Firstly, the switch to buying badges online went just fine. Appreciate being able to drop off gear yesterday as well. The new bookmaker entrance for Windsor Enclosure is also far better than the old one. Email communication from Ascot was really good as well- a lot of courses can learn from that. Thanks to Tony who provides the updates and also took the time out to reply to my (many) queries.
Not sure what happened to the staff parking though. "New Mile Road" Car Park wasn't on New Mile Road. The usual entrance was closed and we were sent down to the end of the road to access from Cheapside Road. The whole process took 40 minutes and seemed utterly pointless as we ended up parking back up past the original exit and, even more frustratingly, cars were streaming in through the "closed" entrance we'd driven past 40 minutes previously. I know bookies like to moan but the whole car parking process was born of frustration.
1) It's really hard to lay favourites into liability at Ascot in the silver ring. Impossible when it's 1/6. Regular readers will know we were likely to have 6 losers and 1 winner and we did. We stood them all between 2/3 and max liability and won fairly tidily on the incredibly impressive Baaeed.
2) Couldn't get the top 3 in the market in (as per usual at Ascot) and stood Bradsell and Kings Crown for the max plus Royal Scotsman for 1/2. Stood all of them for plenty in the places as well. We got battered. It costs about £5000 for us to attend for the week all in. Was costing us even more at this point.
3) The only race of the day where we did get the jolly in and it wasn't even favourite when we did. Stood 4 of the top 5 in the market for various amounts (including a couple of maximums) plus a couple of outsiders (Tis Marvellous and Equilateral). The book was akin to the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but somehow we dodged every bullet (including the places) and original favourite Nature Strip was a great winner for us and we were back in front.
4) Another jolly running for us (Coroebus), though not for fortunes, that won. We had 4 losers dotted around and none were a factor so it was an easy watch. "Watch" being a relative term though, given we were stationed past the bend and there were no big screens. At least the tannoy worked.
5) Another cracker of a result Coltrane obliging from favourite Bring on the Night (a taker but still not a loser). The cheap gag is free.
6) We stood 5 of them- not the favourite, obviously, and got another solid result when Dubai Future beat Cadillac- Harrovian spoilt our place book somewhat by finishing 3rd
7) Who's stupid idea was it to increase it to 7 races? Like most of the crowd did, we should've gone home after 6. A truly horrible result for us as we lost on a name "Get Shirty" which we stood for max in the win and some more in the place whilst Alright Sunshine was another each way shocker for us.
Two max plus losses meant that, whilst we didn't have a losing day, there wasn't much of a win either and covering our expenses still seems several sleeps away, if at all. Still, could've been worse- could've gone to Molineux...
Finally a shout out to a lovely Scottish chap we met who had chunky bets with us on favourites all day. He got the better of us overall. We asked him where he lived- turns out he moved to Coventry. The book next door observed that he probably didn't have any friends. Wish I'd thought of that one.
These blogs are going to be short this week. We're on the road at 8:30am and not back in digs until 8:30pm and we have to eat, prep and sleep. May just be the bare betting bones tomorrow. Until then...
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