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Good luck Gamble with your very appropriately named horse I have plonked for the favourite Cloth Cap but have gone large EW on Minellacelebration and Bristol De Mai.
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Thanks for your crossed fingers and toes Tippi – but our sixteen legs of hope seemed to be running behind our Tails of the Riverbank and weren’t a match for the others, the mostly Irish invaders.
Because of my bad organisation and extra lie in to try to sense the winner I was forced into a busy afternoon, and had to miss all the earlier races which was ‘Oh shucks’ and I just got in with five minutes to spare to watch the most exciting race of the year.
As I never use betting shops these days and since my parents have gone, I really have no-one to talk to about racing and horses, so the National which was always a special race for me, when I’d throw away the form book and relied on my highly developed sixth sense, no longer holds quite the same excitement and allure.
What used to happen was my father would always ring me around 10am on the day and the first thing he’d ask was ” What did you get” ? I would then travel down to Sussex and spend the National Weekend with them and my Mother loved the race.
At best I would try to avoid news of what was running so as to have a clear independent mind. I would get some false messages so I would have to sense them and filter them out.
I think it was last Thursday I glimpsed a report in the Evening Standard that Clever Trevor was a likely winner so a bit annoyed to read that. That evening I sat and let my mind wander and I got this slight message about the letter R. I was thinking to repeat the same procedure on Friday/Saturday morning but I drank rather too much, and my mind was overfilled with the Duke. I did have an extra hour in bed on Saturday morning ( not feeling that great ) to try to winkle out messages about the race and again got this letter R but not a very strong message.
It was about midday I first. checked the runners and there was no runner fronted by a letter R. I was a bit disappointed so wanting an interest stretched the boundaries by looking for horses with R in their name. That gave Definitely Red and takingrisks. ( I missed Tresor De Mai) I ruled out Definitely Red because of the strong word Red, so plumped for takingrisks. My fiver flew to heaven and whereas your runners gave you some hope mine was stuck the whole time at the back. He was twelve and maybe he’d have liked a slower pace and a bit softer.
It was only when I watched the Ten o clock news I realised it hadn’t been a horse that had won the race but a jockey. Rachael, Rachael Rachael and there was the R at the front. Well that is s t r e t c h i n g……i t
Clever Trevor was a group horse who almost beat Easy Goer in the Travers – The Midsummer Derby in Arkansas. He died at 31. The other Clever Trevor was an irish horse with five duck eggs that can’t be a day over 34.
The Standard possibly read
” Clever Trevor ”
Hemmings ( re Cloth Cap)After looking down the list of runners again there were ten horses in total with the letter ‘r’ in their name that all refused to win.
The lesson from all this might be – keep a clear head the night before so – go easy on the brottle of red rine !
A number of years ago Gamble, I might have suggested that your R stood for “rewarding” the bookies,
but then as a smarter man than me once said “there are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio, than
are dreamt of in your philosophy”. The little nugget that had me questioning my rationale was back
the best part of 20 years ago. I’ve actually told this tale about a year or so back when the question
of messages from beyond was being debated in here on another thread. To save my 2 fingers from a deal
of typing I’ll copy and paste it below, and you can make of it what you will
——————————————————
Going by the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction, I’ve got one for you that kind
of fits the bill. It’s not actually about me, but my good lady MrsG. Going back to 2002 and
on the morning of Grand national day, I woke quite early (expectation of the big race and
all that) and headed down to my local newsagent just before 7am, as he opens up at the God
awful hour of 6.30am, to pick up my Racingpost. I had just pulled on my tracky bottoms as
I had every intention of heading back into my scratcher to peruse the field. About half an
hour later, MrsG woke up with a start and asked to see the list of National runners. Odd I
thought, as she’s not really into racing although she has the usual pinstickers punt on the
National each year. After only a minute or two, she then exclaimed with a degree of certainty
that would have put Matt Chapman to shame “Binderee”!. It’s my mother she explained, except
it didn’t explain anything to me. That’s because I’m hopeless at crosswords and anagrams, and
MrsG is as keen as mustard with them. “Don’t you see” she exclained……blank stare from me,
“my mum told me to back it”. I was getting more than a little worried at this point as Marjorie’s
mum had died just over 2 years back. To put me out of missery, and just before I started my
“there there dear, it will all be alright” she explained she had had a dream and her mother was
telling her to bet a horse on the National. And she said Binderie I tentatively suggested?, NO!!,
she said with that look that I’m well accustomed to that says, I’m coming to the end of my tether,
“it’s her”. Being a teacher, and with that “talking to a five year old” voice, “it’s her, that is Brenda…….still blank “It’s an anagram, ie Brenda”. Finally the penny dropped so with
a healthy bit of skepticism and Mrs’G 20 quid, I headed off to the bookie (that was in my pre
online bookie days) and duly took the 25/1 to go along with my much more studied Ad Hoc, which was
a big favourite of mine that I had taken some time back at 25s and who started at 10s. Well as you
already know the end of this tale, Binderee duly hosed in (whilst Ad Hoc was brought down 4 out when
going like a dream).So you can make your mind up on this one, was it a tip from beyond or just a bit of freakish good
luck?, either way it didn’t really matter as Mr Hill was relieved of 520 quid (yes she did insist
it went on the nose because it was the winner) actually it cost me a further 20 quid as there was
no way I was puttting it on the nose when I think it was 6 places on the go. Anyway I’m not complaining
about the further 20 quid as it recovered my Ad Hoc bet.I’ve been sitting at the ready every National Saturday morning, since 2002, thrusting the field into
MrsG’s hands the second she wakes up, but I’m still waiting. Come the day when I make my way into that
big betting shop in the sky on GN day, if Brenda is sitting there, with her pencil behind her ear, studying
the form, I’m going to tell her she was a bloody one hit wonder, but thank her for it anyway.——————————————————-
Strange but true
I so enjoyed those stories Gamble and Graham (BigG).
Realising the letter R’s relevance to the race 5 hours after the event made me smile Gamble, next year you’ll be carrying out a CSI type investigation before you pick your horse.
My horses didn’t fair well either Gamble but Bristol De Mai came home safely (pulled up) and that’s all I really wanted.I miss going going to the bookies with my bets Graham.it’s how I got my first Saturday job taking dads few bob each way to the bookies on a Saturday morning. I loved the characters that came in and the stories like Gambles they would tell of near misses and their systems
and some were very generous when they had a nice win we had few good staff nights out on some lucky punters. Onine gambling is convenient but I have had some funny looks from my hubs when shouting at my phone in the kitchen. 
Jac
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...That could only happen with the National, eh BigG ? and its great fly on the wall stories like yours that help keep its magic alive. A woman I know who knows nothing of racing but come April keeps harking on about backing Tiger Roll the two years it won. It has to be said she got terrible odds and if too many lose over time they may tire of it.
Well Jac as you say there’s nothing like a flash of cash and a good ol natter, usually with people that have lost shedloads over time but they dont talk about their short memories,only the winners and the bet of the day, or what’s happening at home. I have met many characters in shops, but where they are now – nobody knows ?
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