Ante-Post Mortem

For all the hard work, what an indifferent book of rides I'm looking at.
(Not that it was real work in the Larkin squatting toad sense.)

Supreme: Dodging Bullets at 14/1 - now 9/1
January bet. Has been nibbled at recently but market effectively blown apart by My Tent Or Yours.

Arkle: Arvika Ligeonniere at 10/1 - now 8/1
Oldest bet in the book and all was looking rosy till he went left-handed. They say it's a two horse race between Simonsig & Overturn but he could yet shake them up.

Champion Hurdle: Grandouet at 6/1 - now 8/1
Recent bet, followed almost immediately by long walk in the market. I do have faith in the horse but this recent rain has dented confidence.

Neptune: Rule The World at 10/1 - now 10/1
Pont Alexandre just keeps getting punted and Jonjo has been uncommonly talkative about Taquin Du Seuil. I expect my lad will be shortened into 8s or thereabouts come Wednesday though.

RSA: Back In Focus at 14/1 - now 12/1 but almost a certainty to bypass the race.
No money back or free bet for me. Absurd really to see a Grade 1 winner over 3m being routed to a 4 mile novice chase for amateur riders! But that's the name of the game these days with too much firepower concentrated in a small number of yards.

Champion Chase: no bet

Jewson: Aupcharlie at 12/1 - now 5/1
One of the better prospects but I'd be a lot happier if the rain had left off. Nor can I be doing with the Pipe yard dithering about where they're sending Dynaste.

Ryanair: Sizing Europe at 10/1 - now 6/1
Was keen on this until I heard the trainer leaning towards the 2 miler. This late rain might have made his mind up, sadly.

World Hurdle: Bog Warrior at 10/1 - now 10/1
I'd resigned myself to a no-show but on a softer surface maybe we'll see him come over after all.

Triumph Hurdle: Swnymor at 14/1 - now 25/1
Odds took a walkabout after a shocking effort on quicker ground last time. Looks ground dependant now but needs a Friday bog merely to justify saddling up.

Albert Bartlett: Road To Riches at 14/1 - now 14/1
Recent bet and not much to add except that the rain has helped At Fishers Cross and today's form helped African Gold. Was hoping to see this boy on a decent surface.

Gold Cup: Last Instalment at 33/1 - now a confirmed non-runner
A real pity. On the likely ground he'd have made them all go, but now we may never see him back to his best.

Toads

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?

Six days of the week it soils
With its sickening poison -
Just for paying a few bills!
That’s out of proportion.

Lots of folk live on their wits:
Lecturers, lispers,
Losels, loblolly-men, louts -
They don’t end as paupers;

Lots of folk live up lanes
With fires in a bucket,
Eat windfalls and tinned sardines -
They seem to like it.

Their nippers have got bare feet,
Their unspeakable wives
Are skinny as whippets - and yet
No one actually starves.

Ah, were I courageous enough
To shout Stuff your pension!
But I know, all too well, that’s the stuff
That dreams are made on:

For something sufficiently toad-like
Squats in me, too;
Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck,
And cold as snow,

And will never allow me to blarney
My way of getting
The fame and the girl and the money
All at one sitting.

I don’t say, one bodies the other
One’s spiritual truth;
But I do say it’s hard to lose either,
When you have both.

- Philip Larkin (1954)