So here we are after an enforced hiatus as the rain beat down relentlessly, costing us a few meetings, particularly the very good Easter Saturday at Musselburgh and the following Saturday at Kelso. Much like the results on the Tuesday at Cheltenham we knew our fate at Kelso a long way out and it was no surprise when it was abandoned. The Musselburgh one stung, though, as the weather on the day was fantastic, a big crowd expected and we have an excellent pick there. Like a jolly under pressure 2 miles out but still getting back up to win, the abandonment was as depressing as it was unexpected. Further compounded by Steve leaving his car at Kinross after the Good Friday at Newcastle in the expectation of picking it up en route to Musselburgh the next day. I dutifully ran him to said car before diverting to Dundee to see our favourite son's badminton comp. Before Social Services are involved we have a boy and a girl and she's our favourite daughter. Parents of the Year...
Grand National Day at Newcastle normally a good meeting with a combination of a decent crowd combined with most bookmakers being otherwise engaged at Aintree. 3000 expected this year and it looked like we were in for a bumper day. Expectations again dashed as, arriving at the track, the crowd estimate had been halved, presumably a combination of Newcastle at home on the telly at 12:30 and the next storm coming our way by mid afternoon. I believe they are up to "J" in the naming stakes so "Hurricane Jolly" it was. And so it proved.
Sandwiched between the delightful J&J and Charlie Chase, we knew at least the banter would be at the maximum. And it started early when the Charlie Chase pitch were letting us know about a guy who came up to them and said that "with a name like Charlie Chase he had to be a bookmaker". In fairness it is an incredible coincidence, just like Kenny Wager, Bertie Fairbet and our good friend Mr Frankel. I may have made one of those up. Charlie (real name John and not Chase) didn't disabuse him of the notion. Just like Disney, we keep the magic alive.
1) Business slow and we stood the top 2 in the market and got full reward when Bollin Matilda prevailed to give us the fastest of fast starts. I broke into song. Of course I did. Nobody offered to waltz the Matilda with me sadly. I have no shame.
2) One horse book, Coniston George, which was worth fortunes. Favourite Horn Cape won despite a bit of a late idle from our jackpot. Half of race 1's jackpot went south.
3) Choosethenews another winning jolly and another chunky loser for us and memories of race 1 were simply that. Memories.
4) Tough to get much going at 1/10 the field. We tried to get a bit of interest in the "betting without" market- a market you have to continually shout. And explain. Then shout again. Repeat to fade. I apologised profusely to Sam who was taking the "betting at Aintree" route. With similar low yield results. Half way through I mixed it up with a rendition of the U2 classic at full volume, but "With and Without... the favourite" was unlikely to trouble the charts. Though it did trouble the musically minded so we ended with "With Or Without Tune"- it was "without" if you're wondering. Anyway, we stood 4 of the other 5 runners and had a modest win on the jolly, immediately halved by the loss in the "without" market. Stupid idea and earache all round.
5) The only big field of the day was a competitive looking handicap and we stood the jolly, Call Me Jack, for plenty along with Atomic Angel. Obviously they were the only ones in the race and the smell of goose being cooked was wafting through the ring with a mile to go. I did get the chance to trot out my one gag, over and over and over. One guy told me I'd used the same gag last time. Of course I did. Gift horse and mouth and all that. He was smiling when he came back with his winning ticket though.
Aintree break. Hailstone alert. The wind powered through and there was no chance of getting a brolly up unless I was in full on Mary Poppins mode. We took little and played bingo with Corach Rambler, Kitty's Light, Minella Indo, Foxy Jacks and Panda Boy the losers. Another jolly made it 5 on the spin, though we had a reasonable win on it, chopped down a wee bit by the place market for Minella.
6) The good news was that we got the jolly beat. The bad news was it was beaten by Six One Nine owned locally and running in black and white stripes. Of course it did. Battered for the max with our jackpot finishing 2nd. We'd resigned ourselves to a losing day and were just wondering how creative we could get with our lossage. Which, like "Premierisation", isn't a word.
7) Turns out the answer was VERY creative. What a book. A book you'd die for, or at least kill for. Laid Gentleman Bill for plenty at 5/4, watched it drift to 9/4, had plenty of profit on the smashed up Battle Born Lad, watched it get a soft lead, hit odds on early in running and thought we were at least getting out in the, err, "Get Out Stakes". And then our highly profitable, smashed up, soft lead, odds on in running chance went for a wander- presumably looking for some equine entertainment down at The Quayside- nearly ran out, lost about 20 lengths, clawed its way back into the race and was beaten 5 lengths. Battered.
So there we have it. 6 favourites in 8 races, our big chance to get out goes walkabout, we get pummelled by hailstones when it was too windy to stick a mush up and David Ginola wins the 6th. If it could go wrong, it did. We lost nearly as badly as day 1 at Cheltenham.
Kelso next for us on Monday for us in a rare midweek outing. Until then...
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