Mug's Game: I still have money to spend so I decide to live on the edge

Enda McEvoy talks us through his highs and lows from his second day at Cheltenham.

Thu, 16 Mar, 2023 - 08:12

Remember all the pompous stuff yesterday about preferring a small bet on a medium-priced winner to a large bet on a hot thing? Scrap it. I am, like yer man the Bard quoted, a feather for each wind that blows.

I have betting principles alright. If you don’t like them I have others, especially after I read a piece last weekend which said that if you haven’t made money at Cheltenham over the past few years, given the plethora of winning favourites, you’re some feckin’ eejit. (I paraphrase.)

It’s gonna be favourites on Day Two, then. Short priced favourites. Short priced favourites of, hopefully, the winning variety. Behold a €30 Lucky 15 (15 bets of two euro) of Impaire Et Passe, Gerri Colombe, Energumene and Delta Work.

Was that an “Aaaargh!!!” I heard escape your now-knowledgeable lips..? You can sing it, mate.

We’re off to a flier. Impaire Et Passe, who somehow starts at 5/2, slaughters the rest of them in the Ballymore. One down.

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Gerri Colombe goes off at 5/4 for the Brown Advisory and a mile from home I’m beginning to squirm. He’s not going like a 5/4 favourite should be going. He’s struggling as the heat is turned up. A lack of tactical speed, to use the technical term. Approaching the last, with The Real Whacker and Bronn duking it out, I’ve thrown in the towel.

Gerri Colombe, bless him, hasn’t – and that’s the cruel part of it for me. He meets the rising ground and finds wings. The Real Whacker isn’t stopping but Gerri Colombe is sucking diesel. The winning post comes with a short head between them.

Yes, the best horse has won. Yes, The Real Whacker’s backstory is intriguing (owned by the Rathkeale publican Davy Mann, clearly a colourful character, and trained in Yorkshire by his fellow Limerick man Patrick Neville, who departed these shores because he “couldn’t get owners in Ireland”).

And yes, I am gutted. The Lucky 15 hasn’t quite gone up in smoke but it’s now running on three legs.

San Salvador, trained by Joseph O’Brien, has been punted from 18/1 in to 9/1 for the Coral Cup. Someone clearly knows something more than I do. I take the hint and essay three euro each way.

Turns out someone did not know something more than I did. San Salvador is mentioned precisely once in commentary and not at all in the final mile. For all I know he may have finished in the other San Salvador.

With Edwardstone jumping scrappily from early on it’s clear that Enurgemene is going to hack up in the Queen Mother. There are now two wheels on the Lucky 15.

For the cross-country race I have charge of a young American, although probably it’s the other way around. His mom deposits him, gives him two euro and instructs him to invest it wisely.

Conal, for ‘tis his name, scans the field. I explain what the numbers before each horse mean, show him the SP forecast and add that he can go on names or colours if he wishes. What he wishes is to back Galvin. I duly put on the two euro at 3/1.

Delta Work is always nicely poised. Galvin bides his time so as to be nicely poised at the death. The two of them fight it out up the run-in, Conal screaming for Galvin.

Am I sufficiently magnanimous to secretly hope he wins and gives my 12-year-old nephew a thrill to brighten up a wet Wednesday?

Of course not. I scream for Delta Work who, thankfully for me if not for Conal, was here last year, knows what his job is and has a couple of lengths to spare at the post.

I can barely wait to check my account. The Lucky 15 has yielded €102.40. Decent given the cramped odds. Pity about the short head.

There’s money for Dino Blue in the 4.50 and he’s from the Mullins yard. A fiver each way. He looks the likely winner turning for home but hits the last two fences and succumbs to the late charge of Maskada for Henry De Bromhead. That’s how it goes.

I still have money to spend so I decide to live on the edge and venture 20 quid on someone in the bumper. Might be any of the Closutton contingent. Might be A Dream To Share from Dungarvan. I go for Fact To File, one of the Mullins light brigade with the trainer’s son in the saddle. He is beaten into second by A Dream To Share. That’s also how it goes.

Maybe I’ll try another short-odds Lucky 15 on Thursday. Maybe they’ll all come in this time. Maybe, and more likely, none of them will come it. (itals) Feicimid. (close itals)

• Kitty after Day Two: €104.40