Double delight in the offices
The first was the much publicised maiden hurdle won by heavily-backed favourite Jomacomi at Tipperary a week ago.
He knocked over eventual fourth Dujareva, who was challenging at the time, on the run-in. Jomacomi beat Straycat Strut a length and a half, but was disqualified by the stewards and put back to fourth place, behind Dujareva, with Straycat Strut, who was never going to win, promoted to first.
There are many who will tell you it was a wrong decision. As one who backed Jomacomi, I believe the stewards were right.
But, at this stage, that is neither here nor there. The point is that if you backed the horse on-course you lost your dough.
If you backed it in the offices, and he was available at 7-4 in the morning, 6-4 was best on track, then you drew, with the double-result.
Many thousands were invested on Jomacomi at Tipperary. Punters, who didn’t take the 3-1 available about Straycat Strut in the inquiry then had to sweat for a long time, before being informed their money was lost.
The second incident centres on the much less well known ten furlongs maiden at the Curragh on Friday night.
This was won by Portsmouth, who beat John Oxx’s Akram decisively. Akram was subsequently demoted to third, following a stewards’ inquiry.
Now there were plenty at the Curragh who backed Akram to be second. They, obviously, didn’t collect.
But if you were in a Paddy Power betting-office you really were in the right place at the right time.
Because Portsmouth had developed into such a hot-pot they offered prices without the favourite and went 4-1 the field.
As Dermot Weld’s Clearing The Water began to drift alarmingly in the market, it seemed that Akram, at 4-1, was real value.
Shovelled the few quid on him at that price and the rest is history. He finished second, was thrown out, but we still collected.
The beauty of the double-result, of course, is that those who were on third-placed Kelatakan also got paid.
Then there was Tarad, the 3-1 favourite, who was thrown out after winning the bumper at Sligo on Tuesday night. Again, on-course you lost and off-course you drew.
Racecourse bookmakers face an uphill struggle attempting to match such concessions. But they will always have, at least a lot of them, one major plus over most offices.
And that is that punters who like a decent bet, and there are buckets of them, can get on when they go racing.
Many of the off-course layers have representatives running around with bits of paper offering prices on this, that and the other.
But an awful lot of those offices wouldn’t lay eggs. Everyone knows it and no amount of PR blustering will change that.
KIEREN FALLON must be thanking his lucky stars Coolmore came knocking on his door when Jamie Spencer quit Ballydoyle.
The three days at the Curragh saw him ride a whopping eight winners, including a third classic of the season on Hurricane Run in the Irish Derby.
Contrast his fortunes with those of Dermot Weld, who, amazingly, failed to have a winner at the Festival.
Weld’s final throw of the dice came with Zeroberto in the concluding two mile handicap on Sunday.
But Zeroberto’s pilot, Rory Cleary, found more trouble in the straight than a drunkard crashing into a police car. Rory, you will never know what you cost us!
Sunday was a resounding success and a crowd well in excess of 30,000 spoke for itself. I suppose if something ain’t broke then you shouldn’t fix it.
But you really do yearn for some of those dreadful, impossible-to-solve, utterly boring, handicaps to get the old heave-ho. No less than four of them on Sunday was a bit rich.
And speaking of handicaps what about the rubbish which will be foisted on the public at Leopardstown on Saturday night? This sees the inaugural running of what is termed the “Mastercard Football Furlong’, consisting of six races confined to ten runners and each carrying the colours of a Premiership football club.
Oh, did I leave out that the six events are handicaps. Apparently, Leopardstown are hopeful this will see a major swelling in the attendance.
You would have to wonder if the lunatics have finally taken over the asylum! Why would anyone in their right mind want to go and watch that stuff?
