It seems the Sariska debacle has readers split into two distinct camps (I imagine it depends whether you backed her or not!) with those of you who think bookmakers should have returned stakes on her and those who believe that coming out of the stalls is part and parcel of flat racing and therefore you’ve lost your money fair and square.

As I said on Tuesday, I’m in the latter camp as I think you have to draw the line somewhere as to when a horse is actually taking part in a race and ‘under starters orders’ is the logical place otherwise where do you go next? A horse leaving the stalls and immediately unseating the jockey? It’s very unlucky if you backed Sariska but navigating the stalls is just another ‘obstacle’ to overcome in a race.

I would just like to clear up any mis-understanding you may have about my comments regarding Paddy Power. I applaud them (and any other bookmaker who made the offer) for returning all stakes and obviously anyone betting with them has done well to get their money back. It was a fantastic concession by a bookmaker renown for such decisions.

….But don’t for one minute think they did it out of the kindness of their heart. They took a business decision that the publicity they would gain from returning bets on a well fancied runner in a high profile race would outweigh the cost. Ladbrokes, Hills and the rest of them did not.

———–

I had a pretty poor York myself and after a bad day on the Tuesday I was always behind and chasing my losses. I did get off to a promising start though with £20ew on Judge and Jury and £40 Rewilding but £40 Satin Love, £80 Twice Over, £25ew Sir Lunchalot and £50ew Almiqdaad wiped out those early winnings.

I also had to spend the afternoon doing the ‘Gavin and Stacey’ tour in Barry Island for one of Dylan’s friends who had come up from Devon to stay with us for a few days. Anyone who’s been to Barry lately will know that an afternoon there is about as much fun as watching Twice Over getting mugged on the line. If I see another T-Shirt/fridge magnet/tea towel/baseball cap or any other piece of tat with ‘what’s occurin’ written on it I’m going to scream. A game of Bingo with the kids in Nessa’s arcade was followed by lunch in ‘Gavin and Stacey’s’ favourite chip shop (I kid you not) which was a particular joy as episode after episode was played on a continuous loop. How I laughed. Move over Chris Moyles, James Corden is officially now my least favourite person on the telly.

Another good start on the Wednesday when my £10ew The Fonz won the first, Happy Days indeed! Now that was a great TV programme spoilt only by introducing Robin Williams and Mork and Mindy to the world. He’s another who would make it in my Top 5 least favourite people on the telly. (1. James Corden 2. Chris Moyles 3. Sharon Osbourne 4. Robin Williams 5. David Schwimmer)

My good run didn’t last too long though as £20 Illustrious Blue, £20 Crown Prosecutor, £30ew Fortuni, £10ew Black Moth and £40 Gobama along with a £50 Placepot perm all went down the pan and meant another losing day.

I’d been suffering from food poisoning at the start of the week (it must have been something I ate) and although I’d now got over that I’d now done something to my back and was in agony unless I was lying down. Walking was proving really troublesome but my biggest problem was that I had to take Dylan’s friend back home to Devon. We decided to take the train which seemed the best idea given the state of my back and that I was walking like Quasimodo. I didn’t half get some strange looks from the other passengers as the missus struggled to get on the train with three suitcases as I just stood and watched.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and an intermittent mobile signal I was able to place my bets for the day via my laptop. It only took the 45 minutes from Cardiff to Bristol Temple Meads to place my two wagers. My mobile provider boasts a 98% coverage of the UK which can only mean the 2% not covered just happens to be any bit of Britain with a train track on it. You’d probably get better reception on the top of Mount Snowdon. A £5 Lucky 15 on Maqaasid, Snow Fairy, Proponent and Cape To Rio with £25ew Perfect Blossom in the last had me wishing I was with a mobile company with 97% UK coverage.

 The 3 hours spent on the train did however give me plenty of time to convince myself that I couldn’t let Midday run without any of my hard earned on her. So while my mum ferried the family back to hers in the car I decide to walk an alternative route via William Hills. Unfortunately the missus decided to walk with me and with her peering over my shoulder I only put £40 of the holiday spending money on her instead of the intended £80. Ah well, a winners a winner.

The missus was off to meet a friend on the Friday so it meant I got to spend the afternoon in Ladbrokes, The Tote, Betfred and William Hill’s. Can you believe that a small town like Paignton has those four betting shops within 200 yards of each other? Ridiculous. In the 3 hours of freedom I was granted I visited all 4 shops in a vain attempt to find my ‘lucky’ shop. By 5pm it had become apparent that this was probably located in Torquay.

I’ll spare myself the embarrassment of listing all my bets (many of which I can’t remember anyway) but suffice to say it was complete carnage. From my first bet and nap of the day Green Lightning to the last Park View I only got to visit the payout counter twice. £20 Rio De La Plata and £20ew Becausewecan. Total losses for the day were in the region of £200…….

To top it all off I also had the misfortune of running into one of my old customers from our betting shop who couldn’t wait to tell me he had £2ew Sole Power in the Nunthorpe because he had eaten Dover sole for tea the previous night! It’s the only way anyone could possibly have backed that winner and just goes to show why we never made much money from our betting shops, we had the biggest bunch of luckboxes in history betting with us.

I’ve just had a Cadbury’s chocolate bar for my lunch so I’m off to back Chocolate Caramel in the 4.10 Ayr…..

Good luck,
Gavin.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.