I got a good night’s kip
once I’d worked out how to turn the air conditioning from its
2-minute-blast-3-minute-rest default setting to simply off. The fumbling for
glasses and trying to read instructions through blurry eyes was worth it.
Good catch up with Colin and
Anne over an eat-as-much-as-you-like buffet breakfast, with RP, Schedule of
Shame and smart phone with open betting apps spread across a six-berth table.
Does the start to the day really get any better than this?
Colin and Anne were heading home today, despite my best attempts to persuade them that another dose of festival mayhem would be equally as good for the soul as the previous day. They were willing (Colin more so), but commitments are commitments. We’d had a blast.
Anne, Col, Nev |
Colin planned to be back in
plenty of time for the opener on the box and was first in with his Fantasy
Festival selections. I haven’t mentioned the FF yet this year. Bacchy’s genius
brainchild of a punting competition, now in it’s thirteenth year, is as red-hot
as ever. Colin will be there with the rest of the guys in the boozer on Friday
for the final reckoning. For now it’s all about wind up and bluff. Col’s mate
and new entrant Paddy is clearly not with the pace. That morning he lodged a £19.75
win bet for odds-on Sizing Europe. What’s that all about?
Getting to the track was as
easy as yesterday was hard. The bus sailed through the town centre and I had
plenty of time to choose my placepot and enjoy the first Guinness of the day
perched at the top of the temporary stand. The sun was breaking through the
haze to illuminate pockets of Cleeve Hill. I wish it would do the same for the
four-miler.
Nev arrived bedecked in a
baseball hat and Betfair scarf, clutching a mini-Racing Post pull-out
(fantastic innovation) and placepot tickets. “Awright Dave!”. The gaff he’s
sorted at Bourton-on-the-Water sounds top notch. He'd brought is laptop down and last night had it hooked up to the telly and had watched the footie. This morning he'd been poncing around his room whilst Spotify cranked out The Stranglers' Peaches through the telly's surround sound speakers. Today is Ladies Day at the track. How appropriate. As if any further evidence was needed about how well set he is, Nev tells me his Italian landlady has been simpering after him this morning. “Oh, Mr price, I remembered from yesterday
that you like warm milk on your cornflakes. I’ve heated it up for you. And
toast instead of fried bread I think is your preference.” The man is smoother
than Caffreys.
Day 2 is my make-or-break
day. My stats tell me that I need to land something chunky or I will struggle.
The back-to-back Neptune Hurdle and RSA Chase are my most successful across the
whole Festival.
Teaforthree leads on the first circuit. He led pretty much for the full four miles. |
Predictably, I was potless
in the opening marathon. But Nev had backed the favourite, Teaforthree and was
off to a flyer. I opposed the favourite, Simonsig, in the Neptune and was on Cotton
Mill backed only last week at 16-1, now about 8 and Sous Les Cieux at 14-1, now
about 5½ The latter put in a limp
performance, but Cotton Mill was tanking with Simonsig tucked in his
slipstream, miles clear from their tame pursuers, when he crashed through the
wings of the penultimate flight, apparently trying to run out. I was
distraught. Inconsolable. Nev had never seen me like this and didn’t quite know
how to deal with it. So we went for a beer. What I hadn’t quite grasped –
because it is not always easy to do so in the maelstrom of noise and movement
down by the rail – is that Simonsig had absolutely flown home and was not
stopping at the post. My boy would have had a mighty, mighty battle on his
hands to have won. But this realisation came much later. Still, I’d rather have
lost that way than this.
But the roller-coaster analogy isn’t in the top five Festival clichés for nothing. In the very next race I made a bit of a comeback. Whilst Nev was holding his head in his hands at the non-staying performance of Grand Crus (we knew, didn’t we?) I was watching Call The Police overtake him and land me some more than handy place wedge. That’s not normally something to get particularly excited about, although the 25-1 I took was decent enough. But through a large dose of incompetence, I’d managed to back him twice on consecutive days in the early days of NRNB. Backed him once, forgot to note in down. Looked at the Schedule the next day. No reference to the bet, so backed him again.
