Two hours drain cleaning highlight of the week

It comes to something when the highlight of my week is a two hour drain-cleaning event but things aren't quite that bad in reality.
Harolds Cross Greyhound Stadium in Ireland hosts the exotically-titled Accelerated Drain Cleaning Stakes tonight with eight first round heats for the stayers and the final due to be televised on Setanta TV in early July.
They perhaps wisely appear to have called it by its long standing title of the Corn Cucuhulainn in their television schedules however, assuming they stay on air that long that is.
As I speak there seems to have been a mystery backer moved in to save Setanta from the brink and I wish them good luck in their rescue of a company that seemed to be verging on down and out earlier in the week, so much so that I cancelled my subscription rather than risk another annual fee going west with little or no return.
I won't have any hesitation signing on with them again if they can secure their future, though perhaps in the current climate it would be better to pay monthly rather than in an annual lump sum as I have done until now.
I seem to be going dogs mad at the moment - on Monday I paid my first ever visit to Monmore Greyhound Stadium in Wolverhampton for the Summer Stayers Classic, as ever I picked a few ante post fancies (who thankfully all got through on the day) and perhaps the most impressive were the two market leaders Corrig Vieri, who admittedly tied up a bit near the end but showed electric pace, and Droopys Carvalho, who is awesome on the odd occasions that he does hit the lids.
Of course its usually free entry in the afternoon at the dog tracks and there was a reasonable crowd in attendance for a weekday, though the traffic and my hopeless sense of direction meant I only just got there in time for the first heat despite leaving myself a good two hours driving time.
I printed out an AA routefinder but as usual kept pre-empting the turn-offs and ended up down a deserted avenue more than once, I call it the scenic route!
Sky's Tuesday night meeting saw Hurleys Hero lift the Cock o The North which was an ante post pick for me at 8/1 (I unfortunately missed all the bigger prices being jack of all trades and maybe master of none lol) and also backed the champion hurdler Platinumlancelot on the night, albeit at the shortish odds of 2/5 (some were going 1/5).
This week the Sky cameras are at Hall Green in Birmingham for the Gymcrak final and I'm represented this time by Droopys Bogat (14/1), Centurion Enry (14/1) and Eye OnThe Storm (16/1) so hoping for another fair payout there.
The Coral Olympic is another interesting event just started at Hove with a few of the main protagonists from the Derby involved - over the longer trip I'd probably want to be against the likes of Ballymac Ruso and Glenard Sunrise so have sided with Thurlesbeg Joker (10/1), Cabra Boss (12/1) and Magna Venturer (6/1) though the first two both go from the first semi final with only two set to qualify in a tough heat.
Back in Ireland, I probably picked far too many in the Oaks at Shelbourne Park and lost half of them last time around, meaning I have four through to the third round - Skywalker Queen (10/1), Cool Cousin Suzy (16/1), Lady Glenard (20/1) and Home Belle (33/1) though over a shortish trip of 525yds alot seemingly depends on the start in that particular event.
Also the St Leger final is held at Limerick and although I have Chicken Supper (12/1) and Timor Blue (6/1) through, they aren't well served by the draw in boxes 4 and 6 respectively. In the circumstances I've had to have a saver on Bar Blackstone who looks well berthed in box two at 7/2 and can maybe lead on the inside.
I'm not sure whether it was the last event of the previous season or the first of the next but the Jiangsu Snooker Classic was held in Ding's birthplace of Wuxi City last week and my original decision to oppose the hometown man looked a bit sick when he reached the final.
However I needn't have worried as one of my outright picks young Mark Allen made amazingly short work of him with a 6-0 win to land a nice bet at 10/1 so my strategy paid off in the end it seemed.
One disappointing aspect of the event was the lack of betting opportunities overall (most firms seemed to withdraw prices after the first day, maybe due to lack of interest perhaps). I could understand the latter round robins not being priced up due to some suspicious games in the past but would have thought there should be some odds available for the semis and final of a World Snooker promoted event.
Another poor aspect was the difficulty in getting live feeds, the usual Sopcast channels seemed to be off-air and I eventually stumbled upon a website that needed a program downloading to view Guangdong Sports which eventually did the trick (despite originally depositing a Trojan Horse along with it!!)
Although it wasnt linked to that, the day of the final I then lost internet connection when the next door neighbour started broadcasting on my wavelength at 6am in the morning - can you believe it - and my computer kept trying to connect to the wrong modem but eventually I managed to sort it out - just in time for the snooker to go off air thanks to Ding's rather tame effort.
Not that I'm complaining - the next event is the Sangsom Six-Red International held in Bangkok in July - last year Paddies priced up the final (Ricky Walden beat Stuart Bingham) I seem to recall but shouldn't imagine there will be much betting available for that one either, even though I have found an internet feed already for the semis and final which are live on the National Channel 11.
My World Cup cricket picks are still surviving as I speak, despite New Zealand players dropping like flies with all kinds of injury problems and Pakistan fielding in general like they just had five pints of strong lager per man as a matter of course before they set foot on the grass.
At least they both seem to have been pitched into the easier of the two groups, Sri Lanka not withstanding.
In the gaelic football, Dublin sneaked through in the Leinster Championship with an unimpressive win over Meath but thats another outright bet still in the mix, and I also had a nice bet on Cavan at 6/4 to beat Fermanagh which they did by one point, I had them as favourites on my ratings though few other experts seemed to agree.
In Seanie Johnston however, they do have a real top class scorer which is worth its weight in gold and the visitors as usual struggled to convert some neat play into actual points due to wayward finishing.
The two Munster giants Cork and Kerry meet again this week after the latter forced a draw with a late fightback on their home patch but without injured talisman Keiran Donaghy they may struggle again I feel so have taken the 6/4 match odds about the Rebel county and 13/8 for the provincial championship too, a market I had originally ducked at first glance.
The aussie rules betting looks first in line for the chop at present as my big priced winner from a few weeks ago has been keeping me afloat of late, I had another loser today when Carlton at decent odds went down narrowly to St Kilda.
I'm now pretty much even on it for the year which was pretty much the case last term until I mis-read a stat from my spreadsheets and had a lumpy bet on the wrong team which then meant a silly chasing bet the following week and I ended up rather out of pocket, my discipine has been pretty strong since then though thankfully.
Anyhow, better get back to studying the drain cleaning...
All the best
Rick