Up or Down?

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
24,857
Financially or emotionally?

How was the festival for you?

I've just done a trawl of all my festival bets.

To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I knew I was nicely in front after a reasonable start on Tuesday and a very good day on Wednesday but poor days on Thursday (wiped out) and Friday (only Monkfish got me a return) had me bracing myself for the grim reality of snatching a loss from the jaws of profit, the best-case scenario being hopefully to finish round about level.

I must have won a lot more on Wednesday than I'd thought because I finished the week much further in front than I'd imagined possible. I was betting to much reduced stakes as I've been unable to trawl the form as deeply as normal so almost all of my bets were based on fairly superficial on-line studying and informed guesswork.

My despondency of yesterday evening - I do hate the thought of spending so much time working towards the festival not ending in a profit and I've been in the doldrums for many months due to my deteriorating eyesight - has now lifted. I wouldn't say I'm on a high but I'll enjoy my roll-and-square-sliced a lot more this morning.

Last week's eye op is looking promising but it will be another few months before I'm able to go back to studying the way I used to since I'm not allowed to get reading glasses until the specialist gives his permission and the second eye op won't happen until May at the earliest (and that was before this Covid-19 carry-on).

I have to accept that I might not get my reading vision back to anywhere near what I would hope for but to offset that I no longer need glasses for distance vision and can sport my brand new David Duval-esque wrap shades. I can now watch TV like a normal human being, without having to sit a foot in front of it just to make out the words and pictures!

I wouldn't say the week has been a roller-coaster - or even fun - but I've survived and live to take on Aintree.
 
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Please God Maurco doesn't see this post. I have never witnessed an individual having a run like it. :adore:
 
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Financially, up just, wouldn’t have bothered with that.

Emotionally down. I just no there’ll be no more racing, so to go through till later October, November
, with nothing to look forward to is pretty sad.

I’ve really tried with the flat game, and it just doesn’t do it for me.
 
A poor festival for me financially and socially with my employer imposing a ban on attending corporate hospitality events (published on Tuesday morning ffs).

I would have been about £5 up for the week but for AP bets. Some of these were a bit unlucky such as Captain Guinness being brought down when looking like making a strong challenge (as always at Cheltenham who knows what he’d have found up the hill). Others were just plain bad (step forward Fusil Raffles and Winter Escape)

I had a great year with AP bets last year (ROI +100%) and the year before so won’t let a losing year put me off.

Fewer bookie offers this year and particularly missed the £20 cash back in the first race each day from SkyBet and the £25 free bet in the day’s feature race from Bet365. Paddy Power had some decent looking specials but were restricting me to 20p on those + excluding me from their money back as free bet offers


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Slightly up somehow

Going into the Festival I had a bunch of horses - Abas, Fakir, Sharjah, Minella Indo, Allaho, Defi, Mister Fisher, A Plus Tard, Santini and Delta Work who I had at double figures ante post. Some of them 20s+
None of them won, most of them placed.
Not ideal
However, I had the RSA and Ryanair down as two horse races so had a long term Champ/Min double which saved my bacon.

I had a Melon/Saint Calvados ew double (both at 20s) which wasn't far away from paying huge.

A few Multis came in thanks to Shishkin, Easysland, Samcro and even Politologue winning but Goshen's fall and Santini's narrow defeat meant I barely crawled into the green.

Emotionally I dunno, normally would be looking forward to Aintree and the Guineas but the whole coronavirus thing is concerning and I'm worried about older relatives. I know we have a few oldsters on here. Hope everyone stays safe. This is way more important than profit or loss ultimately.
 
Enjoyed the racing even if from a punting view it was my worst by some, some distance.

Aba and Indo being nailed and Column of Fire going at the last were particularly painful.

Mullins/Elliott having 28 first/second finishes in the week does make a bit of mockery of it from a competitive angle, but Irish racing is streets ahead.
 
A good Day 1 (a forecast in the last), followed by a bag of shite for the next three days. I kept hitting the bar, particularly with my combination tricasts; but that’s the risk.

A losing Cheltenham is no fun, but by putting the money away since December I manage to soften the blow.
 
frontrunner said:
Please God Maurco doesn't see this post. I have never witnessed an individual having a run like it. :adore:
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Cheers Brian. It was a pretty good one shall we say! :)

Irrespective of returns, I’ve just enjoyed four days of fantastic racing in the very best company. It’s been a fabulous few days.

I have nothing I should be complaining about really, but the post Festival blues are already kicking this morning. Or is it the massive hangover! :lol:
 
Down.

Should of backed ante ew more as had plenty of places.