But the roller-coaster analogy isn’t in the top five Festival clichés for nothing. In the very next race I made a bit of a comeback. Whilst Nev was holding his head in his hands at the non-staying performance of Grand Crus (we knew, didn’t we?) I was watching Call The Police overtake him and land me some more than handy place wedge. That’s not normally something to get particularly excited about, although the 25-1 I took was decent enough. But through a large dose of incompetence, I’d managed to back him twice on consecutive days in the early days of NRNB. Backed him once, forgot to note in down. Looked at the Schedule the next day. No reference to the bet, so backed him again.
![]() |
Bobs Worth takes the applause |
Just then, the police turned
up. Well, this was too much for Nev. “Excuse me constable. We’ve just won some
money on Call The Police! Can we have a photo?” You couldn’t script this
stuff!
![]() |
Call The Police! |
Call The Police Again! |
Grand Crus’ defeat had
mullered Nev’s big double with Sizing Europe in the Champion Chase. So he
dithered a bit before backing Finian’s Rainbow and then blamed me for sowing
the seed about this being a perfect exacta race. So he chucked the reigning
champ to the forecast to fill second spot. And that was how it finished. But
there were a fair few incidents along the way. The Wishfull Thinking fall
looked bad from where we were and it was not at all obvious why the jockeys had
to take such late evasive action to avoid the last fence. For a brief moment,
with both jockeys locked into a heads down drive, it looked like the horses were
gong to plough into a dolled-off fence.
Explanations emerged later, but in the middle of the action, it’s not
always clear what has gone on.
Nev was doing a little jig
about his Finian’s bet. And then I reminded him about the exacta. He did
another little jig. And then I said that nearly everyone’s Fantasy Festival
double-joker wedge had crashed and burned on either Grand Crus or just now with
Sizing Europe. At this, he was on his knees, goggle-eyed, screaming to the sky
and double-fist pumping like he’d won the lottery. Never under-estimate the
importance of this competition!
For both of us, there were a
couple of 2nd and 3rd spots and we collected some place
wedge as a result. But no more histrionics. I would love to see Get me Out Of
Here go for the big level-weights races. In the Coral Cup he humped top weight
into 2nd spot and was almost inevitably beaten by a plot horse from
much lower in the handicap. On this occasion it was Donald McCain’s Son Of
Flicka. Cue a text from Colin. “Anne’s only bet of the day: Son of Flicka at
25-1”. She’d cleaned up with Cinders And Ashes from the same stale the day
before. She has a hotline to the McCain nerve-centre, surely!
And that was pretty much
that for Day 2. I was home in very civilised time. Nev had another night in genteel
Bourton and was hoping he wouldn’t fall asleep on the bus back, like the night
before, when a nice old lady he’s befriended woke him up as they entered the
town. Rock n Roll, Nev. See you Friday.
Thursday's losers:
Jewson: Peddlers Cross. No value, I know but I simply can't let him go off unbacked. Though this is absolutely not a festival banker.
Pertemps: Pineau De Re, backed at NRNB 33-1 e-w last week before Pricewise put it up last night. I swear! (He was one of my 40 to follow horses two years ago.)
Ryanair: Blazing Tempo, NRNB 25-1e-w.
World Hurdle: Voler la Vedette 16-1 e-w, Mourad 16-1 e-w. Neither are confiedent bets.
Byrne Group Plate: Notus De La Tour 14-1 e-w.
KIm Muir: No bet yet.
Thursday's losers:
Jewson: Peddlers Cross. No value, I know but I simply can't let him go off unbacked. Though this is absolutely not a festival banker.
Pertemps: Pineau De Re, backed at NRNB 33-1 e-w last week before Pricewise put it up last night. I swear! (He was one of my 40 to follow horses two years ago.)
Ryanair: Blazing Tempo, NRNB 25-1e-w.
World Hurdle: Voler la Vedette 16-1 e-w, Mourad 16-1 e-w. Neither are confiedent bets.
Byrne Group Plate: Notus De La Tour 14-1 e-w.
KIm Muir: No bet yet.
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