the Grand National.
It’s really only been 4 years, as it was back in 2006 I finally stopped putting my money on the greatest jockey winning the greatest race.
All those previous years he’d been weighed down not just by the handicappers but by my few bob, the Toxic Curse. So no on Saturday of the two horses I had a punt on the 10-1 joint favourite Don’t Push It wasn’t one of them. In fact I never even bothered to look at which ride AP had and that really has to be a first for me. Maybe that was his jinx broken right there, it wasn’t putting the money on him but just thinking about or even as little as just seeing which horse he was going round on.
Well my 16-1 pick, Niche Market, was pulled up at the 29th fence, my other one was hardly out of the first three from the off and all the way round until it was obvious McCoy was going to break his duck. Hello Bud came in 5th, some 35 lengths behind the winner.
Thankfully I’d place my bet with the Tote, who paid out on the first five horses, unlike the usual high street suspects – and yet they still cry about reduced custom and having to fight against the online firms, well give the punters a fair deal and they might frequent you more, rob ’em and they’ll go elsewhere for the better deal. Funny all those prices that came in before the off, not many went out did they?
So a 40-1 each way, almost as good as a 10-1 winner.
I also have to ask why do the BBC have to treat their viewers like little children, every event now seems to require the services of some stupid reporter, normally a grinning bint, who look and act like they’re straight out of kiddies telly, excitedly grinning there way round patronising you at every opportunity. I don’t know who that annoying ginger dwarf Hazel Blears look-a-like was on Saturday but she was just as annoying as when she appeared at the Winter Olympics and meant the TV remote was always within easy reach.