A rather splendid curry at the Gurkha Chef means I've got about 10 minutes to write this before I crash. Brevity is good for the soul though.
If you've read anything on Twitter you know I chose wrong with the 2nd pick. Pretty badly wrong until the last 2 races. Though, when our very good friend was leaving with an hour to go having taken 75 quid on the previous race in our alternative option, we realised we'd still picked wrong but just not as wrong as we could've done.
1) I like our punters and, generally, I'm a patient guy. I'll move ditherers politely to the side without them losing their place in the queue, I'll reprint endless tickets from a fiver each way to £2.50 each way when a crisp £5 note is offered in payment, I'll even offer an opinion when asked what is going to win- even if that opinion was "If I knew I'd be on a beach" but this was a tough one today. A bloke who flip flopped from attempting to kiss me full on the lips to abusing me for being a scouser. "F-ing scouser, better check my f-ing wallet" etc. Yeah- I've never heard that before. I'd imagine that yesterday's spaniel might've been interested in the contents of his pockets. Anyway he's wanting 14/1 about a 12/1 shot and 4 places. I politely declined. "I'll bet with you all day" he said. I told him that was brilliant but, really, it wasn't. I stuck it out at 12/1. He eventually bet it but was insisting on 4 places. "It's a non handicap mate so it's 3 places".
And before I reach the end of this story, if you're tempted to tell me that Bet365 or Hills were paying 4 places with a ticket to a Rolex raffle and a free mug with the logo "Betting, Only Better" and a picture of some washed up footballer plying their trade on Soccer Saturday stating the bleeding obvious and saying "the keeper will be disappointed with that" then I'll counter with- you're probably right but you will get on with us, you won't be banned for beating the SP once in a calendar month and we definitely won't need a selfie with your cat in Barbados if you want to draw your 50 quid out.
I digress. I eventually offered to pay 4 places if his horse finished fifth. He immediately shook my hand and said "deal". There are, sometimes, no words- which, I'd imagine, you'd be eternally grateful for. We did a little bit of other betting too and had 5 losers strewn liberally, and randomly, throughout the book. Very nice start with middle of the betting bunch Leovanni winning a race devoid of stress as the bogeys were out early.
If you're on pun watch (and why are you here if you're not)- yes we did say "that's a nice round number" for every bet on Spherical including 3 times to the same group. None of them got it. I weep for the future.
2) Illinois saved a loss from inevitable lay of the day, Highbury, which was a max, and every punter felt the need to tell us they were Gooners. There's me thinking they had season tickets at White Hart Lane (or whatever the new place if called) Anyway, 0-0 draw but an element of relief all round.
3) Running Lion a nice top up in the next as we avoided all 5 losers, though places took the cherry off the top of the cake, but I'm not a glace man myself anyway.
4) No avoiding this one though as the jolly, Auguste Rodin, powered home and a couple of fast finishers turned our place book from "we've got away with this" to "carnage". Or, if you were reading yesterday's blog "chaos". Big step backwards.
5) Plenty of money for Beshtani, sadly enough for Wild Tiger to make that a loser too. Fast finishing Sonny Liston couldn't deliver a knockout punch and we were on the wrong side of the ledger again. Know what I mean 'Arry. Profit at this point was modest and our pick was barely contributing.
6) Finally we started to take some bets in the bar and we had a decent book with plenty of chances. Plenty of losers too. 7 at the last count. No matter as Doha gave us a nice win and we tiptoed through the tulips in the each way market to re-establish the aforementioned cherry on the cake.
7) Heartbreak. Absolute heartbreak. Gabaldon for the super jackpot, plus, plus, plus with free auto nudge extra jackpot feature couldn't lose. Or so it seemed, until Ain't Nobody went past. I'd have loved the other one better. Still a small win after standing a few others and a great, great place result meant we'd got a fair whack in the last two to give us a winning day in the book and another dent in the week's expenses (still not covered as we speak).
We go again tomorrow. Until then...
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