***WARNING*** if you're a bookmaker and you are squeamish please stop reading now as the next couple of paragraphs are going to border on the sacrilegious. Though at least there isn't any strobe lighting.
1) Some of the following books contain winning favourites and losing outsiders. There, I've said it.
If you've read previous blogs you will know that today is the day of the new and slightly terrifying world of standing what we take regardless of price (within certain liabilities but those liabilities are potentially 4 or 5 times higher than what we've worked to previously). We are trying to reduce our hedging as much as possible as, in the most part, hedging loses. It loses because you are betting back at lower odds that the horse's chance of winning. Doesn't matter what you take it at you are still betting back into a loss market. Even Betfair with a ton of liquidity (which isn't always the case) is going to be a 101% book plus 2% commission so, all thing being equal, you're losing at least 3 quid for every hundred you chuck into the machine. Often it's worse.
2) Today was student day. I actually rather quite like betting with students. I appreciate to a lot of books of a certain vintage this is more controversial than losing on a 33/1 shot but there it is. My advice is accept the inevitable and embrace it.
On student days you'll be betting with a lot of people who've never had a bet before. They may have no idea what they're doing but they're there for a good day out and you (and me) Mr Bookmaker are part of their experience so let's make it a good one huh? Students are generally an affable bunch; they won't argue with you about a rule 4 or 1/10th of a point for a fiver- they just haven't bet much before. To be fair, most students betting knowledge is still infinitely higher than my ability to write a thesis on thermodynamics or 19th century French poetry. So, fellow bookmakers, let's accept the following on student days;
ADVICE FOR BOOKMAKERS ON STUDENT DAYS
a) there will be shoes without socks- no, me neither, but there will be shoes without socks
b) you will go through a full till roll of voided bets. This will be for a variety of reasons; You'll take, and print, a bet for a fiver each way and will then be proffered a fiver. You'll do this dozens, if not hundreds, of times. A variation on that theme is you'll take a fiver each way and be proffered a tenner, only to be faced with an eagerly thrust out hand awaiting a fiver change. You'll lay a bet and then realise it's not the one wanted as their mate has bet something else so they want that now instead. They thought the grey one (or even better the "white" one) is a different horse to the one they first thought. Take extra till rolls, smile, change it to the right bet and remember you still know nothing about thermodynamics and they do.
c) no matter how many times you ask for the number, you'll get the name. This is particularly "entertaining" when there is a horse with a number at the start of their name. Another contribution to point b)
d) they will think you know who's going to win. Even though you don't. No amount of denial will change their view that you know who's going to win. Even though if you knew what was going to win you wouldn't be getting sleet in your face at 90 degrees to perpendicular at Musselburgh in February. Accept it- take your best guess and, if it wins, you'll be a hero.
e) they will offer you a card after they have asked for a bet and you've printed it. Often for a quid. Another contribution to point b) They are 18-20 years old; it could be weeks since they've seen cash. Deal with it. Give them a map to the ATM- they'll view it as quaint and add immeasurably to their experience.
f) take a million £1 coins or dig out your fiver minimum bet signs.
g) even if you take a million £1 coins you'll still need your fiver minimum bet size signs by race 4
h) they will think your hod is a bin. Just hope it's only for losing slips and not beer bottles. Don't complain about losing betting slips. Ever. And at least they're not chucking them on the floor which is just rude.
If you learn to love these rules welcome to the world of Student Day fun. They're nice. I promise.
Incidentally we had about 2000 students today. No grief at all apart from one guy getting legged by security after the last race. The reason for the infraction wasn't clear but our money was on "excess of tweed".
Anyway, to the actual racing bit- if you want to know how the new roller coaster (for us anyway) went today, read on;
We stood at the end of the line near the lawn whilst many of our colleagues opted for the other end by the tunnel where the more heavier hitting punters were likely to be more active.
1:00 The enhanced liabilities and "stand what you take" ethos got off to a tedious start when we naturally ended up with a couple of small liabilities at the top of the market and reasonable winner 3rd in and a jackpot on the rag. One of the liabilities won, we were slightly behind and, disappointingly, slightly bored. Zzzz. We nicked half of the loss back on the forecasts. Even more bored. Onwards.
