See- that got you clicking didn't it? I can actually only promise the "lies" bit I'm afraid..
When we started blogging the idea was that it would be something light hearted, occasionally a bit of fun to read, a bit therapeutic to write and may be of some interest to punters to give an idea of how a small bookmaker works, especially as we were doing things a little bit different from the norm.
We also thought we'd engage in some light hearted banter with our friends and colleagues in the bookmaking fraternity. By and large this has been the case. We love it when our friends think we're bonkers losing on 40/1 shots. We love it even more when they stick their heads in our book and politely suggest it's the worst thing they've ever seen. We've loved the interest and support and occasional bafflement from the ring. All of this was to be expected along with the occasional request to stop with the obscure 1990s indie lyrics.
What we didn't really expect was that we are also, according to some today, liars.
I'm not sure why we would invent a whole new way of working, fully discuss our research and blog our winners and losers but according to some bookies today we do. It's not even revolutionary to stand what you take in fairness, we know quite a few who do things in a similar fashion to us and others who form a more traditional type of book with the top of the market always losing, but we thought our muddled venture might be of interest. We don't claim that we stand stuff for the size of a small country's GDP. The most outrageous claim I can see from our blogs is that we stood 4 runners in a 6 runner race at Cheltenham (we did).
Writing this blog takes a fair bit of time and is normally done late at night and, believe me, the last thing I could be bothered doing is look at our books and then make up something completely and utterly different from what we did for no possible reason that I can discern.
I pondered not blogging any more as I just couldn't be bothered trying to have to prove what I'm blogging is an accurate reflection of what we do. And any of the many, many bookies who have had a look at our books on course since January will know we blog what we do. Apart from the bit about Kev being decapitated. As I've said I find these blogs quite therapeutic and fun but the moment I heard our honesty being questioned today the fun stopped. And when the fun stops, stop.
But I've chilled out a bit with excellent sausage and chips on the way home (I'm allergic to fish so if I'd blogged "fish and chips" that would be a lie) so I'll plod on as I quite enjoy it, it makes for fun discussion in the ring and, most importantly, it'll probably really annoy those books who think we're lying. Seriously, if you think I'm making this stuff up, stop reading this. It's not good for your health and it'll only upset you more. Everyone else, decapitations and occasional exaggeration for comic effect aside, this is what happens so here we go. Though today was not terribly exciting.
1) A desperately quiet first betting heat meant we were concerned how much liability to run today but that decision didn't need to be made in the first when the book threw up a modest loser (Dark Moon Rising) and an even more modest loser (Imperial Fighter). No hedging required. Small win chalked up on the 15/2 winner
2) Another modest betting heat kind of set our stall out for the day that our liabilities would be trimmed a little from our usual and we lost on the winning fav My Oberon who just held on from our big winner San Andreas. Profit gone.
3) Yet another quiet-ish betting event as Bouttemont gave us a moderate win beating one of our bogeys, Spycatcher, and another moderate winner, Edraak, on the nod. At 10/1 it felt an opportunity missed but the poor take and inability to lay the favourite to a liability ensured only a small win. Our other losers were Harry's Bar and Exalted Angel at the nether regions of the betting.
4) The flat's back they said. It's competitive they said. You always get results on the flat they said so the top 2 in the market slugging it out meant a glance at the screen to see which one was worse confirmed our fears and our worst result held on to win and, to compound matters, our worst place result, Space Cowboy, also made the frame. Running to stand still.
5) The flat's back they said. It's competitive they said. You always get results on the flat they said. Inevitably the top 2 in the market were 1-2 again but this time we did get a small win when the "right" one won from our perspective. Places were very kind to us also so we tiptoed forward again. We laid a couple of large bets very early in the day on the 2nd horse, InternationalAngel, which we hedged in the ring (at the same price we laid I hasten to add) and thanks to our colleagues for obliging us. You know who you are and it was much appreciated.
6) The flats' back they said- ach I'm boring myself. Top 2 in the market to the line again. We wanted Marshall Plan for a small win but got Earlofthecotswolds for a small loss instead. Our biggest bogey, Sleeping Lion, was never going and Rainbow Dreamer rounded out our "red" list. Places were again kind and offset the win book loss.
7) This was a bit of a stinger. Firstly we did win but the usual bookmaker's lament- it wasn't enough. This time it wasn't really the system it was that we took a chunky bet 20 seconds from the off on the 10/11 favourite which took us miles over liability. One mis-hedge later (over bet by a couple of hundred quid) meant we didn't get what we should have, if I'd got it right. Sometimes the fingers go faster than the brain and when the brain caught up they'd ran a furlong and all I could do was sigh. Forecast was also unlaid and we had reasonable win but not what you'd expect when 7/1 beats 10/11, especially when you've laid the 10/11 and messed up the book.
So that's it. Apologies for the earlier sermon. Musselburgh tomorrow where we were surprised that we laid £200,000 at 10/1 in the first. Now that really is a whopper...
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