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You fancy a horse at 50/1. He jumps the last 20L’s clear, going well, but falls.
Good bet or bad bet?
Rich,
What have you got to worry about? At the start you said you expected a 14% strike rate and decent profits. You are 0.3% below you expected hit rate and showing a 20% LSP. That’s top stuff.
With a 14% strike rate you can expect worse weeks than this. Keep up the good work and look at the big picture.
Sailing Shoes,
Sorry – a few drinks taken.
I think the mistake is to take any one bet in isolation. In general, all bets made by a losing punter are bad bets even the winning ones. In fact, you could argue that the winning bets are worse in the long term for the losing punter as they just encourage the person to engage in an activity that is financially harmful to them.
Sailing Shoes,
Your tag line says "failure is the mother of all success". (which BTW, is the second most annoying signature on here after the one that says "Always up for a giggle!") But you also say "you could have learned the same thing from not placing the bet". In other words, that it’s better not to fail.
Which should we believe?
I don’t know how that winking emoticon got in there, it was supposed to be a bracket.
(Edited by ACR1 at 1:36 am on May 20, 2004)
Ian,
I’ll try to simplify this. Let’s say an Irish bloke dresses up as a leprachaun and stands outside racetracks in the UK shouting "Oi have a horse!".
Now let’s say you are accused of being anti-Irish. In your defence you say "I can’t be. Don’t I like that Irish bloke who stands outside race courses dressed as a leprechaun. Sure isn’t he a much loved extrovert who is part of the scenery of British racing?".
Would that satisfy your accusers? I don’t think so – especially if they happened to be Irish. All I’m saying is that if the best example you could think of to bolster your case that you didn’t have "an ounce of racism or bigotry in you" was Prince Monolulu, you were better off saying nothing.
Your point about McCrirrick is irrelevant as he’d be as deserving of riddicule no matter what his skin colour.
Ah, Golden Cygnet weighing in with his usual threats of violence and well considered opinion.
Ian/Ricky/David,
I’m sorry I missed this the first time I read your post –
"PS: Ojne of racing’s other tradtions I lkied but am too young to remember was the colourful tipster Prince Monolulu of ”I Gotta Hoss!” fame who was, err…BLACK. "
In my book that’s the equivalent of claiming you are not racist because you enjoyed the Black and White Minstrel Show.
Are you seriously putting up Prince Monolulu as a role model for young, black people in Britain today? You think that circus act is a tradition worth persevering with? As far as I can tell, the man was a figure of fun at British racecourses and was a safe, non-threatening stereotype people could laugh at.
As for not answering any of the arguements you made, there’s no point.
Ian,
You are not Ricky Gervais doing a spot of research for his next series for David Brent, are you? I can see it now – David Brent loses his job in Slough and decides to set up a Betting Exchange company on the internet.
I made the connection between you and David Brent months ago and I haven’t been able to take you seriously since. I used to send some of my favourite David Brent-isms you wrote to friends of mine and they all agree that they could have been written by the master himself. Some of my favourites –
“Opinionated, pompous, arrogant, 24-carat pain in the arse? – Guilty, m’lord.â€ÂÂ
Ian,
Why do I always suspect the bona fides of anyone who needs to quailify a statement like "I have not an ounce of racial prejudice or bigotry in me"?
Your qualification in this case – "but I do have a bit of respect for tradition" – comes straight from the Enoch Powell Book of Racist Scaremongering written in the 60’s. It’s always been a favoured tactic of the racist to dress up their bigotry as concern for tradition and to portray themselves as "protectors" of that tradition from a non-existant threat from a minority culture.
Your next statement really lets the cat out of the bag – "English is the primary spoken langauge in this country and, if a horse bred in Britain has a British-named sire and dam, I like to see it have a relevant British name, that’s all" Alf Garnett couldn’t have put it better. That stance doesn’t leave much room for inclusiveness or tolerance, does it? Doesn’t leave much room for any native Welsh, Irish or Scots Gaelic speakers either.
I’m delighted to hear you don’t lose any sleep over the issue but please don’t come on here and dress up your jaded, anachronistic views as anything other than what they are.
BTW, anybody whose main consideration for naming a horse is to choose a name that would "endear" them to the locals is not just an arse-kisser, but a condescending arse-kisser, at that.
It’s amazing how people like runandskip assume that screaming "political (sic) correct liberals" is good enough to sort any argument. Care to expand on your ideas a bit more and see where it leads you?
Ian,
You state –
"Just seems like a bit of common courtesy and respect for local culture to me."
So what exactly do you mean by "local culture"? If you feel the use of Arabic names for racehorses in Britain is some sort of insult to the "local culture", where does that leave the couple of million Muslims who call Britain home?
Do you think Nasser Hussain should change his name to John Smith in case he offends the patrons at Lords?
Ian asks – "Must a desire to respect local cultures by giving horses names which resonate locally amount to wanting to ”win friends and influence people” and all the distasteful undertones of ingratiation which accompany that phrase?"
<br>It does when you express arse-kissing sentiments like – "I wouldn’t give them English names, because I suspect it wouldn’t endear me to the locals for who the names would be meaningless"
Runandskip,
Have to agree with AP – it looks like prejudice. At least with the Arab names, difficult as some of them are to pronounce, the letters mean what they say. Surely the Irish named horses are more deserving of your contempt?
If you’ve no knowledge of the Irish language how are you supposed to know that Lean Ar Aghaidh should be pronounced Lan-Ar-Ay or Cead Mile Failte is Kaid-Meela-Falt-Ya?
Why not demand that the Paddies start showing some respect for UK racing or does your xenophobia just stretch to the Arabs?
(Edited by ACR1 at 12:20 pm on May 5, 2004)