1:32 Now we were talking. Sort of. Lovely chunky loser with Calvados (small hedge to get into liability but not much) which allowed us a profit on the rest of the field apart from Impulsive One which was a taker and turned out to be the winner. Unbelievable. We're having a decent go, we've got decent liabilities and winners and after 2 races we're losing 10 bob. Zzzz. Again. Though when Calvados moved up on the near side with 2 to go and hit something suitably short in running we'd have taken the boredom. On reflection we would've lost on the winner without the extra liability. It didn't feel like that at the time, standing Calvados for plenty and still not winning but, with a lower overall liability we'd have had to have so much back hedging Calvados that the winner would've been a fairly serious loser. I'll forget this when I look at this book in a year's time but the non losses are just as important as the winners when you're totting up at the end of the year.
2:05 Restandbethankful was very popular on course. Decent loser (if that's not a contradiction in terms) which gave us good chances on the fav (look away now traditional books) and Kihavah. Corigeen a small winner, Livelifetothemax a small loser. The bogey was never really going and, sadly, a couple of fallers left our 2 best results battling it out for a good result somewhat overshadowed by the news of a fatality with one of the fallers, Livelifetothemax- condolences to connections.
2:40 Now we're talking. Steady bets on Ratfacemcdougall and a one off lump (from our very favourite punter) on Seddon meant biggish liabilities there along with a moderate loss on Wakool who was well bet on and off track. News then reached us of a big old gamble down by the tunnel on The Big Galloper at around 10s or 11s- not much form for a couple of years but the cash always gets the attention. The off course market soon caught up and the price steadily dropped. We weren't disappointed to note at that point it was a moderate winner for us and we didn't have much intention of changing that situation. The gamble was duly landed and we made a modest move forward as our small liability Wakool came in a gallant 2nd. Phew on so many levels. The main disappointment for us was being unable to get enough, actually barely anything, on the fav Brorson which was our best winner. Churlish to complain too much when we'd dodged the Galloping bullet though.
3:15 Plenty of interest in Nero Rock generally, supplemented by one chunky bet on the same horse meant it was our only liability, albeit a decent one. Lucky Flight a taker, modest winners with Sarasota Star and The Mouse Doctor, the remainder being nice solid winners all at similar amounts. Proper roller coaster this one. Nero led for most of the race but then headed around the 2nd last. We were confident Cedar Hill was going better when it led but, of course, our bogey rallied and fingernails bitten until Cedar reasserted after the last. Another nice win. Kev was living every yard and I had to remind him that we were going to be on the wrong end of plenty of these battles and we had to enjoy the ones that went our way.
3:50 The sleet came in. The bets dried up. I battled with the brolly. We had the top 2 in the market moderate winners, Elmono a moderate loser and the rag a taker. Apologies to those books currently having heart palpitations. As an aside one of the many, many delights of student days over the jumps are the yells of excitement from sections of the crowd who have a "winner" only to realise that there is another circuit to go. This race did not disappoint in that regard. It never fails to put a smile on my face. Happily the "winner" with a mile to go was still the actual winner a few minutes later. And, yes, we had a modest win on a shortish priced fav. Bless the rag for finishing 2nd to ensure a (very) modest skinner on the forecasts as well.
4:20 As the title of the blog suggests I bottled it in the last. Not a lot. Just a bit. But bottle it I did. We really couldn't keep them off Zafar. I'm not sure why but we couldn't. At one point our liability on Zafar was around the profit we had on the day at that point and I bottled it and hedged some of it back. Not loads and we still stood it for a decent amount but, morally, I felt a bit dirty. In the end I had about 70 unnecessary quid back. I've let down my friends, family, colleagues, schoolmates (from 40 years ago) but most of all myself. It lost. It proved my point about not hedging and it proved my point about not bottling it. But, at the end of the day, it was 70 quid and a lesson learned. In my (desperate) defence I also stuck Go Bob Go for an additional loser after a big bet came in but I still felt dirty. The winner was the best in the book for us despite being nibbled at on and off course so a good day came to a very good end.
We'll have bad days. We'll have days when we lose a grand on a rag and the cheers of our colleagues will ring in our ears. On those days we have to remember days like this when we did better than we should. We have to remember our previous hedging p&l being a huge "L". But we'll still moan when it happens.
Until then, may all your bets be winners, but not necessarily with us!!
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