We start at 6:00 yesterday when our fellow bookmaker came up to see us. Usually that's for a bet back but racing had finished. Maybe just to see what we'd taken or how we'd got on. But, no. Our friend was gonna be sleeping on the street as, much to his surprise, he couldn't get a hotel room in Perth the night before The Gold Cup meeting. A quick call to the manager of Hotel CairnBet (the wife) elicited a room; the spare bedroom in fact, and we spent the night watching a bit of golf on the telly and drank a bit more Cali Pale. Sadly we couldn't quite sneak 9 holes in on Sunday morning.
We sent 1 pitch to Musselburgh (Kev and Amanda) and 1 to Perth (me and Steve). Was it the right decision? Well, to be honest, at this point I don't know as Kev is incommunicado- hopefully he's still at the track, too busy counting the winnings...
Strange that Musselburgh and Perth had meetings on the same day but good to see Scottish racing picking up more weekend racing- Perth being the established Gold Cup Day and Musselburgh dipping their toe further in the Sunday market. This Perth meeting has always been a good punting day and we were tempted to send 2 there but felt our much better pick at Musselburgh v our 2nd pick at Perth justified a split, for good or for ill. And I still don't know. I'm hoping Kev is ok...
The projected crowd at Perth was way down on the previous crowds but this has been the case for most of the year but we felt that the crowd was good and the atmosphere vibrant. I may have mentioned this before but, whilst we are seeing a decrease in crowd numbers and actual bet numbers, we are seeing an increase in average bet size as it becomes more and more difficult to get on off course. Regularly beat the SP and you're restricted and the current affordability piece online makes short term losing an issue, even if a punter is long term successful, so many of the serious punters seem to be making their way back on course.
Before we launch into the betting blog may I just thank the hugely hyper aggressive chap with 4 losing tickets at the end who told me I was f***ing robbing him blind by a) not paying him out on 3 horses (1 faller and 2 tailed off) and b) another loser who wasn't even bet with us even though our inebriated friend insisted it was (unless you spell "CairnBet" S-A-M-B-L-A-C-K) Apologies to our friend Sam who, no doubt had a similar conversation when said headcase finally focussed on the signage above his board and had to explain that 5th out of 5 didn't qualify as a winning place bet.
1) Odds on shot was a decent winner until a lump came in on the off to make it a loser with rest of field good winners. It looked in a degree of trouble but it wasn't to be and we got off to a losing start. The forecast wasn't laid which helped but not as much as if our big bettor had turned right instead of left and punted elsewhere. Them's the breaks.
2) Gold Cup Day at Perth tends to throw up favourite backers and so it continued. Ash Tree Meadow and Geromino our losers. Jackpots everywhere else but "everywhere else" was a joy free zone and another loser was chalked up and this time the forecast couldn't save us. Down but hopefully not out.
3) Ring the changes huh? Or not. This time it was the original favourite (rather than the backed in favourite) that won but it was a change of luck for us. We had A Mere Bagatelle in for the max loss and got a decent, if unspectacular win with Well Planted.
4) Like watching Sky Sports out of the football season (or in lockdown) Perth was on constant repeat as the well backed favourite, Minella Trump, prevailed despite looking 3rd best and we just couldn't get a break. Too much noise. We begged for post race silence.
5) We changed channels to Dave but the only difference was the repeats were comedies rather than sport but the misery continued as another favourite (Golden Taipan) popped in for the half max loss. Amalfi Doug always wins at Perth apparently- apart from today when we wanted it and it didn't. It did manage 2nd place to make sure we lost in the forecast market as well. Thanks Doug.
As an aside we once went to Perth and got 6 favourites in 5 races (answers on a postcard). We almost wanted the last 2 to win just for the banter, if not the bank balance.
6) If this blog wasn't totally committed to quality indie lyrics I would have been tempted to have entitled this one "Gold Cup- always believe in your soul". But that would make me a debaser so I won't. Anyway we'd been looking at "normal" books all day and barely had any respite from the favourite deluge when finally we pulled the big lever and got the treble 7. Metaphorically. We laid Pammi for the max and, despite shortening in running, we felt it never going well and it fell out of contention. Glen Ava led, got caught, got overtaken, rallied and won for the double rollover jackpot. Apropos of absolutely nothing, I used to go out with a girl called Pam.
7) Balanced betting, balanced book. Mr Sundancer our worst result, Ahyoucouldntbesure our best. Favourite I Love My Baie was our only winning favourite of the day and a nice way to finish.
Stop Press. Kev hasn't driven off the Queensferry Crossing and has made it home. Which is a relief. Musselburgh wasn't great and he racked up a small loss.
Stop. Stop Press. Lyrics courtesy of Ash (CairnBet's semi official 2nd best song of all time) plus an absolute banger from Pixies. Good luck.
Chester on Saturday then Ascot the week after. Until then...
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