Going Home

I’m moving back into my farmhouse this week after 8 months living up the road – we’ve had the builders in to smarten the place up. I’m hoping that this will be my last move – it will be our seventh house move since the start of Betfair ten years ago. There’s still a lot of work to be done but the main living area is sorted now.

I went down midweek with the girls to show them their finished bedrooms and make some decisions on decoration. The house had a lot of roof space but none of it was being used – we took the ceilings out of the girls bedrooms and built them each a mini loft with a staircase going up. The lofts were a big hit.

Later we sat in the garden and had a chat. Dora, my eight year old, asked me a question that I’d been ducking all summer;

Dora : Dad – why do my friends at school say you are the 80th richest man in the country ?
Me : I don’t know. I’m not.
Dora : …but why do they say it Dad ?
Me : Well there’s a newspaper that does a list and they think I am about the 300th richest person in the country.
Dora : So 300 people are richer than you? That’s loads. Can we go now?

It has been a poor racing week. Bouguereau finished last having moved well for most of the race – I’m not giving up on him yet but one more run like that and I probably will. Maxwell Hawke ran at Ayr on Wednesday – his first run for Tom having moved from Pete’s a few weeks ago. Tom said he worked very well on the gallops, but then Pete had always said that and he had been disappointing for a long time.

I had a chat with Jeremy in the morning – he pointed out that we were up against Scrapper Smith and we were getting a pound from him. The Comic Strip Heroes bought Scrapper Smith for £40k and after a poor season sold him for £1,200 – he had since won two sellers. Maxwell Hawke cost us £120k and had won won race – he works well at home and as a result we have lost money backing him.

The race came and I had a medium sized bet – having lost so much on MH I couldn’t bear to see him win unbacked. Scrapper absolutely hosed up – 8 lengths in a canter with the jockey looking over his shoulder for half a furlong. Maxwell finished up detached from the field by 20 lengths. It was so tragic that I just had to laugh.

On Thursday Malpas Missile ran at Lingfield over seven furlongs. She couldn’t quite sit with the pace and looked beaten going into the final furlong, but she got going late and all but wore down the leader in the last 100 yards. It was a photo, and sadly we lost – 5 yards past the post we were in front. Still, at least she is in good form.

I’ll be watching a few today. Pete runs a nice 2yo in the first at Beverley – the money is already down and I’ve heard that the Godolphin horse is good, so I won’t have a bet, but I’ll be hoping for a good show as this one works with my 2yo Whey Sauce. Princess Severus is an interesting outsider at Goodwood, and I’ll probably have a small interest on her. She beat Wolf Slayer on a day when I thought we were a certainty – I think she’ll go in this ground. The sprint at Beverley is an interesting race – I think Captain Dunne will go well and I’m also interested in Anglezarke. I’ll probably stick with CD with a saver on the latter.

A big day tomorrow with Blue Jack contesting a winnable G3 at the Curragh. I’m surprised he’s not favourite – he’s in great form at home and I’ll be hoping. Wear em out Wilf goes at Yarmouth and he probably will be favourite – he seems to have a very good attitude to his racing and this that’s something money can’t buy. He should also go well. Fingers crossed.