Selling and moving house in the past month took away a fair bit of my time and just haven't seen as much racing as usual this year
 
Finished very nicely up, off to a flier on the Tuesday with 5 winners, slight profit Wednesday then bumped into Frontrunner on Thursday who mentioned that Maruco was on fire so followed him in those 2 huge priced winners.
 
Up

Tuesday- Shishkin and The Conditional had me slightly up

Wednesday- Slightly down even though i had 3 winners on a L31 (Dame DC, Easysland and Champ

Thursday- The day i attended, Backed Sire DB, Simply TB and Milan Native and e.w.s on Ronald and Bacardys in the stayers, done em on Frodon, Faugheen and M Melody but was well up

Friday- Slightly down, Had LIT and Santini e.w, Burning Victory in a L15 treb the odds, Column Of Fire would have seen me up and was a choker

Roll on next year when Simply the Betts wins the Gold Cup:D
 
£4 down, but had hundreds of tiny bets. Had the winner of the last race; had backed it at 12.30 but had no idea why [I think it must have blue across the board on oddschecker for a while]. Must make a note of why I have a bet! Win, lose or draw though, the sight of Jamie Moore so distraught will stay in my mind for a long time and overshadowed the whole Festival. It was good fun watching what happened to Ronald Pump having kept an eye on him after Marb tipped him up [thanks Marb]. Ditto Emitom. I just don't think the festival is about finding horses that have scrambled into the bottom of handicaps any more but which horses JP has bought.
 
Don't bet that much but overall with my small yankees and other multiples I'm up a bit - thanks Lisnagar Oscar!

Emotionally Champ was undoubtedly my highlight of the week but also enjoyed seeing John Hales and Politologue win the Queen Mum (although would have enjoyed it more if he hadn't been beating Defi - that was probably my lowest point (along with the loss of Copper Gone West :())
 
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25% up for the week but had some near misses such as Abacadabras ante post at 16/1 and Fakir D’oudairies at 10s

Happy enough with the week though but would have ended on a better note if Column of Fire had stood up
And if the Placepot had paid more than a mere 4 x £50+ lines yesterday.

Returned profit every day - fairly significant on the Tuesday - apart from Wednesday which yielded only modest losses thanks to Politilogue (who I backed w/o Defi :mad:) and Dame de Compagnie
 
moehat said:
£4 down, but had hundreds of tiny bets. Had the winner of the last race; had backed it at 12.30 but had no idea why [I think it must have blue across the board on oddschecker for a while]. Must make a note of why I have a bet! Win, lose or draw though, the sight of Jamie Moore so distraught will stay in my mind for a long time and overshadowed the whole Festival. It was good fun watching what happened to Ronald Pump having kept an eye on him after Marb tipped him up [thanks Marb]. Ditto Emitom. I just don't think the festival is about finding horses that have scrambled into the bottom of handicaps any more but which horses JP has bought.
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Well I made someone happy with Ronald Pump. I am glad its my dear forum friend Moe.

She has put a lot of knowledge and wisdom in to these forums over the years, often with precious little acknowledgement.

I enjoyed the debates a few of us had about Ronald Pumps handicap mark before the meeting started.

In hindsight looking at how he ran in the Stayers he would have gone close or more likely won the Pertemps.

He is some horse, he really is.

Look forward to seeing him in future.
 
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What a week! Emotionally and mentally drained!

Profit for the week which makes it even better.

I backed 48 horses across 28 races!
10 Winners
9 Second places (4 done on the nod, including Fakir and Aba which apart from Lostintranslation would have been my biggest winners of the week)
12 Others in the places

That all with Wednesday being a complete disaster! Including telling friends to back Ferny Hollow yet backing Appreciate It myself on the day instead!

Good week, take that every year.


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I've had a very tough 12 months. Like Samcro I was written off so there was redemption for both of us. I've got myself back in the game through pure stubbornness. Not every punter can keep going to well when it gets tough. Very hopeful I can kick on now and reward the very good friends that stuck by me through a tough run.
 
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My tough run is approaching the end of its second NH season and includes the Flat in between. My livelihood doesn't depend on betting so I can't say with honesty that I know what you've been going through but I think I do at least understand your frustration to a degree.

I've had other frustrations. I wasn't sure if my deteriorating eyesight was contributing to my poor betting performance and I was constantly questioning myself. When I finally accepted defeat in terms of reading the form returns and in order to stem the haemorrhaging of my betting bank - I reckon I lost about 30% of it in the space of about 12 months - I decided to cut my stakes by between 75% and 90% and just play for the sake of keeping an interest going.

