Aintree (other races)

[jinnyj]

Nailed again...I even backed Funiculi (on his name..) as well -

 

[Desert Orchid]

Funiculi Funicula was the subject of some discussion at the family gathering, mainly about how could the commentators get the pronunciation so consistently wrong.

I suppose it's an element of the curse of the classical education, even if 'Funiculi Funicula' itself isn't classical Latin (but late C19 Italian/Neopolitan).

The one good thing about Frencesca Cumani is that she would never have got that wrong and she really should have been on to the team in advance to advise them about the pronunciation.

Then again, if Chapman refuses to accept when Kevin Blake sets him straight face to face on the pronunciation of a horse's nme maybe it would be a waste of time.

Perceval Legallois was another to have his name regularly mispronounced today.

I know that there are more important things that I should get het up about but this is national television and they have a duty to set standards.

 

[Ian_Davies]

I watched the entire meeting muted on a betting app on my phone - I decided a few weeks ago that, even on silent, the visuals on ITV Racing are too irritating and are detrimental to my enjoyment of the actual racing - so I was spared all this.

If you are of above average intelligence, have followed racing and betting your entire life and actually understand the game, ITV Racing has literally nothing to offer you.

Tbh, I'd say - live pictures of the actual racing excepted - pretty much the same about: RacingUK, Attheraces and the Racing Post.

 

[Desert Orchid]

If you are of above average intelligence, have followed racing and betting your entire life and actually understand the game, ITV Racing has literally nothing to offer you.

I agree but if what they do contributes towards the security of the future of the sport then it's a price worth paying otherwise we'd be further back than the Victorian novels that portray middle-aged gentlemen in starch collars and bowties hailing newspaper boys from the windows of train carriages to buy the evening paper in order to find out who won the big race that day or even the day before.

 

[Ian_Davies]

I think I've finally identified a noteworthy difference between us, Maurice, one of many, no doubt!

I'd say that you, in common with many who love a minority/niche sport, are fiercely loyal to it and care deeply about its future.

Racing has a host of such unpaid ambassadors, and they are often at their most active on Grand National Day, holding forth and encouraging family and friends to have a bet and take an interest in the game they love.

Not I.

That stuff never interested me.

I will confess that, in 1981, having backed Aldaniti ante-post at 16/1, when asked about the race the day before by my best friend's impossibly-cute gf, I did put a bet on for her and actually went to the bookies and got paid out on Grand National day and took the cash round her house.

But that was a one off 44 years ago - for a girl who was as Hot as Hades - and I haven't had the remotest interest in selling the sport to anyone since.

I actually avoid telling people I'm even interested in the game - outside my two main betting associates/collaborators I seldom discuss racing with anyone at all.

You're just a better person than selfish old me!

 

[Robicheaux]

Shit day, but the previous 2 ones were good. No complaints.

 

[Ian_Davies]

Shit day, but the previous 2 ones were good. No complaints.

Same as that.^

 

[Desert Orchid]

I actually avoid telling people I'm even interested in the game - outside my two main betting associates/collaborators I seldom discuss racing with anyone at all.

But would you be okay with the sport becoming as popular as quoits with no betting or tv coverage?

(Cos I reckon that's what will happen without support from terrestrial tv.)

 

[Ian_Davies]

Tbh, Maurice, I'm confident racing will continue to exist and I will be able to bet on it for the remainder of my lifetime, so it isn't something that occupies my mind.

I certainly don't feel the need to be an ambassador for it with others.

I'm actually enjoying racing now more than ever - that's because I engage with it in my terms, I hardly ever go racing any more and I only watch the actual races.

Racing as an industry might need terrestrial TV coverage, but I personally don't.

 

[Desert Orchid]

Tbh, Maurice, I'm confident racing will continue to exist and I will be able to bet on it for the remainder of my lifetime, so it isn't something that occupies my mind.

I certainly don't feel the need to be an ambassador for it with others.

I'm actually enjoying racing now more than ever - that's because I engage with it in my terms, I hardly ever go racing any more and I only watch the actual races.

Racing as an industry might need terrestrial TV coverage, but I personally don't.

I'm of a broadly similar mind in the terms of your first three sentences, Ian.

The rest I would compare with my attitude towards life. I'm not a social green or anything like that but I recognise that if people here and now don't act positively about how humans live and interact then we'll be living in Gotham Cities in the not too distant future.

If we don't support the positive aspects of terrestrial TV, even if that is by just having the TV on when the programmes are on, then we will end up without the sport. Maybe not in my lifetime either but in generations to come.

Look what TV did for snooker back in the 70s and 80s and look what a lack of it is doing for greyhound racing.

 

[Ian_Davies]

I get what you mean, Maurice, but you just used one of those words that trigger me - "support."

(Btw, the other trigger, which you didn't use tbf) is "should" and often prefaces it.

For example, "you should support local business...."

