Another blog, another mangled 1980s REM album track. Gold Cup Day which has always been a strong betting meeting. The predicted crowd was expected to hold up, the weather was good, the start time hadn't been arsed about with, we had an 8 race card and there were plenty of runners. Everything was in its favour. We were optimistic.
1) Awful business. Simply awful. It was a bad each way race from our perspective and, despite that, the betting was still awful. The only big bets we saw laid were bookmakers having chunks with other bookmakers who were offering each way prices at the top of the market which were margin negative in the each way book. All of the above optimism was floating gently out of the window. 3 losers but not the favourite who we couldn't get enough in on. Looked ok as it hit 1/20 with 100 yards to go, only to get snagged on the line by one of the aforementioned small losers. Slightly behind and a worrying lack of turnover. At least we won a tenner in the forecast
2) We really needn't have worried. Business up 4 fold in the 2nd. In retrospect we should've realised that the original start time was 2:00 ish and a split race meant race 1 went off half an hour earlier than most of the crowd expected. Dapper Gent and Northern Cardinal for the max along with outsider Blue Clover- mainly due to Rangers fans who kept telling us they were Rangers fans. Favourite Marty McFly won smallish for us, from our jackpot One Step Up but at least we moved forward and yet again franked our form as "not proper bookmakers" for winning on a jolly. Race 1 loss wiped out but we were only back to all square. I did, as you would now expect, point out the speed of Marty to everyone who bet it (88 mph if you have to ask)
3) Back to being a proper bookmaker again, honest guv, as we had the top 2 in the market in for the max as the lumps came in for Belle of Annandale and we had a nice, but less than spectacular, win on Kinbara Firstdraft. Nice, tinged with mild disappointment if you will.
4) More lumps on another favourite, Gods Own Getaway, guaranteed the max liability and, what the hell, we shoved the 2nd favourite in for the max as well. And this time we got our full reward as Parisencore won going away and we had something closing in on jackpot territory.
5) Another race, another jolly for the max as Duffle Coat was a buttoned in liability. This "winning on favourites" thing really is a myth. Though we did stand Hang In There for much the same amount just so we don't completely lose our reputation. And it looked a bad decision as Hang In There, well, hung in, and went past our only hope, Statuario on the run in, but a late rally meant we had another solid result when a loss looked inevitable.
6) Couldn't keep them off Half Shot who went miles clear with Everyday Champagne which was hardly any better for us. But it always looked like they'd gone too fast and we had a genuine jackpot on Cardamom Hill, whilst places were sensational, as we stood 4 of them for chunks and none placed. Next door twirled, I merely fist pumped. We were flying.
7) Back down to earth as Fever Dream ran like the hot favourite it was to hit us for a max. Places were, again, ridiculously good and most of the win market loss was wiped out. Monster jackpots 2nd and 3rd but, to be fair, it was hardly on the nod so we had little to complain about. We were still in a great place coming to the last.
8) Paddy Elvis and Pammi for the "Done on a Name" liability double in the last. Opinions differ here. Half the books say Paddy wins if it jumps the last but I'm not seeing it. Dalileo is finishing like a train and is eating up the ground. Either way it was a jackpot in win and place for us and we were glad to see Paddy and rider up straight away after the fall,
As anyone who has read our blogs will know we don't do karma and all that nonsense but we were in something of a rut in April and May and you do start questioning where the next big day is coming from. June has been the opposite- a winning day at Musselburgh where we could easily have lost, a great result in the context of what we took at Hamilton and a monster day today, The betting, after race 1 was very good and we took full advantage.
So why the title of the blog? Well, it's a bit of a thing in the bookmaking fraternity that you can't win at Perth. Small fields, all favourites winning etc. We've never bought into that and today was further evidence that it's an urban myth. Trust the system. Keep the faith, even when you're limping through spring. Hexham Saturday next for us followed by our annual pilgrimage to Ascot to try to do our best for the Scottish economy with some relocation of wealth from south to north. Until then...
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