Last night. We're on pizza. I'm tired. I'm out of witticisms. I can only offer you betting before I go to bed. Though I would say that betting seemed to be 30% - 40% down on last year whoever you spoke to, whatever number they had.
1) Everything in balance. 8 losers, 8 winners and, for once, we wanted Frankie. Matrika looked like it would kick us off with a loss but we urging Frankie on and were singing his praises when he delivered. Reasonable starting win pegged back somewhat by a poor place result but with bogeys 2nd and 3rd we were more relived than frustrated.
2) No such luck in the 2nd. 3 losers, one of whom was Shaquille who fell out of the stalls, took a trip to Windsor Castle, had a little shop for carrots, hit a million in running and still got up to give us a loss and we were back to zero. We wanted the paddling Little Big Bear. Little chance, big disappointment.
3) Reverse of fortunes in the 3rd as a solid winner, Okita Soushi, beat a taker and a loser and our yoyo day rolled back along the string of fortune in our favour. And, like premierisation, a string of fortune isn't a thing either.
4) Least surprising book of the day with the odds on shot running for us and 3 losers from the other 5. The jolly won after a stewards- we haven't seen it back yet but there was much bafflement. The result stood as it virtually always does and we had a nice win.
5) I can barely count the losers looking at this one even now. Coppice was one of them, though, and our string of fortune was in danger of ending up with bloodied knuckles. We have a ton of expenses and we were struggling. We needed a big finish.
6) It was going to be hard to get much back on a 6 horse job with an 11/10 at the top of the market. It obliged and it was the best result of the day so far for us with solid wins in both win and place books.
7) A couple of lads had asked us for our opinion earlier on and we'd already given them a winner. We gave them Kerdos and Conquistador each way here. They finished 2nd and 3rd to give them a nice profit and a great ride. Think they won £32.50 and moaned that we hadn't given them a winner. It was a bloody 26 runner handicap. They then wanted us to round it up to 40 quid. Some folk are never happy. We politely declined the eventual fist bump offer. Incidentally we paid a place as win to another punter. We realised our mistake immediately and caught up with him. We didn't get it back and, the way the conversation went, we felt it might end nastily so we left it. Maybe 50 quid meant more to him than to us but either way it's theft, plain and simple. I sincerely hope he has an awful evening. After 4 lovely days from the point of view of the punters we were left with a nasty taste twice at the end of today.
One more day to go and we're hoping for a pick up in business from tomorrow's sell out crowd. It's a long week and, whilst we've been winning fairly steadily, the lower turnover means we are not setting the heather alight and, with huge expenses, we need a great day tomorrow.
Until then...
I did suggest to pinno at the start of the week that the attendance looked down and that some of the "brethren" would do well to clear their exes let alone clear a "earner". Well done mate for sticking with it and console yourself that your blogs are a constant source of enjoyment. Good luck! 🏇🏇💷💷💷🍷👍