Day 1 was always going to be my ‘banker’ day and I was expecting Day 2 to be quite a minefield. The day started badly when I checked my Day 1 maths and found I was up only £790 and not £890 as I thought (I'd originally included my Imperial Cup winnings from Saturday). The racing itself though went much better and I only gave the bookies back £19 from my winnings yesterday.
Aran Concerto got turned over in the first, but despite running a nice race, Silverburn could only manage fourth place (Catch Me was in third place; Duc De Regniere failed the stamina test and was the second last finisher; Granit Jack had been rerouted to yesterdays opener where he came second). The winner was an unfancied horse called Massini’s Maguire who came in at 20-1. Massini’s paid a huge compliment to Wichita Lineman’s chances in Friday’s Brit Hurdle, having beaten Wichita early in the year only to be soundly thrashed by him on two subsequent starts.
This meant that the 2-1 on Wichita suddenly looked a huge price and I was able to have a big bet on him with the last bookmaker to honour the price, Sporting Odds, only seconds before they trimmed him to 7-4. 7-4 is still available with a couple of layers, but most go 6-4 and he is now trading on Betfair at 2.58 (around 8-5, if that price actually existed). I intend trading off half my bet on Betfair around the 2.5 mark, which would give me effective odds of 5-2 on the remaining stake.
Denman proved me wrong in the Sun Alliance running out an impressive winner at 6-5. I backed Snowy Morning, win and place, on Betfair, trading off the win portion for a free bet at even money and managing 3.2-1 on the place. Snowy ran a nice race, coming second, albeit ten lengths behind the winner. He pretty much managed to pay for the day though.
The Queen Mother was a bad race for me. Nickname was a non runner, which didn’t surprise me in then end, but having backed him Non Runner No Bet, at least I got my stake back. I took advantage of one of the offers the various bookmakers have this time of year (in fact, the missus took a keen interest for a change) and had a small punt on Well Chief at 11-10 and a matching free bet on Dom D’Orgeval in the Sun Alliance, who did nothing and came home with the back markers.
I picked Well Chief because even though I had a stronger feeling for Newmill, I figured that I was more likely to get a return on Well Chief so that if the free bet failed, at least I wouldn’t lose out. Well Chief came a cropper at the second and I then did something amazingly stupid and tried to back Newmill in running, £50 at 3.35. A little over £11 was matched, but the price dropped and the rest hung in cyberspace.
I watched the race carefully with my finger poised over the Cancel button ready to kill the remaining bet if anything happened to Newmill. He clobbered the third last and I hit the Cancel button, but too late. It was then that I remembered that I was watching on digital TV rather than terrestrial and that digital has around a two second lag, meaning my money was hoovered up before I even saw the action happen.
Money down the drain, but I don’t mind as I learnt from two stupid mistakes. One, keep to your original plan and don’t switch horse midstream. Two, if you forget you’re watching on digital, you’re an idiot and deserve to lose your money.
Newmill stayed on his feet but lost a lot of puff and eventually came fourth. Voy Pur Ustedes, who was well fancied for this up until a month ago when he unseated in the Game Spirit, came in at 5-1, so congratulations to all those who kept faith with him.
I didn’t have a runner in the Coral Cup. All Star, my each way fancy for Thursday’s Jewson was routed to this race instead, but having not even looked at the form for the race, I decided not to play. All Star ran well for a while, but faded badly to finish in second last place. Having lived in Burnt Oak for about 15 years, I’d taken a second glance at the name Burntoakboy in the list of runners this morning, but I’m far too sensible to back horses because I like the name. Consequently, I was a watching admirer as the morning favourite won tidily at 10-1.
My minor pick for the Kim Muir never made the cut, so no bet there. The winner was the well backed 15-2 favourite Cloudy Lane.
If the Queen Mother was a trading disaster, then the Bumper was a trading success, from a moral standpoint if not a financial one. On Sunday I backed Crocodiles Rock win and place on Betfair at 42.0/7.0. By Monday night though, rumours were abounding that the horse wouldn’t run and he was unlayable on Betfair. I don’t know what the story behind all this is, but he did eventually line up today and traded a bit shorter. I laid off my £20 win stake at 32.0 and then proceeded to back and lay him twice more during the day (back 38.0 then lay 32.0, back 38.0 then lay 34.0) to generate a £440 free bet. He ran well for a while and went as low as 6.0 in running, but my call was a bit lower and I was unable to generate a profit from it. He failed to make the frame, so I lost my place bet which tipped me slightly into the red on the day.
As for the result, my prediction of an English winner was slightly off with Irish horses filling the first five places! The second favourite, Cork All Star, won at 11-2. Aranleigh was third (and confirmed his early form with Mad Fish who was eighth), Crocodiles Rock was two lengths off place money in sixth and Raven’s Run was mid-table.
With All Star out tomorrow, my existing bet portfolio is quite small. Tomorrow I’ve Inglis Drever, 5-1 Ante-Post, in the World Hurdle. Aside from Wichita Lineman, Friday also has 9-1 Each Way Ante-Post on Exotic Dancer in the Gold Cup. I’m currently £771 up, so even if all three of those go pear shaped, I should finish about £500 on the right side of things, but it would be nice if one obliged and I managed to get to four figures.
