Newcastle Plate 28/6/25 - Second Guessing

After Friday's 4 race misery we looked forward to busier times today. 4 races in on Friday night and we'd barely laid 100 bets in total and our restaurant had cancelled our booking as they stopped serving at 9. We had the option of limping along until the bitter end or bangers and mash washed down with a couple of IPAs (rather than a day old butty from Asda express and a warm can in the foyer). Unsurprisingly the sausages won out though, knowing our luck, Kevin might have got the advertised sous chef job.

Nice little REM album track to kick us off with what is the 2nd hardest pitch pick of the year behind Ascot. 4 areas on front line, spur, back corner and either end of old silver ring all legitimate options and we opted for the ice cream end of the front line and the nether regions of the old silver ring and hoped that the Met Office were correct in their summary of sunshine, occasional cloud, 24 degrees and no rain as nothing clears the lawns quicker than a squall.

No sooner had we set up when said, unforecasted, squall hit us along with a wind that made mush erection rather tricky. All this after I'd slathered on the factor 50, the bottle now forlornly bouncing along the tarmac towards the fence as the hurricane blew straight through the ring. We prayed the crowd valued their hard earned picnic benches rather than the sanctuary of the bar. In the main they did.

1) Pocklington for the max, Sergeant Wilko and Drama for halves and we held our breath as the aforementioned, somewhat smashed up, favourite was in a nail biter of a photo with absolute jackpot territory, and optimistically named, FiveThousandToOne (went off a skinnier 25/1). The Pimms bar blocked my sightline but next door felt we'd got it. So did the in running price but when Pock had a late crash from 150 to 20 heart was in mouth but "first number 6" came through the tannoy and we were off to a flier.

2) Kind of Blue for the max and Spycatcher for a bit and we thought we had another monster with Annaf but Diligent Harry (good luck Harry) stayed on, err, diligently and we had a much smaller win than you would imagine. Places helped but the feeling of missing out somewhat lingered.

3) I was on my own in what's known as the "Cross Your Legs" pitch but an early 2 miler meant time for a quick dash to the portaloos. Godsend, Gibside and Artisan Dancer the ones to avoid in the Vase and, by the time I jogged back, they were all trading massively in running (remember - Pimms tent meant no actual sight of the race) and we got an excellent win on Savrola and a place result dream as we stood 7 fairly big in the each way market and steered them all.

4) Like the Harrys in race 2, the Glens were out in force for the big race and guaranteed bogey status early in the betting, East India Dock the other loser with a few others trading as 0-0 draws. Again we felt like we hadn't cashed in on a big priced winner, Spirit Mixer who won nicely, but not spectacularly as our bingo book had jackpots around it at similar prices. Places less kind this time and we moved forward but gently, rather than with purpose.

5) Couldn't get the original favourite EldrickJones for love nor, err, money and I even resorted to imploring Tiger Woods fans, got a few knowing smiles but still no money and we were stuck with it firmly onside. Not so Rare Changes and Native Warrior and we ended up with a loser in the win book but another great place result which repaired the damage but didn't make much difference overall.

6) Couldn't get the drifting favourite, Sands of Spain, but this time it defied the drift to win and we had a cracking result having laid Ninth Crusade and Golden Brown which, you'll be glad to know, I alternated "never a frown" with "texture like sun" on every bet. We even laid an each way to a chap in a Stranglers T shirt.

7) Straight batters look away now as we had another good win on another tough to lay favourite as the "It's A Name" race threw up Young Lucy and Lenny's Spirit as the hugely popular selections. Places were the best 3 in the book as well and we virtually doubled the win profit as we got our reward for standing Lenny's plus Paper Doll and Fleur De Mer for plenty each way.

8) Rotten book. Just rotten, as we opened somewhere around 9/1 on Spiced Rum and it went off 11/4 with every other punter backing it. We played our "better to be lucky than good" joker and got the best result in the book on 2nd favourite Leagle Aid who beat another of our bogeys, Damascus Steel despite Damascus hitting around 1.04 in running. Further good places to cap off our good fortune. Some dispute at the end in the CairnBet huddle as I proffered a hearty "here's to you" with every bet on Freddy Robinson whilst Steve and Simon were of the opinion that it wasn't the actual lyric. I argued for it still scanning perfectly and it was a nice follow on from last week's Cecilia gag but I fear it fell on deaf ears.

Our good run continues and we will bookmark this when the downturn kicks in at some point. Whilst we didn't get jackpots on a couple of traditional results we defied the place book bogeys pretty much all day and hit a couple of cracking wins late on when the top of the market reasserted itself.

A brief hiatus for us until we return in a couple of weeks for Hamilton music night. Until then...