11th Mar - 17th Mar

By Bill Esdaile on 17 March 2010 at 05:17

Wayne Rooney scored a goal in each half last night against AC Milan to take his tally for the season to 30. Yet, when you have sold £200 of goals at 2.9, those opening two goals are not the problem. The alarm bells began to ring in the 59th minute when Park scored, but I was still only looking at a £20 loss approaching the final few minutes. Sadly, Fletcher popped up and scored in the 87th minute to make it 4-0 and a loss on the night of £220. A two legged affair that I thought would be incredibly low scoring had finally ended 7-2 to United. They say it was no fairytale for Beckham… well, it wasn’t that great for me either!

I went to a Cheltenham Festival Preview night and the panel didn’t start talking until around 10pm. The problem was that the majority of the audience didn’t stop talking when the panel started talking. Nick Luck tried his best to silence them, but didn’t have much luck (no pun intended!).

Paul Nicholls was the guest of honour and was refreshingly honest as always. He felt that Poquelin was his best bet of the week and really fancied Tricky Trickster at a big price each-way in the Gold Cup. Dave Nevison agreed with him and rated ‘Tricky’ one of his best each-way bets of the week. I left at about 1.30am and I think they might still be going now… they are just about to discuss the County Hurdle!

Friday 12th March
I went to Sandown for Grand Military Gold Cup Day and managed to wade my way through the tweed to get there for the first. I bought £10 of the well fancied Jordan’s Light at 12 on the index. The beast was ridden patiently by L/bdr Sally Randell (I have no idea what ‘L/bdr’ means – perhaps she is a Labrador?) and crept into contention stylishly approaching the second last. She looked certain to finish either first or second approaching the last and then emptied up the hill to finish 4th. A potential £380 win became a £20 loss in a matter of strides!

Dominican Monk stumbled at the last in the next when looking the likely winner and cost me another £80. Things were looking a little bleak until Scots Dragoon powered home in the big one. I bought £10 at 24 and a £260 return was more than welcome considering I thought they might have needed to send a search party out for jockey Major Michael with five left to jump. By the way, poor old L/bdr Sally Randell ended up on the floor when favourite Oakfield Legend unseated her at the second last. However, she went close a few races later nearly proving that every dog has its day!

Saturday 13th March
Back to Sandown again and I had a pretty unpleasant experience in the opener. Basically, Paul Nicholls’ Red Harbour has run three times since last year’s Champion Bumper at the Festival. He finished third at Exeter on his reappearance in November and seemed to regress when finishing sixth back at Ascot a fortnight later. He then returned to Ascot at the end of January and was beaten by Swansbrook. The reason I am giving you a potted history of his form is that I have backed him on all three of those last starts. I left him alone today and he was backed from 8/1 into 4/1. He won by a short head and my selection Aberdale was well beaten in 7th costing me £110.

Dead or Alive was more ‘dead’ in the next and finished last of the six finishers taking my daily loss to over £200 in the process. Then came Qaspal and the skeleton McCoy riding off just 10stone 3lbs. I had backed Phillip Hobbs’ charge a few days earlier at 6/1 and also opted to buy £20 on the index at 29. It was given a peach of a ride and netted me the maximum – greatly needed with Cheltenham just days away.

My only other bet of the day was a £20 sell of points at 34 in the Scotland v England game. The sides finished 15-15 and added another £80 to the betting bank. Things were suddenly looking up!

Sunday 14th March
Mothering Sunday started at 6am… earlier than scheduled, give or take 3 hours! It ended at 1.30pm just in time for the United v Fulham match! I was really tempted to buy Wayne Rooney Goal Minutes, but felt that 45 was too high. Obviously he scored in the 46th and 84th minute and I let an 85 point profit slip away!

However, all was not lost as I did buy £10 of the first Fulham goal at 72 on the basis that I thought they wouldn’t score. They didn’t and I made £180, but I still cannot stop thinking about Rooney Goal Minutes…

Monday 15th March
The plan was to build up a nice betting bank for Cheltenham. I bought £20 of Notts County’s Win Index at 16.5 and sold £100 of Liverpool’s supremacy against Portsmouth at 1.8. Well, Notts County drew 2-2 and cost me £130, while Liverpool won 4-1 and lost me another £120 in the process.

Tuesday 16th March
The wait is finally over. The greatest four days on the racing calendar begin in the same cottage in Winchcombe I have stayed at for the last 10 years or so at around 6am when Wally Pyrah wakes everyone up doing an interview on Farmers AM. The poor old farmers were given a string of short priced losers!

Anyway, the meeting got off to a cracking start when Menorah won the opener. I bought £10 of Phillip Hobbs’ charge at 18 on the index so hit the ground running. Regular followers of this column will know that I had a decent ante-post bet on Somersby at 20/1 for the Arkle so I was gutted when he was just touched off.

I gave a bit back on the William Hill Trophy and then had a complete disaster on the Champion Hurdle. My £10 sell of Binocular on the index at 19 being the particular low point. My fixed-odd ante-post wagers on Go Native and Punjabi also made their way to the dustbin pretty sharp.

Then came the Cross Country Chase. My £10 buy of Monkerhostin at 12 looked terrific for half of the first circuit, but less good when he slowly became detached just after halfway. However, my £10 buy of A New Story at 6 paid for that and much more.

When the dust finally settled on the opening day, I calculated that I was £480 up. There’s a long way to go though!

Wednesday 17th March
Farmers AM got their usual 6am fix of Wally Pyrah and I got to the racecourse early. I’m massively with Weapon’s Amnesty in the RSA Chase and with Kalahari King in the Champion Chase. I have also bought £20 of Forpdaydeplasterer over Big Zeb at ¾ length in a match bet… not to mention Silk Affair in the Coral Cup, Son Amix in the Fred Winter and Elegant Concorde in the Bumper! There’s no better place to be than Cheltenham (if you’re winning!).

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