Musselburgh Saturday 31/1/26 - Hey Jack Kerouac

Double debuts for Cairn Bet as my little lad Matthew (now 3 inches taller than me) finally gets on course after the New Years Day false start. He's a handsome chap and a significant upgrade aesthetically on me (former holder of Cairn Bet "pretty one") and Simon, 50+, light beard. He's a quiet guy and I thought there may be some nerves but he looked pretty calm going into battle.

Our 2nd new boy was Jack (not Kerouac but indulge me in a little poetic licence...) who is considering the noble art of on course bookmaking and flew up all the way from Bristol to see what we do. No pressure our end then... Another younger chap with a gentle Bristolian accent added a double upgrade to our front of house as me and Simon were relegated to back of pitch duty.

Tough choice pitching in as there was a bar open on the lawns which, I believe, was the first time a bar was there on the Saturday plus there were 2 new shiny pitches at 3/4f pole to help service said bar. Crowd predictions were around 3000 (700 up on last year) and, despite the lawns being a no go on the Saturday in years gone by, it looked a realistic option for the first time ever this year. We're pick 7 and at pick 6 it was either 3/4f pole, end of row of 3 on picket fence or pick 19 in the ring - we favoured 3/4f pole but so did pick 6 so we opted for end pick on the lawn. Second pick and 19 was still available but, as we had 2 newbies, we opted to take the final pick on the picket fence despite 19 probably being the better option in order to muster the troops in the same location. As it turned out, the 2nd pick on the fence was a catastrophic error but we're all wise at 5:30 - its a bit harder at noon...

1) Two losers in the middle of the book, Secret Force and Made U Blush, and it looked like we were getting off to a solid start when Lord hit 1.16 in running only to hauled in by Made U Blush and our solid looking start was now hanging on a shoogly peg.

2) Three to avoid here, Afadil, WillieTheBuilder and Saligo Bay all firmly in the "L" column. Welsh Charger was well backed and a nice winner for us so naturally whipped round and unseated at the start. This time, however, we were on the right side of an unexpected in running result as Star of Guiting gave us vitually the best result in the book and we were nicely ahead.

3) They all wanted JPR One. All of them. Like some sort of 70s Welsh Rugby Fanatics Day Out they queued up and backed it. It messed around at the start, made a total hash of the first and, inevitably, recovered to lead all and win going away. Sigh. There was quite the noise. Bookmakers, generally, don't like noise. Back to square one half way through with expenses a distant hope given the moderate take on pitch one and almost non existent take on pitch 2.

4) Stood the bottom 3 in the market but really wanted the 2nd favourite for a decent result. The jolly drifted alarmingly late on amidst reports of playing up in the paddock and we certainly felt we had a chance turning in but it was not to be. The smallish win on the jolly was slightly supplemented by a good place result but chopped back again when, early in the betting, Simon suggested we "price up the forecast Andy". As I say, we're all wise after time though...

5) 7/2 favourites winning are rarely good however you structure your book and that was the case here. Goose cooked well and truly early as well. Wanted the fast finishing, serendipitously named As Fast As Wind who may have got there if it hadn't been as slow as evolution in the back straight. Behind in book and a mountain of expenses.

6) Kelce the only game in town. Told every punter it was a "Swiftie". None of them got it. Couldn't find a way to shoehorn "tight end" in but did manage to call the male punting fraternity "Chief" with every bet. It made me happy even if, like Punxsutawney Phil, nobody got it. I was less happy when it won after seemingly be under pressure for most of the afternoon and we were behind in book and needing a four figure win on Sunday just to get out of the weekend with no damage done.

Jack must've been wondering what he was considering getting into as the 2nd pitch was barely running at 20 bets a race, we lost 4-2 and needed a recovery mission on Student Sunday - that's an awful lot of quid each ways we'd need to take and keep. Matthew kept sticking his head in the book lamenting that it was hard always watching the "red ones" win. Still, they'd both seen a bad day both business and results wise so it could surely only get better. Or could it?

Sunday next. Until then...