We began the Bank Holiday with two days at Haydock Park. The racecourse manager Molly Dingwall was absent on leave as she was tying the knot on Saturday and getting wed to Ryan Day. Many congratulations to both of you – we wish you all the best for a very happy future together 🥂🥂
On Friday, business was light just as we expected but we did manage a 4-3 winning day and there were no complaints.
Mr Bull was clerking for Paul both days and as he was staying at his Lancashire townhouse, we decided to save ourselves some miles and reserve our energy and we resided in an Airbnb in the area for two nights.
On Friday evening we had some excellent tapas across the road from one of our favourite hostelries, the Golden Lion in Ashton. SD had planned to meet us but sacked us off in favour of the evening fixture at Ponte Carlo. We’ll let him off, just this once.
Saturday’s card was top quality and numerically there were good fields. We got off to the worst possible start when Nellie Laylax the 9/2 jolly gave us our worst losing race for a while. There was a huge payout queue and it seemed like 80% of the crowd were on.
The next race produced the other side of the coin and gave us our best winning race for ages when Kerdos at 12/1 won the Temple Stakes.
Bang in front after two and then the results after that were very mixed. Two favourites, two second favourites and an 11/2 shot in the last. Nevertheless this all added up to a decent winning day due to the big win in race two.
Paul was chuffed to see an old friend Liam Appleby and many of our Twitter followers and blog readers.
Saturday night was a strange one for us as we rarely go out just the two of us. An Italian meal and a few bevvies in the Lion were just the ticket and we even caught the Cartmel replays in there 🤣🤣 there’s no rest for the wicked.
On Sunday, we headed south to Uttoxeter and the weather was grim all the way there and on arrival at the track we were met with big nasty thunder showers. Fortunately, the skies cleared and we had a lovely afternoon for racing.
We were concerned about the small fields and feared it would be hard to continue our winning run. Lady Luck was on our side and the results were bookie friendly and we had another good winning day.
We were a happy team as we headed home back up the M6 ready to do battle today at one of our local tracks – Cartmel.
We had one pitch in the paddock and one in the middle of the course. We feared the worst and thought the wheels had fallen off when we lost on the first four races. Will Carver, a drifter in the market, gave us some hope when winning well at 11/1 under Nico de Boinville.
In the Hunter Chase, Willie Wonga would’ve normally been a loser for us but as is often the case the odds compilers are a mile out with the early tissue on the Hunter Chasers.
We laid the other market leader, Great Colewood and had Willie a winner in the book. Interestingly, Paul said to SD that She is the Enemy would beat some home and she finished fourth at 50-1.
Going into the last we had clawed some back but needed a result and we got one with Pateen at 16/1. It just held off City Derby the 10/3 jolly and the difference was enormous. We performed a miracle to go off with the expenses and enough for a nice bottle of pink wine 🍷 (for me naturally).
I was pleased to see my cousin Michael and his lovely wife Michelle and they had a couple of winners with me 💞 happy days. My other cousin Gary is the head groundsman at Cartmel and I am not biased when I say he does a fabulous job.
Paul was in the paddock and he had some lads from the Brow betting with him, Neil McCartney and Ian Rooney and their pals – thank you for the business lads much appreciated.
Just for the record, we have locked horns with SD for four days and guess who came out on top? Answers on a postcard not necessary. It wasn’t us 🤣🤣
We have a well earned day off tomorrow (a swim, sauna and whirlpool is on my agenda, Cruz Campo or Madri will probably be on Pauls 🤣🤣) and then we have got another four days in a row coming up – Cartmel again on Wednesday, Carlisle on Thursday and Friday and Musselburgh on Saturday.
Blog to follow. Watch this space.
Paul Garritty Bookmakers 