Others will state, far more eloquently than I can, what happened at Aintree. The only thoughts I would like to add are;
1) Where were the protestors when it was hosing down at Sedgey on Friday?
2) There are approximately 14,000 horses in training who simply wouldn't exist without horse racing as they were bred for this purpose. Can a protestor give a yes/no answer as to whether they would prefer this state of events? And please don't say "stick them in a field".
3) You have half a ton of body on 4 spindly legs. You're going to get deaths running round a field.
6am alarm call Saturday following the lads coming round on Friday night for pizza and beers. Not brilliant planning. Comfort breaks built into trip to pick up Bryson on the way. Bryson tells me he'd wintered well and was feeling fresh, though he thought he'd come on for today's trip. It would be good to have a pro back on the front after I'd done the last couple of meetings. I was doing the book. Probably badly.
One of our Twitter friends was there, sporting a rather fetching Pittsburgh Steelers jacket. I told him I was an Oilers fan back in the day. He looked disappointed. I told him Warren Moon was my hero. He looked crushed. I'm expecting an unfollow shortly.
When we set up I was woefully underprepared as I was sans National whiteboard and Messrs Routledge and J&J were resplendent with theirs. One of them even had the silks' colours up. I put our National prices up on a split screen LED board but, with about 18 scrolls, it was a hopeless task and we took nowt in the early National betting. I switched to a split screen forecast in the first at Newcastle, we took nowt on that as well. I vowed to be a better bookmaker and a better person next year. And not have a ton of beers the night before.
1) Nells Bells the obvious lay on the name and we stood it for the max, Howzat Hiris, the original favourite in for the half max. Both were well out of the running early and Nights In Venice looked set to give us a lovely start when it hit something suitably short in running and cruised clear in real life. Nells defied the in running price of about a million and appeared from nowhere to get back up and give us the worst possible start. I still have no idea how. Thoughts turned to that amateur runner in a marathon many years ago that won a pro race by cutting off about 10 miles by taking a shortcut. Replays suggest it did run the full course, sadly for us.
2) Only one bogey in the hotpot, though not a massive one. Cold Sobar. That won as well. And I swear it won mockingly, given my minor hangover which was still lingering. We got back what we lost in the race plus a couple of extra quid in the forecast but we were still behind in the book plus expenses plus Bryson's wages, plus Bryson's fish supper.
3) And the misery gifts kept giving. 2 max lays (Glittering Love and East Street) plus 2 doing nothing, Here Comes The Man and Camp Belan. It was one of the 0-0 draws that won, Here Comes The Man and poor places meant another loss, albeit a small one. I'd like to console myself with hope that I just ran into a load of Pixies fans and my money at least went to a good cause, but somehow I doubt it. Still losing.
4) Trust the system. Trust the system. Trust the system. Holmes St Georges and Word Has It for the max. Holmes St Georges hit about 4s on but Fingals Hill was always travelling well. Obviously nothing straightforward in the world of CairnBet and it got blocked not once, but twice when it only had 2 horses to consider. It weaved its way through in manoeuvres not seen since Kevin's Cheltenham Pothole Slalom Stakes and we had a monster win to wipe out the losses, cover the expenses, and give us a moderate wage on top. At that point at least...
5) Trust the system. Arthurs Quay the only loser though it looked the winner until High Moon stayed on and gave us a moderate win from favouritism despite a late drift. We were eyeing a decent day if we had a good finish. Our Pittsburgh Steelers fan commented as much "you just need a 50/1 winner in The National like last year lads" he sagely observed.
6) Only one they wanted on track, Ex Selance and we stood it for the max. It looked beaten on about 4 different occasions including paddling over the line but paddle just enough it did and our decent day looked more and more dependent on Aintree in an hour or so,
7) Two loser, Red Ochre and Moonlight Glory, one who drifted alarmingly and one that shortened on the off. Neither were in it and the absolute jackpot, Star Vantage, went clear before falling at the last. We felt it was probably going to get beaten anyway but would've like to have seen it given the chance on the run in. Trust the system again though as a smallish win on the overnight smash up, Lincoln Burrows, was more than we would've expected. We had a wage again but nothing to write home about. Just needed that 50/1 shot now.
8) The National eventually took place despite fears at our end that it wouldn't. A few of the crowd had drifted away but we took enough to give us a host of decent chances. We had no skinners as a rather rowdy chap had a quid on all 39 of them. I should've charged him for the till roll. I told him I hoped one of his big priced ones came in. And I even meant it. He told me that he'd come back with his fistful of tickets at the end and I could dig out his winner for him. I told him I'd see what I could do. I probably didn't mean it. Corach Rambler gave us an absolutely massive win at Cheltenham in 2022 but has been using up the CairnBet credit ever since and it was, of course, our biggest loser. It's a good job Lucinda Russell and Peter Scudamore are two of the nicest people you will ever meet or I might've even kicked the joint with my dodgy foot again. Good places wiped out the win loss. I spoke to the infinitely better half on the way home to tell her that we'd won on The National. A quid. Literally a quid.
Another meeting where we got a wage but it was only a wage and a pretty disappointing one. Thoughts of our good run are starting to become a fleeting memory as a couple of under par small wins in the last two meetings feel almost like losses.
In a volte face we are going to give Kelso a go on Monday. Midweeks are not our staple diet but a competitive looking 8 race card and good weather means if it doesn't work now it never will. Tune in Monday night or Tuesday morning to see how much we've lost. Until then...
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