It’s all a bit quiet in the lead up to Cheltenham, and not much to blog about. I’m very busy at work and fairly engaged in it all at the moment, so I haven’t been following the racing. One of my syndicates is in the process of buying another horse for the jumps in Ireland, and I’ll update on that if it goes through.
I’m going to Cheltenham for the whole week, and no doubt it will be the usual crazy beerfest. I preferred the old three day festival, and so did my liver – I don’t think the extra races add much and it turns the week into a bit of a marathon. It should be fun though and there will be a few stories.
On my way home I am picking up a puppy – a black and white Newfoundland – which is a new venture for the Black family. My long suffering wife put up a lot of resistance on this, but I worked our girls up into such a frenzy about the idea that she had to give in. It’s a big commitment but I’m sure we’ll be ok. When Cheltenham is over I face the horrible prospect of giving up smoking – I decided a while ago that I would do this. I’m trying to roll back the years a little and find a bit more energy to deal with my busy life – I’ve recently lost three stone in weight and I go to the gym two or three days a week. It seems to be working – I feel a lot better than a did a year ago – and the smoking is hopefully the final piece of the puzzle.
I opened some fairly hairy option positions in the stock market in the early part of the week – the first time I’ve properly punted stocks for a couple of years. I see Bwin may be bidding for Sportingbet, which is interesting. It seems to make sense, although it gives would give Bwin US exposure that they have never had before. I’m wondering if the news will flush out another bidder.