I appreciate that, nominally, you're here for the betting blog but, really, I know you're here for the latest instalment of the CairnBet v Pinno 2024 Summer Golf Epic so I won't disappoint.
Pinno struck early after looking second best all the way down the difficult first, holing a 30 footer down the hill with a shot and I needed a 10 footer to halve and it drifted wide. It was the curse of the first though as CairnBet struck back on 2, saw off the next shot at 4 and was a mighty 5 up after 10. Pinno nicked one back with a shot on 11 but when CairnBet halved 12 with a ludicrous putt that hit the back of the hole at Mach 5, shot 3 feet into the air and dropped in, like a Dickensian Christmas, Pinno's goose looked slow cooked.
Then CairnBet fell apart. Massive slice on the 13th into the marsh, thinned approach on 14 and 3 from the edge at 15 meant we went down 16 with Pinno only one down with a shot. CairnBet scrambled a half against the head and hit an absolute beauty up 17. Pinno had a devilish 50 footer that he made a great two putt and CairnBet's putt was always low so we went up 18 with CairnBet still 1 up. Pinno was in the trees left whilst CairnBet hit the fairway but was blocked out. Pinno had about 200 yellow ones off the practice ground to choose from but went for his own Srixon, came out nicely and was greenside for 3. CairnBet failed to carry the bunker and was left with 70 yards to the flag- through the back with a tricky chip to come. After a couple of 4/10 chips Pinno needed to hole from 15 feet and left it high and CairnBet cosied down to a foot and held on to his unbeaten record. Just. So near and so far away. Like Lazarus, The Moustachioed Wonder came back from the dead but, like Icarus he flew too close to the sun and his wings melted. Baz is already angling for 6 shots over 17 Lansdowne holes tomorrow but will be destined to be disappointed as only 5 shots are on the table. Steve will be joining us tomorrow in party pooper role before we head over to Hamilton. Abridged report to come. Right. If you're still with us let's a have a tiptoe through the Perth betting tulips.
1) Maxes 3rd and 4th in the list plus Caledonian Pearl at a big price. The top two in the market fought it out. We wanted the jolly for a good start and we got the 2nd favourite for a tiny winning one. Places doubled the profit but that's not saying much.
2) Nothing sort of a book which didn't get the juices flowing. A score draw on the jolly Imaginarium but no place comfort and we were treading water.
3) Bizarre book with 5 losers out of the top 6 and absolute jackpots the other 4. Small loss on Just Dottie but a fantastic place result meant a small move forward on what looked a result which would normally be a backward step.
4) Ladies Day. Only one horse they could possibly bet and the money for Busty Boy was no surprise. Statuario won in slightly unexpected fashion and we had the first half decent result of the day.
5) For possibly the first time in my life I wanted Liverpool to lose. Along with Cuban Cigar, Can't Stop Now and Accidental Rebel. A nice win supplemented by a delicious place result and we were gently plodding forward on what were, on the face of it, bad results. Trust. The System.
6) Ach. Stuff the system. We stood the jolly for plenty. Steve wandered down to the Pinno stand who told him that we had the jolly beaten as they turned in. Great news, he thought, until Pinno expanded with the news that it was Singapore Trip who was doing the jolly bashing honours. Choose your liability and we chose not quite as bad as the jolly but with a side order of awful places and we took a big step backwards.
7) Couldn't keep them of Sword of Fate as the money rained down. Looked beaten pretty much every 100 yards from 1/2 mile out and then looked the winner coming to the last. I strapped on the ankle brace in preparation for a continual bout of joint kicking until Imperial Rule gave us the best result in the book and the best result of the day. The clouds had parted and the sun shone down on the righteous. Or, failing that, us.
8) Wow. What a book. What a truly awful book. We laid Cairndhu at various prices that were substantially higher than the off price of 15/8 and we had a value free book. Fortunately we nicked a small win on the 2nd favourite and had double bubble on some lovely places.
Today, on the way home, I thought of Geoff, my father in law who, sadly, died during the Covid pandemic. We used to phone him on the way home. It didn't matter what the results were, 7 favourites or 8 rags, Geoff used to tell us how he's looked at the results and declared it as "a mixed bag". Today he was right. We lost nastily then won nicely on the 2 traditional results on the day. We won on some jollies, we lost on some. We had spectacular and terrible place results. We had the very definition of mixed bag. Overall it was a very nice win for us so we can't complain. Actually, who are we kidding? We're bookmakers so we always complain.
Hamilton tomorrow. We'll probably complain then as well. Until then...
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