By the very nature of what I do, my sleeping habits are a stark contrast to most of the population and last night was no different as I had a decent bet on the Red Sox v Kansas City game which started at 3.35am Aussie time.
After copping a bad beat the night before with the implosion of the Yankee bullpen after leading 10-4 after 6 innings, I have to admit that I was a tad apprehensive despite Boston being up 7-1 after 7 innings. Managed to survive that unscathed and in fact add another insurance run in bottom of the 8th so after a successful evening it was time to grab some shut eye at about 6.30 am this morning.
My alarm clock is generally set to around 30 mins prior to the first Victorian Harness race but with a very average meeting at Stawell today I decided to give the first few races a miss. Awoke around 1.30pm and already had proposed bets selected and had a couple of hours prior to initial race so took the dog for a walk on the beach (yes, it is tough living on the Gold Coast), grabbed a roll on the way home and then a shower and settled down into it just after 3pm.
Was expecting to take around $1.70 Igetaround in race 6 at Stawell and the first thing I noticed was that its main danger was scratched so thought it would be a no bet race as any semblance of value had disappeared. To my surprise it was consistent at around $1.90 about 5 mins prior to the jump so allowing for the scratching I thought this was great value as was prepared to take $1.70 with 2nd fav in the field. I therefore programmed bets with all 3 Australian TABs to back it and all I had to do was hit the submit button and decided that if it was still $1.70 when scoring up then would be on. It was actually still $1.90 scoring up so all bets were on and it was time to watch the race.
Began just fairly but was amazed that the 2 horse kept kicking up early (@ $122!!!) and it took him 400m just to get to the death and then the driver decided to keep pressing on and found the front but had smashed the clock running a sub 60 second first half (quick anywhere but suicidal around Stawell) and from there I had given up as surely couldn't keep going. Driver decided to just keep running which was exactly the right thing to do as wouldn't have a kick left if he let his dangers work into the race without making them chase. He was out on his feet at the 400 but kept plugging on and looked gone the entire last 400m but was still in front in the straight and just when it looked as if he might hang on he got grabbed right on the line in a finish the caller couldn't split. Sure enough he got rolled by a nose and my day hadn't started very well at all.
I learned a while ago that when you lose races that you should have won that I can do silly things so decided to head out for a while and clear the head. Came home and started doing form for Wednesday's races as wasn't going to have a bet until the Hobart trots that started at 6.15pm.
Managed to back the first winner in Hobart at $2.03 average which got the majority of the afternoon loss back and put me in a better frame of mind. Decided to wait until race 4 for next bet and had a decent crack at the regally named Thirtysixtoes who was an abject failure running 3rd but still got a result in the race as thought there were only 3 chances in the race and they ran 1,2,3 so got a $120 trifecta a few times. The only other race I liked was race 7 where I was going to back 2 horses both whom I thought would be $6 plus in numbers 1 and 5. As this race was the 2nd leg of the Daily Double, I decided to invest a little bit and see if I could get them running. Sure enough, a $25 pop won the first leg which I had for $3 in the double and approximate double divs were $241 and $184 so didn't need to back the others as I had them going for $720 or $550 from my $48 DD investment.
When race 7 came around, I decided to just cover my bets with standout quinellas with both of them as I was extremely confident that one of them would run 2nd at worst. Best case scenario occurred as they settled down to fight it out which meant I also got both quinellas that I took as a "saver". Still a tad dirty that I didn't have something on the 5 that won the race as paid $8.30 but that is just the silly punting mentality kicking in.
In essence, I had a shocker of a day in reading the races and my 2 best bets got beaten but I still finished up $800 in front even after the disaster early. It was just one of those days where I got bailed out by exotic bets when I should have taken a hit.
Anyway, its now 1 o'clock in the morning and have 3 hours to kill until my MLB bet in Kansas City game starts so plenty of time to finish the form for Wednesday.
We are strange beasts us punters
