Only the odd aubergine this week...

As you may know I'm continuing my ongoing push to try and catch up with the horse racing form whilst keeping my eyes on every other sport imaginable but that conversely means that I never quite seem to manage it!
The closest I got was a week and a half behind last October but then the snooker season intervened and I'm now a couple of months off the pace again and attempting to wade through my backlog of Racing Posts - ever the professional!
It does have some benefits though as I still get to read the musings of the late great Sir Clement Freud (who sadly passed away in April at the age of 85) for a while yet - I liked the bit about his Cheltenham selections being stuffed like aubergines (though wish they had won for him) and Prestbury Park being such a great place to be, that is unless you held the slightest desire to remain solvent.
I remember him telling a story about a stand up show he did on one of his tours and at the end, apologetically in his usual deadpan style, he asked for the owner of a car of a certain number plate to stay behind afterwards and exchange insurance details as he had accidentally reversed into it in the venue's car park, the crowd thought this was a great encore and heady laughter rang down the aisles until he re-inforced that it was actually true and he was really inviting an offer for that person to step forward after the show!!
David Ashforth also tells us he's off to America (he's probably there now!!) and gives us his life story of how he got where he is today.
Thought I maybe ought to reveal a bit more of myself in that respect here, no not by unveiling my torso or putting up a mugshot which all the Racing Post journalists seem quite partial to - think I'd like to remain incognito just in case the selections didnt win myself, but its probably company policy or something like that.
I remember in my days as a nipper hating football with a vengeance until all of a sudden I decided I quite liked it and started playing at about the age of seven - a late developer compared with most - though a promising clogging career was cut short when I sold a backpass short in a school match resulting in the decisive losing goal and was never picked again. I tell a lie, I was a sub in the next match but the fact there was one sub too many on the bench that day perhaps should have told me I shouldnt really have been there and there was a miscommunication lol. What an unforgiving lot they were!!
I also propped up the school cricket team in the lower order and occasionally bowled too which was as well as our opening two batsmen seemed to play as if it was a test match and we often seemed to end up with no wickets down yet only having scored about four an over. I think I was a bit of an all or nowt bowler, mainly leg spin, on the right wicket I could skittle almost an entire team but on some of the smaller grounds I was despatched over the ropes to such an extent that the crowd ought to have had danger money.
As a batsman I accidentally devised a great way of getting rid of any short leg fielder as one particular unfortunate in that position had just got up from his crouching-down position when I missed a ball to the wicket-keeper and I decided to practice the shot again (I'd seen them do this on the TV), however he bobbed up just at the wrong time and I connected with my thick wooden bat right across his rather less thick head, hopefully no long term damage was done!
As I got bigger the weight of my bats tended to increase too but not in proportion unfortunately - I think I'd been watching too much of Beefy Botham at the time - and eventually my form deserted me mainly due to the fact that I could hardly lift the bat up off the floor before the ball had whizzed by straight on to middle stump!
My first betting interests came at around junior school stage, I think my first ever bet was in the Lincoln Handicap from memory - an each way which got placed - my grandma used to take the bets up to the bookies for me - and from that moment on I was hooked. I certainly remember backing Mon Fils, the 1973 2000 Guineas winner at 50/1 and my eyes boggled at the amount of money I got back from a piddling stake as it was in those days. I'm not sure the bookie in question was too keen on what were mostly akin to a shopping list of horses names, perhaps a penny on each one, but at least I didnt have to face the music. He apparently complained about it to my gran every weekend as she appeared through the door with something akin to a medieval scroll.
I also used to run my own snail racing cards in the back garden in a purpose made cardboard box, lovingly sticking miniature numbers on their backs with sellotape and then sprinkling them with water to get them to show an interest before placing them on the track. A full betting market was formed beforehand, all the form was published and remember one or two deluded friends used to come round to experience these big events too! My parents put a stop to these when one day the rebellious molluscs found an escape route from my disintegrating sodden box after a rainstorm and our rather leafy garden quickly became an unleafy one as the following weeks progressed.
I was almost exclusively a horse player until fairly recently when the fixture list seemed to be spiralling out of control and due to extra travelling with the amalgamation of working departments to an outlying area plus longer hours, I had far less time on my hands.
So I switched to sports betting and immediately seemed to hit a rich vein on the snooker especially, I think it helps having an insight into the game as I have played at an amateur level for many years and in my day have beaten such luminaries as one time World Championship runner up Nigel Bond no less (though modesty prevents me from mentioning it usually).