Around Aug/Sept last year further problems with my eyes developed. I ended up with multiple tears of the retina in my 'good' eye which required more than one operation but they were then followed by further problems and further surgery which required my being referred to the top eye specialist in the country. By now looking at the racing was as much for distraction as enjoyment.

Things started looking up in December when I was told I'd be having IOL surgery, which was started last week, when the specialist told me I'd still need glasses for reading. I [figuratively] bit his arm off. I've worn glasses since I was eight and had been built up and let down before regarding corrective surgery.

I still don't know for sure if, once the treatment is finished, I'll be able to see the small print in the form returns but I'll be 65 in September and had already started getting my head round the idea of giving up the form altogether as my eyes started failing.

I've actually been doing well with my less intense approach since the turn of the year. I've been gradually building up my account balances slowly but surely and they got another nice little increase over the last few days.

I'm pretty sure there are some Cheltenham winners I'd have picked (almost certainly Saint Roi and Chosen Mate at the 48hr stage) but maybe I wouldn't have found ones I did back. Swings and roundabouts maybe.

I don't think I'm going to be able to do Aintree in depth and I plan just to use the Flat season experimentally.

But all in all the first two and a half months of this year have gone better than the previous two and a half years so I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

I just hope it isn't a train coming towards me.
 
Slim said:
I've had a very tough 12 months. Like Samcro I was written off so there was redemption for both of us. I've got myself back in the game through pure stubbornness. Not every punter can keep going to well when it gets tough. Very hopeful I can kick on now and reward the very good friends that stuck by me through a tough run.
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Enjoy any riches and embrace the joy of landing one.

Hope any troubles are long behind you
 
granger said:
Enjoy any riches and embrace the joy of landing one.

Hope any troubles are long behind you
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Thanks. Would not call them troubles but frustrations. Having a little girl puts incredible pressure on your punting but I've gotten on top of it. Samcro winning was one of the biggest buzzes I've ever had from betting. It meant so much more than money, it really was redemption for both of us.
 
Emotionally a roller-coaster week. Financially a helter-skelter ride.

Very nearly didn't go, I have medical conditions as a result of heavy smoking and drinking which together with the fact that I'm nearing 70 puts me in the high risk category if I catch the virus. I stopped packing my stuff and had some long conversations with family members before setting off to Warwick to boost my funds with a 'good thing'. It wasn't.
Once in digs with friends I felt better, ready to enjoy the racing and meeting up with others during the week. I had a decent AP book with several well fancied horses. Here we go!
Abacadabras was my second largest of the meeting and in almost all my multiples. Up in the Air, down to the ground. Set the tone for the meeting. Minella Indo, another cornerstone, same thing. So Wednesday would bring the return to normal. Storyteller, backed early would recover losses on Silver Sheen's withdrawal on the day it was confirmed to be in the Pertemps plus a bit more. Second again, yet again in an exciting race. A Plus Tard ( 16's any race) would at least cover losses and maybe costs. Not to be.
Just to rub the salt in he horse that was one of my bankers last year then wins at 50/1 with none of my money as a burden. Goshen,Thyme Hill and Kemboy made sure that the place pickings in my multiples were measly. Two small bet winners but around an 80% shortfall.

Emotionally being with and meeting up with good friends was great as usual but for me the spectre of the virus grew over the week and quite a few down for week people I knew went home early.
Possibly the biggest uplift I had during the week was being woken by a call from my close neighbour on Friday morning. He is a big man whose sheer size makes many people wary of him. He said "Sorry to bother you at Cheltenham but I want you to know that if you have to shut you and your wife away in the coming months I've got two strapping lads that have decided join me in making sure that you get everything you need no matter how long it goes on for. So hope your winning.Bye." Big man! Big heart!
So on to next year but probably just for two days.
 
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I was down becuse of my unwavering belief that the Champion Hurdle was a G3 Handicap and WPM had supplemented Cilias Emery and bought a wheelbarrow with what was left over.

Luckily, as you all know too well through the eyars, I am a Bumper savant and Ferny bailed me out of all those oher stupidities. Like not backing Dame Du C for a start.
 
I finished with a small loss over the week but had a couple of near misses especially with Melon & Fury Road who both looked like winning at one stage. However, how disappointing would it have been had the meeting been cancelled. Thoroughly enjoyed all 4 days and already looking forward to next year.
 
Melon summed up my week.
I wouldn't mind but It Came To Pass jumped out of the page to me when I saw the entries.
He has two ways of running and once he did not fall too far behind early and i saw how he jumped there was only going to be one result.
1 euro ew on tote would have yielded 190 just to rub it in .......
always 2021 I suppose/ enjoyed it thoroughly all the same.
 
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