Yesterday reminded me just how hard it can be to punt horses successfully.
As it was a public holiday & I had nothing to do I decided to speculate a 'few pennies' on the nags.
It quickly came to my attention that the Irish Grand National was being staged at Fairyhouse & I decided to focus on that event.
I immediately encountered my first problem : The meeting was not available on Interbet. So my first order of business was to call Barry & ask him to put up the meeting on their site; which he did. (Why does one have to ask?). Whatever.
I uncharacteristically then had a couple of small bets on the Jhb meeting (I usually avoid RSA racing) and actually managed to make a couple of grand in stake money. Pleasant surprise.
During the remainder of the afternoon I painstakingly went through each of the 30(!) runners on Timeform and eliminated 24 of them. This was a lot easier than one might imagine as I firstly eliminated all of the runners who had performed at the Cheltenham Festival a couple of weeks earlier. (Much too soon to be running after the exertions of the Festival).
I then built a small book around the remaining 6. My big winner would be Isleofhopendreams which was trading at a juicy 20/1 on Interbet.
The race itself was a corker.
One of the reasons why I love jump racing is that you have time to watch a race develope and enjoy the tactics and changes in fortune that characterise these races.
Coming to the last my fancy was lying third with winning a seemingly forlorn hope. The last jump saw the two leaders literally run out of petrol in two strides and put in leaden legged jumps. Isleofhopendreams staggered to the front at a brisk walk but failed by an agonising short head to hold off the subsequent winner.
Despite my disappointment I had to concede that it was a 'free bet' and and one hell of a run for my money!
Now on to the Aintree festival later this week...........another cracking event.
Ok Garrick still 10 days to National and never easy to find the winner but i am rather bullish about Tiger Roll winning or at least a place to cover bets
Yesterday my 'cruel mistress' decided to throw me a bone to 'kiss and make up' for Monday at Fairyhouse (whilst ensuring that I remain addicted).
In the first at Lingfield my old friend Bookmaker was running. I had backed him at his previous run (where he ran stone motherless last) because I have had quite a lot of success in the past where Keiran O'Neill rides lurkers.
When I assessed the form I discovered that he was carrying 8lbs less for the 4 odd lengths he was beaten at his last outing.
I couldn't help myself & took R25,000 of the horse............
Like I said.....an addict.
At least I had the good sense to turn it up for the day and didn't even back Manchester City 'in running' as I was planning to do.
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