LORD OF THE RING

I CELEBRATED not losing as much as I could have done on tuesday by ‘doing the forecast’ that night. that’s double dessert with my evening meal — treacle tart and clotted cream, then rice pudding and rhubarb. In mitigation, I didn’t have a starter! Yesterday started well. the office laid a bet of £400,000 to win £580,000 on Energumene in the Queen Mother Champion Chase before lunch. I like to get those sort of bets in the book. I don’t usually have an opinion on any runner but I was advised by a form judge that Impaire Et Passe was one to stand in the ballymore Novices’ Hurdle.

I told my team to be best price at all times. I was quite surprised when I found out Impaire Et Passe was the one that had gone clear to win. We lost £40,000 over both our pitches, but I deserved that for listening to advice. Our luck changed in the second race, in which we had the favourite Gerri Colombe losing around £15,000 and got it beaten a short head by big drifter the Real Whacker. It was a good result in the office, too. Was our luck turning? Everything today, and probably for the meeting, was going to revolve around what happened in the Champion Chase. I wanted to lay Energumene again. I got my wish and the teams on course took what they could — he was losing £25,000 at the off. but that was dwarfed by an additional bet of £200,000 to win £250,000 in our office.

What can I say? the gamble was landed. the punter is a real sportsman. He risked his money and beat us, so congratulations to him.

It was early bath time for me after that. I left my team to it and headed home, but I’ll be ready to go again today!