Cheltenham Finnish

Very keen early, mistake 1st and dropped back to rear, tailed off after another mistake 4th and soon pushed along, recovered and gained momentum to lead at midway, stayed on to challenge coming to the last, but no chance with leaders..

Before I start, I've a blank screen shot of my week below, issues with Betfair mobile meant no betting for the blog, nothing to do with Betfair - was internet connection problems on my end with the Tocco Ultra, dunno if it was a common thing but mine was kaput.

Anyway, thank fook for Big Zeb! After Dunguib and Go Native were beaten I was looking down the barrel.

I give out plenty of stick when my beloved wins so I'm happy to cop it when he loses. Er, he didnt really run his race, you know tailed off last isnt him, not saying he would of won or placed or anything, but tailed off last isnt his running. As I said at the time, no love lost and we move on, he still won plenty of times this year, in PP under the stands at Leopardstown when he won in Kempton was brilliant, sure he'll live to fight another day. Simple as that really, no hard feelings. Paul said after he got bumped into jumping the second, made a mistake, never felt good after that.

As for Dunguib, I dont blame the jockey, trainer, ground, or anything. I think he was just beaten by two better horses on the day. And maybe in a years time if they meet again, I'd say Dunguib would win, but he just wasnt the best horse on the day. I dont see how people can blame the jockey when hes been ridden the exact same way all year you know, but anyway same story as always, people lose and want to blame somebody else. My opinion on the Big Mac and Davy Russell thing is - what a load of tosh, arguing over an opinion, obviously every opinion will be different, just because Davy doesnt agree with Mac doesnt make him wrong, whatever people think of him hes still entitled to a view. And its his view, so what, asking for an apology on an opinion, get real like you know. The funny thing about opinions/views is that if anyone is different from you, you think theyre automatically wrong.

My highlight of the week was Big Zeb, you know I said before I went I was worried about his jumping but christ he was foot perfect all the way around, when you lose the guts of €1,300 on the first day and then have €150 on a 12/1 winner - epic feeling! After that I sort of went into my shell a bit, small stakes, aiming to come home level, Big Bucks was the only winner I had Thursday.

By the way, anyone else feel a little disappointed with Thursdays card? Four handicaps - is that really Cheltenham? Take nothing away from the Grade 1s, but Cheltenhams supposed to be the highlight of the year, and four handicaps out of six races on the card? Probably just me, not a fan of betting in handicaps.

Friday was another disaster no winners, but limited the damage with the staking, Nobel Prince only touched off for 4th hurt! I thought he got up too, ran a cracker though. And was on Denman E/W, Kauto was well beaten before falling for me. Group of tossers in the stands started cheering when he fell, I hate that, SO annoying. But a great race nonetheless.

And guess whats back tomorrow - the flat, BOOM! Just a watching brief for the most part for the time being but AP has plenty out tomorrow..
Know nothing about the 2yo in the first, but I'll still continue this year not backing any 2yo first time out as always.
Devoted To You looks to have a fairly easy race, at a short price though and first day of the season, I'd rather watch her win than back her.
Purple Heart, one of my favourites is back! Hes not the best by any means, in fact hes fairly average, but hes just the man of a horse, he only goes one speed, but he'll go that speed for the whole race you know. I spent the whole of last season trying to get Johnny to try make the running, and he finally did it the last race and won, hes just not the type to shoot past horses, he has to be there all the way, 7F is short enough at this stage, and for in running hes not a horse to lay high, he'll most likely be pushed along from a fair way out but he doesnt give up.
Encompassing, Irishracing.com have him in at 4/5, bit short, I remember we got our fingers burnt on the bugger at Naas last year, he looked a bit of a dog that day to me, didnt seem to put up a fight at all, that was over 6F and tomorrow is a mile so we'll see how he gets on.
The rest will probably tell you in general how much the horses need a run, they'll all need a run to some extent but how much do they need it you know. I wont be backing anything anyway, I'll just watch.

Its Emmas birthday tomorrow too, so I'll finish up the gambling week now and leave Betfair alone for the weekend. Back to the grindstone Tuesday, I was just thinking I've been on the same figure give or take since the second week in January, and its grand not losing, but probably time I stopped swanning around and go back to grinding out €20 a day. Saying that doesnt make me win of course but sure I'll try.