Given I am on walks, board games and roasties today this Musselburgh blog will be mercifully short. Your Easter treat from me, if you like.
Betting on the lawn on a beautiful Spring day with a healthy crowd and an 8 race card we felt that we had a good chance but would it turn out that way?
We were treated to a couple of early corgi races. Thommo commentated. Bless him. Called about 3 dogs the winner in the first one and wasn't close to any of them being right. Though, obviously, it was "one for the judge". A bookie debate ensued regarding the forthcoming days' racing about whether we should pay out on the "Thommo result" or wait for the official one. When the first race resulted in Thommo calling the 3rd as "something or other" or words to that effect, discretion became the better part of valour and we hung on for the official announcement- fortunately only 30 seconds or so later.
1) Musselburgh on the lawn is "lay the name" day and the first didn't let us down in that regard. Betting was brisk, though the stake sizes modest, with a lot of punters enjoying the day's festivities and having a few quid each way to maintain an interest. Dumfries an inevitable lay for the max and Gincident similarly well backed for half max. Often from the same punter- presumably folk who'd travelled up the M74 with a penchant for mother's ruin. Lion of War and Finn's Charm were 0-0 draws and the rest were jackpots. We were scuppered a long way out with Finn's Charm winning comfortably, having led all, from Gincident. On the plus side the place market doubled our winnings and the CairnBet profit pot stood at a mouthwatering 4 quid. Only another £256 to get the day's expenses. Frustrating
2) Upside down book with losers near the bottom of the market- Abduction, Dirtyoldtown (again somewhat inevitably) and Jilly Cooper. Gweedore got free going to post and the search and rescue operation paid dividends for connections in another Musselburgh led all job. And another bore draw for us though a reasonable win in the place meant we were slightly ahead but jackpots 2nd and 3rd felt like another missed opportunity for us.
3) Silky Wilkie, Burning Cash, Water of Leith and Vintage Clarets the bogeys and, again, we could've predicted them on name alone with Hibees and Jambos vying for supremacy in the name stakes. It was Silky Wilkie who prevailed and put us back to square one and, again we had no real chances from 2 furlongs out with the winner, again, leading from a long way out. Plenty of punters but plenty finding the right one again.
4) Frustration hit further as this one was The Heartbreak Stakes for us. Massive, massive jackpot Metier looked to be going well but ran out of room and Wise Eagle again got the crowds roaring as it was the best bet horse on track. Enormous swing against us between first and second and, despite the bumper crowd we couldn't buy a result. Now behind in book plus expenses to get.
5) And then the crowd took their siesta for what was a much quieter betting heat. Maybe there was a queue at the bar. The outsider Soul Singer was a max with Moonstone Boy and Sergeant Wilko rounding out the losers. We finally got a small move in the right direction with Balon Dor winning from Wilko - back of the net for us but damage done in the place market and win profit halved- over and out.
6) And finally, after an awfully long wait, we finally hit a solid result with Monsieur Kodi putting us in "getting a wage" territory with the places only doing minor damage in what was a punter friendly each way race. Losers were Primos Comet, Vadamiah and Jordan Electrics for completeness.
7) "Fiver 2, tenner 4". Or "fiver on 4 and 2". Or "fiver each way on the 2 and a fiver on the 4 for the wife". Or a million different variations on the same theme. Max on both (Flylikeaneagle and Tommy G) plus a rotten place liability on Showmedemoney. Another re-run of the "CairnBet Worst Possible Result In The Book". Rotten. In other, vaguely related news, I sprained an ankle a few weeks ago- could barely walk for a couple of days. Still wearing a support. So why is this relevant? I tend to be fairly phlegmatic but after the day we were having the joint got a good resounding kick with said foot. I may have even taken a run up. At least I got the expected result when soft flesh connects with unyielding metal at speed. I share with you so you can vicariously join in with my pain, both physically and emotionally. I even gave a small yelp, much like Thommo in the corgi race. Though, sadly for us, he called the result correctly in this one.
8) One to go and we were expenses plus minimum wage on one of the busiest days of the year. We needed one of the jackpots we'd been forlornly looking for all day and we finally got one. Don't Look Back and Bulls Aye (of course) for the max and nothing on favourite Bashful and another name St Andrews Castle. 2nd favourite Beltane was hardly touched and the place market was relatively kind as well so we hit our best result of the day by miles in the last.
So in the end we got a win but we felt we were miles worse than par on an exceptionally busy day. That's the way it goes betting on lawns, bars or picnic areas, you really need the boring, meaningless names to win but a procession of Finns, Tommys, Gins, Silky Wilkies and Eagles (twice) did for us in win and/or place markets. We got away with a much better win than we should have at Newcastle yesterday- the reverse was true today. Rough and smooth and all that.
Opportunity knocked loudly for us today but we didn't even go to the door. And if anyone gets today's song title without reference to Google come and find us at Perth and we'll give you a quid free bet... first two customers only...
Newcastle next for us on Saturday were we'll also be betting on the National. Best of luck to punters and fellow bookies alike at next week's Aintree jamboree. Until then...
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