Five years ago, I won £410 on a football bet. It was an 80/1 shot on Manchester United to defeat Manchester City 2-0, with Anthony Martial to score the first goal. Which, indeed, came to pass. Straight afterwards, I decided never to bet on a football match again - to ensure when I die, I will do so in profit with regards to my lifetime football bets.
This afternoon, at Plumpton Races, I came up with my biggest ever horse-racing win: a 20/1 shot bringing me £210 back for my tenner. I cannot be sure, but I am moderately confident this success must have put me into lifetime horse-racing betting credit.
But, I am not going to cease my occasional equine fluttering - for no other reason than I believe betting to be an integral part of the horse-racing going experience. And, whilst I can enjoy most sporting events without having any financial investment in the outcome, I cannot imagine anything so dull as a trip to a racecourse and not betting.
The irony is, I only found myself Plumpton this afternoon because rain-soaked Hereford had been called off, following an early morning inspection.
I had begun my day's betting with my traditional TotePlace Treble - in this case favourites Golan Loop, Smart Casual and Squiggles in Races 1, 2 & 4 respectively. The tote man's computer could not cope with a place bet in Race 3, as there were only four runners - of more later.
My Place Treble failed to survive the first two races. For it appeared I had apparently developed a gift for picking horses who would finish third. Unfortunately for me, both of the above races had less than eight runners each, meaning only the first two were placed.
Which brings me to Race 3. A trio of non-runners brought this one down to a four-horse race. The bookies appeared to believe this was in fact a two-horse race between Risk It All and Rogue Tornado. They had dismissed 150/1 shot Simply Ed as an irrelevance, which just left Dotties Star whose odds fluctuated around the 20/1 mark amongst the assembled bookmakers.
On impulse - I freely acknowledge I have no skill in this business - I placed a tenner on Dotties Star to win. And blow me down, the rascal did. Although the race really was an odd one. Risk It All appeared to lead for most of the race, and was well ahead going into the last few jumps. Two fences from the finish both Simply Ed and Rogue Tornado pulled up, and to pretty much everyone's surprise Dotties Star incrementally reeled in Risk It All to win by one and a half lengths.
It was only later I discovered not only was Risk It All co-owned by Harry Redknapp, but that it's jockey Niall Houlihan was the brother of winning jockey Sean Houlihan. Small World.
I don't know how much these on-site bookmakers generally come away with in profit at the end of each day's racing, but I am pretty sure I made a significant dent in one lad's profits. For he ran out of twenties when paying me my winnings, and had to make it up with a few tenners.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the rest of my Plumpton afternoon was a bit of an anticlimax after that win. I had placed another tenner to win on Squiggles in Race 4, but this horse pulled up on the far side of the track when sitting in second position. And with Race 5, I maintained my third-place predicting skills with French horse Vision de Maine.
So - at the end of the day (as they say) my £50 betting kitty had brought me a profit of £170.
Although, it was a sombre moment when I later read Squiggles, my horse in Race 4, had required to be euthanised following injuries sustained in the race.
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