never appeared. We got a nice enough win on Inis Oirr who won with the very definition of "on the nod" appearing to be about half a length behind before AND after the line. We thought it had won but Steve doesn't like the angle here so we bottled it a bit and had a bit back in the photo on Peter at 7s. We lost the bit.

4) Another competitive looking handicap and we got stuck into the top of the market with Nayati and Grivetana max losses along with Lebowski half way down and Band of Outlaws firmly at the bottom of the list. Stress free for us as 3 solid winners the only chances and it didn't matter much which one won- Collingham was a great result though winning us 6 quid less than 2nd horse Parisencore...

5) Cuban Cigar was steadily bet throughout and a lump on Smart Lass meant they were losers along with Zamond and Wilhelm Vonveste. We'd expect to lay Scots Poet on the name but were glad we didn't when it won going away. Favourite Rewired was 2nd and also a decent winner. Onwards and still upwards.

6) The rain started, the crowd drifted away and we took little on the Lucky Last. Top two in the market duly laid but we didn't take enough to max either of them out. Cyclop led, hit a flat spot and rallied to win easily in the end and another decent win was chalked up and even the most one eyed punter would not have begrudged us that win in the cold and wet. You're welcome.

Finally, it was great to see some of our regulars (particularly Allan, Iain and Alison) out in the depths of winter and we were delighted to pay Alison out on her £2 each way winner in the 2nd race.

Student day tomorrow. We'll bring double the usual change and our "cash only" signs. Until then...