Err, it's MY money, which I might have worked hard (I didn't, but that's by the by ) to acquire, and I am under no obligation to spend my money on anything other than what I want to spend it on.

I could give other examples, but I'm sure you get my drift, so I'll cut straight to the chase and the matter in hand.

"You should support the racing industry by at least switching your TV on and tuning in to ITV Racing...."

Err, I have nothing but contempt for the majority of people in the racing and betting industries, it's my Saturday afternoon in the privacy of my own home and if I best enjoy that by watching muted coverage of the races on a betting app on my phone, I will (saving a few pennies on my electricity bill in the process by not having the telly on ).

I refuse to buy the Racing Post or subscribe to it, ditto RacingTV and Attheraces because I'm not putting money into the pockets of a bunch of racing media herberts who - in my never particularly humble opinion - don't know 10% of what I do about this game (and I include ex jockeys in that).

I only actually properly engage with people I think have a long-term winning (as a punter) grasp on the game.

I think it's called living life % on my terms - check me out with my cantankerous, OTT, arrogant, Sunday morning rant, I hope you were amused!

 

[Ian_Davies]

Wrong thread.

 

[Desert Orchid]

Of course you are 100% free to do as you like, Ian, and, again, I am in broad agreement with your opinions of many of the print and TV media 'experts'.

But I prefer to keep an open mind to alternative thinking which is sometimes mooted therein.

Take sectionals, for example. I'm still trying to properly understand them and when I listen to or read the 'experts' I sometime find myself questioning their interpretation, but that doesn't mean sectionals themselves are flawed or that they cannot offer a deeper understanding of what happened in a race. For me, every day is a learning day, including when engaging with you on here.

 

[Ian_Davies]

For me, every day is a learning day, including when engaging with you on here.

Likewise, or "right back atcha," as they say.

Sadly, my years in the print and broadcast media left me with no respect for those in it (myself included when I was myself) but there's a more important reason for not only ignoring the media, but not even exposing yourself to their views.

If you can read and hear what they write and say, everyone can - even if these people genuinely were the experts in their fields they sell themselves as (and trust me, they're not, they'd be making ten times as much as full-time pro punters if they were) any discovery they stumble on becomes public knowledge because they're conveying it, the market adjusts, the edge evaporates and life goes on.

I have edges I'd never share, like you I don't mind putting up a bet here once I'm on, but it's a fraction of what I know and my biggest winner at Aintree this week I never mentioned - I keep plenty back and I suspect you do too, and quite right - it's your intellectual property and we might be slightly centre left but we're not communists.

I only know you online here, and only for a matter of months thus far, but I'd bet tens on you make this game pay long term and everything you write has my undivided attention.

 

[Desert Orchid]

Kind words, Ian, and thank you for them.

My only 'edge' is my brain, and I hope that doesn't come across as arrogant as it isn't meant to.

I don't have any inside info or any connection to anyone involved in racing. I know a couple of guys who have 'a leg' or whatever in a horse but I would NEVER ask them how it is likely to get on if I see it engaged somewhere. (I'd be embarrassed to do so, to be honest.)

When I say, "My only 'edge' is my brain", I mean that I really only bet when I've studied a race and when I think the bookies have made a mistake in the odds. I use my own (tweaked from Ken Hussey's originals) standard times and calculate my own going allowances but race times play only a minute part in my thinking.

I can respect the likes of Timeform and RPRs as a reference point but am much more trusting of ORs as a guide and I take things from there.

I suppose if someone were daft enough to be of a mind to check my ratings for a race and then work back to see how I arrived at them then I'd wish them good luck but I do think they'd end up in a bit of a warren since my mind doesn't necessarily work like other people's, as those who have read my conspiracy theories will well know, and I have my own ideas regarding linking lengths beaten to handicap pounds.

But that's about it for me, really. I do my own thing and once my bets are on I don't mind sharing as it's meant to promote discussion and stimulate opinion.

 

[viking]

A rotten Aintree festival for me to go with my rotten Cheltenham festival. Reflecting on this I think after a very good NH season until early March I just became a bit complacent and didn’t bother studying form properly

 

[Mr Whatoxo]

Funiculi Funicula was the subject of some discussion at the family gathering, mainly about how could the commentators get the pronunciation so consistently wrong.

I suppose it's an element of the curse of the classical education, even if 'Funiculi Funicula' itself isn't classical Latin (but late C19 Italian/Neopolitan).

The one good thing about Frencesca Cumani is that she would never have got that wrong and she really should have been on to the team in advance to advise them about the pronunciation.

Then again, if Chapman refuses to accept when Kevin Blake sets him straight face to face on the pronunciation of a horse's nme maybe it would be a waste of time.

Perceval Legallois was another to have his name regularly mispronounced today.

I know that there are more important things that I should get het up about but this is national television and they have a duty to set standards.

On ITV and Sky Sports, there were two presenters who couldn’t even get Tripoli Flyer correct, so they’d be bound to struggle with these.