With new technology coming in and redundancies in the offing, it didnt take a rocket scientist to realise our typesetting department (for a branch of newspapers) was soon for the chop so I thought I'd try a few other sports and see how I got on with those in preparation for giving the betting a prominent role once the axe fell on the real job.
This also brought me around to the gaelic football which I always loved watching on World of Sport as a young un - they mainly showed it when all other sports were washed out - and now the dogs which I always felt a bit of a lottery but by playing the ante post markets you can still get some nice prices and hopefully have your picks progress through the various competition heats to the finals.
I've also tried some others - the rugby league has been aborted as I never really understood the tactical side of the game though reckon I would be better placed nowadays to profit, the ice hockey which I havent cracked as yet but am still working on it, aussie rules - this has been going OK this year and is a close relation of the gaelic football of course; and also the cricket which I'm pretty even on overall. Oh and also hurling of course, another gaelic game but not so far as successful for me as that variety of football. Plus the odd dabble for or against my own team Derby County when an opportunity beckons, its got to be some kind of advantage to see a team week in week out when the bookies are pricing up from afar.
Anyway with that in mind this weekend I'm off down to Ruislip to watch London's gaelic games teams in action - the hurling team who have been doing quite well at a moderate level take on Fermanagh in the Ulster Championship on Saturday afternoon whereas on Sunday a much bigger crowd will be in attendance to witness the gaelic football team up against Galway in the Connacht Championship. As you can tell from the differing geographical sections I think they just put London in where it fitted the numbers best!
To my delight I then noticed theres a Here and Now Party at nearby Wembley Arena on Saturday night so quickly snapped up a ticket for that and a great weekend is in the offing hopefully. Had originally been thinking of going down to Wimbledon that evening to see the semi finals of the Greyhound Derby as I still have some interest in that but couldnt pass up the chance to see Kid Creole (or for that matter The Coconuts) one more time so will be relying on Sky+ now for the dogs.
That said was thinking about calling in at Coventry greyhounds on the way back as an alternative but will see how I feel on the journey back as I don't want that backlog of Racing Posts to get too high!
Plus Tuesday sees the start of the Twenty20 campaign for Derbyshire's cricket team (who are priced up as 50/1 rank outsiders) and I'm off up to the Riverside with a few friends to see them take on the tournament favourites Durham and then back down to Grace Road, Leicestershire on Thursday.
Its not been the busiest betting week but after some deliberating I stuck with World Series Grand Finale winner in Portugal Shaun Murphy to double up in Killarney in the first leg of this series Tour and he obliged at 13/8.
It always looked a case of either him or Higgins once again but with the fallout of the World final maybe affecting the winner more than the runner up, I felt Murphy was the one to plump for at similar prices. Ken Doherty was a possible in his home country but you had to forgive him some very poor form and a stark lack of match practice in recent months so soon dispensed with that idea.
It turned out quite a decent earner as I also backed the Irish No 1 ranked youngster Jason Devaney to get top break of the wildcards at 13/8 which he did with a 55 (the next highest was only 29) and also got 11/10 Jimmy White to beat Ken in the semi and 2/5 Murphy to defeat White in the final (some were going as low as 1/7 for that scenario).
Had a bit of a stock-take on the snooker betting after the World Championships as the season as a whole didnt really go to plan - most of the profits were made from one big priced outright winner - and hopefully I've pinpointed a few areas of improvement from hereon in on the baize, perhaps I'd gotten a little complacent after doing so well on it from an early stage.
You may remember I had a bit of an inquest initially in mid season but didnt have the time to go into such depth and hopefully that has been addressed now.
On the dogs, Faypoint Man (an ante post pick at 6/1) landed the Oran Majestic Classic at Shelbourne last Saturday winning from one of my other selections Skywalker Queen in second place. And in the Ladbrokes 600, College Causeway, Dundrum Minor and Mid West Blue all made it through to this weekend's final though a big danger to all is Accordello, who did a flying time in the semi final from the front.
Perhaps an old favourite Jemmy Doodlebeag may help me out this time around by leading that one up in the early stages as otherwise he would be a very tough nut to crack if he sees daylight ahead of him.
The pessimistic view of my Derby picks wasn't entirely vindicated thankfully or at least not just yet as I still have three at the semi final stage. Ballymac Ruso and Wise Thought go in the first heat along with the one time ante post favourite Fear Zafonic (now narrowly deposed) and I also have Farloe Reason in the other heat.
Just hoping they can get through to the final at this stage though would probably settle for two of them making it. Have already lost about four or five contenders along the way of course so won't be making any astronomical sums out of it whatever and could be a fair reversal if it doesnt go my way (the withdrawal of Thurlesberg Joker without running didnt do me any favours).
Catch you later
Rick