I think we need to keep an eye on Nicky Martins runners. I looked at her 200/1 winner last night but couldn’t make a case for it. I even looked up her strike rate in the early hours of this morning and discounted it. I apologise for aftertiming but The Two Amiga’s was top rated in my little system for the Welsh which is why I looked at her runner today. I think I was logged out of my WHill account and couldn’t be bothered to go onto oddschecker to put a few pennies on. I’d even been reading an old Racing Post article about Nicky Martin and hadn’t realised she was a ‘she’.
Kind of snap here, Moehat. This was a painful lesson today for me. I'll spill the story cos it'll help me process this one into the 'forget about it' box
Glanced through the runners 10 mins before the race, and only three jumped out - Nicky's, Honeyballs, and the favorite. The favorite I figured was only 50/50 to throw in a bad one again. Honeyball's and all others unknown.
There was some alarm going off in my head saying 'come on, you've seen a NM running a race out of the blue in a novice or maiden before. But I couldn't put my finger on who it was. And, of course, The Two Amigos connection was there.
So a glance at the form. Nothing. But in this race, that wouldn't matter.
Sire? No good. Galileo Gold has only had a handful of jumps runners and nothing there (but with such a small sample, again, that wasn't a conclusive enough rule out).
Jockey? Nope, Sean Bowen one placed from five. But again, too small a sample really.
Filly against males in a 3-year-old hurdle. Off the flat with one recent unplaced hurdles run. Unlikely!
******
Something happened in the house, and I went off to take care of it. Lost track.
Came back to laptop, still open on the Betfair win page. And that moment of horror when you're on the top half of the page, the winner isn't there, and you know yours was down the bottom somewhere.
Scrolled down with an unavoidable 'oh please no'.
Think it was 765.
Then a quick look at what should have been the next step - maidens 21 in first 4 from 37, novices 31 from 71. In other words, close to one from every two runners for youngsters in the first 4.
And then the next step - the first two hurdle races. And groan...the last was against older novices, two or three of which could be listed class and a fair few of the others good handicappers in time. She had zero chance there and finished accordingly.
At the very least, it should have been a quid win or a few on the first four, just in case.
Philosophical (as you have to be) but mildly gutted still. Next time!