Newcastle 29/11/25 Fighting Fifth - The Lion's Share

We start the night before in The Brickyard in Carlisle. Big Country gig with my bookie mates Mike, Paul, Joe and Lynn. I'd not really met Joe properly before but we bonded over shared antipathy, Joe being the blue side of Merseyside and me being the red. Llandudno v Oslo fans in the banter stakes. And a great guy.

Given that we had a long day ahead on the Saturday I'm disappointed to report that Mike forced me into that 5th, possibly 6th, IPA, Paul made me sing heartily and Lynn dragged me onto the dance floor. That's my recollection anyway. It may not be 20/20. Joe did all 3...

A final 5 of Restless Natives, Chance, In A Big Country and Fields of Fire was the perfect preparation for Constitution Hill v The New Lion plus supporting cast. Talking of supporting cast, Pistol Daisys were an enjoyable listen, if grammatically frustrating. They rocked up on The Seer as well.

Mel at The Cartref, where we stayed, very kindly opened breakfast half n hour early to allow me and Mike to get to the track at the unfeasible time of 9:00. Simon was even earlier and had set up the joint before I wandered in somewhat bleary eyed with the rest of the kit. We were in the Porter stand despite a somewhat half hearted attempt to get Sam to set up in 3 different pitches in Tatts.

1) Early betting was very quiet, but it was 10:15 when we were up and running in fairness, but the last 15 minutes were manic and we were left with a liability on the jolly, Le Beau Madrik which duly obliged, despite looking beaten more than once. Despite the initial disappointment, there was a good chunk of the paper loss rolling on to doubles with either The New Lion or Constitution Hill so we had a second chance to recoup. Incidentally we named them the "Skelton Double" which was a lovely link and the "Hill Double" which wasn't but, in my defence, it was about 9:30 when I was searching for a catchy name. Answers on a postcard.

2) More doubles, this time Grand Geste attracting the support with the above market leaders in the Fighting Fifth and our potential liabilities later in the day continued to rack up. This time the jolly who looked beaten didn't get back up and we had a lovely result with Alcedo, the fav helping us further by placing and giving us a healthy each way top up.

3) Not much joy here though as the well bet Zanndabad played us a score draw when we desperately wanted the second Spreadsheet Guru though, in truth, our goose was, like Bob Cratchit's, well and truly cooked a long way out. Ate least it wasn't the bogey, Just Golden who came in third and meant we moved ahead a wee bit in the place market. As an aside I took my favourite daughter to see Muppets Christmas Carol with full live orchestra last Tuesday and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

4) Dom of Mary - didn't see the interest in that one coming. Every man and his dog seemed to want in and we were lucky we took enough on The Big Breac to give us a tiny win on Mary and a dream of a place result again as we steered the big liabilities on Wal Bucks, Pinot Rouge and Ribeye. We were taking plenty of bets but our progress was fairly pedestrian as Newcastle threw up it's usual smorgasbord of favourites and well bet winners. We were frustrated.

5) And so to The Champion Hurdle/Fighting Fifth. I make no apology for, yet again, quoting the unknown footballer who uttered the immortal line "it's deja bu all over again". The doubles gave us an early liability on the front two and the weight of money never showed any sign of that situation changing. As it transpired the turnover meant that we only ended up with small liabilities on the top two, a jackpot on Anzadam and ridiculous jackpots on the two bigger priced selections. Constitution Hill fell early - seen a lot of nonsense on Twitter anout the white fences conveniently ignoring the fact that a) it wasn't a problem for him when he won his first five over them and b) fallers are down since the switch. We felt The New Lion was beaten even before doing a State Man and falling late on. Golden Ace providing us with a 2nd jackpot of the year, 8 months apart. Good to see all parties ok but hard to see Constitution Hill going again over jumps. It was hard to watch...

6) Then all the rain came down on a cold (but not new) town. And for 15 minutes or so it was a case of "where did the punters go". A 5 minute hiatus meant we got some late interest leading to Brace For Landing cementing its place as loser and the eventual winner, Serious Operator, being negligibly in profit and it was places again that gave us a profit, albeit of very modest proportions.

7) A collapse in price for Jasmin De Grugy left us with the worst value book of the day and we finished with a 0-0 on 2nd favourite Konfusion to give a rather anti climactical end to a day which had more than its' fair share of drama.

So a great day for us, with 3/4 of our profit coming in the big race. The Lion's Share, if you like.

New Year's Day at Musselburgh next up for us- we're still mentally scarred for last years monsoon. We hope for better this year. Though, technically, next year. Until then...