Diary of a Spread Bettor Week 26

Thursday 12th November

A very boring little day indeed with nothing much to report on the punting front except for joining the Ballyfitz Paddy Power Gold Cup gamble. Nigel Twiston-Davies’ nine-year-old had been backed from 25/1 into 12/1 and was continuing to shorten with every drop of rain. Therefore, with a deluge of biblical proportions expected before the weekend, there was every reason to think Ballyfitz could shorten even further. Beating the price was one thing, picking the winner… a completely different proposition!

Friday 13th November

Friday 13th – unlucky for some and in reality, not so great for me either. The drive to a rain-soaked Cheltenham took no time at all and the day got off to the perfect start when Mirabella won Lingfield’s 1.05pm. I had bought £10 at 16 and was £340 up before the runners had even arrived down at the start for the first at Cheltenham.

However, Notabotheronme was beaten a cool 52 ¾ lengths in the opener having attracted plenty of support and I had given back £110 within minutes. I fancied Safari Adventures to play a big part in the 2.25pm of his flyweight, but sadly the points don’t go down to sixth place and I’d lost another £120. Yet, the biggest disaster was my £10 sell of French Opera at 19 – connections were really worried about his ability to handle the soft ground and others had question whether he could put in a clear round. Well he jumped like a stag and loved the ground and lost me another £310 in the process. I was suddenly not only soaking wet, but £200 down having been £340 up less than an hour and a half earlier.

Well, the song says that things can only get better… but, they didn’t.  I bought Openide for £10 at 6 in the Cross Country Chase because I had passed him in Brendan Duke’s horsebox on the motorway. He finished fifth, just outside the points and I continued to bleed cash. He looked slow in his box when I shot past on the way to the course and was sadly even slower in the flesh!

However, the most painful reverse of the day came in the last when Knockara Beau was beaten a neck by Weird Al. Jan Faltelsek is a Northern journey-man jockey and I’d wish, quite frankly, he hadn’t made the journey South. I watched on from the stands, with a host of decent jockeys who hadn’t manage to get a ride in the race (including a certain R Walsh), as Faltelsek was out ridden from the last. I had bought £10 at 20 and a £300 profit was reduced by £250 in the dying strides!

Saturday 14th November

I had spent the previous evening in Winchcombe at the White Hart Inn… Wally Pyrah sent his steak back because it was too chewy. I told him he must have been wearing his TV teeth rather than his eating ones, but he wasn’t having any of it.

We then bumped into Sporting Index’s very own ‘Chief’ and his friend Bob in the early hours at Wesley House. You would have definitely liked to have been a buyer of Chief’s red wine minutes as, by the time we arrived, his lips we moving out of sequence with every word he was trying to utter. He looked like a badly dubbed movie. He was out celebrating a good day’s punting with his mate Bob, who kept calling me Bill Elisaad… where did he get Elisaad from! It makes me sound like either a member of Al-Qaeda or a two-year-old that could easily be trained by Marcus Tregoning for Hamdan next year.

Well, the pair were insistent that we should all sell points in the Bath v Ospreys game in the mid 30’s as there was plenty of rain expected. Their recommendation became my first bet of the day and my £20 sell at 33 looked terrific right the way up to the 72nd minute. Sadly, two late tries were extremely expensive and meant a make-up in the low twenties suddenly became 32. Anyway, a profit is a profit and I began the day £20 up.

I wasn’t £20 up for long though as Kanpai’s disappointing showing in the Novice Chase cost me £50. The formbook will show that he finished third and he has a decent looking ‘3’ next to his name for next time. However, the ‘3’ should really be an ‘L’ as there were only three runners and he finished last!

Things didn’t improve and even though Don’t Push It ran a cracker, I backed him to win and he found Gallant Nuit too good. I had backed Ballyfitz each-way earlier in the week at 12/1 so was pleased he finished fourth in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, but could have done with him winning.

However, the day’s real disaster was not backing Zitenka at Wetherby! Regular readers of this diary will know that I had a crack on this horse a few weeks ago at Carlisle and wrote that it was too early to give up on him. Well, cut a long story short, it drifted out to 16/1 and I opted to leave it. It bolted up and left me feeling even more sick. As it sailed over the last, ears pricked and scooted away up the run-in, I felt my mouth going numb… a little bit like Chief’s less than 24 hours earlier. I left Cheltenham feeling disconsolate!

I didn’t sell points in the England v Argentina game either as they had crept down to a pretty low level before kick-off. It was another mistake as a £20 sell at 36 would have yielded a £220 profit. However, I did manage to nick back £105 by selling goals in the Ireland v France game at 2.05 for £100. I wish I’d sold more when the full time whistle went, but that’s always the way at the end of a bad couple of days.

Sunday 15th November

After ‘Black Saturday’ it was important to get back to winning ways and Fosters Cross was just the trick in Cheltenham’s opener. That was right up until the point he crashed out at the third last and cost me another £180. Well Chief got me back on a level path when seeing off Master Minded in the Connaught Chase, but Raise Your Heart and Issaquah cost me dearly in the Greatwood Hurdle.

I was in terrible form and the one certainty left in a shocking weekend was that John and Edward wouldn’t be booted of the X Factor. In fact, it was certain that they wouldn’t be in the bottom two either. Step forward Jamie and Lloyd… I wasn’t saying goodbye to Jedwood, I was saying goodbye to the £150 invested earlier in the week.

Monday 16th November

I’d like to tell you that I bought £10 of Dravid Runs at 45 on the first day of India’s Test with Sri Lanka, but I didn’t! He went on to make a cool 177 in his side’s total of 385/6.

The day was expensive as my wife took my bank card (rather than me) off Christmas shopping in the evening. I think the pair of them had a cracking time, although I’m not quite sure of the damage yet.

Tuesday 17th November

Another dreadful day of sport with some pretty ordinary looking racing at Folkestone, Fakenham and Southwell. I liked the look of Mark Johnston’s Solicitor (the horse that is, rather than the person who handles his legal affairs) in the 1.20pm contest, but so did everyone else. After the weekend I’d had, I certainly wasn’t going to start backing 4/9 shots. I was going to buy it in a match bet over the field but eventually decided to give it a miss… of course, it won by nine lengths. When it rains, it pours!

Wednesday 18th November

I’m off to Twickenham on Saturday so was keen to see the first of the handicap lines appearing for the New Zealand game. My theory was that the majority would get carried away with England’s poor performance last weekend and put in the All Blacks as high-teen point favourites. You can therefore imagine my disappointment to see an opening show around the 13 mark – damn it, I’m going to have to be a lemming and side with the visitors too.

Anyway, I snapped up the last of the 3/1 available about Notre Pere winning the Betfair Chase. I know he has Kauto Star to beat, but he loves it heavy and last year’s Gold Cup winner looked legless when falling at the second last in this 12 months ago. Come on Notre Pere… come on the rain!