The one where we lose on the Grand National

Saturday 14th April 2007

Seconds out, round two.

OWEN - After the late night poker session we both had we got a few hours sleep in, for it was an early start the next day with the Grand National taking place.

Jack and I met up at around eleven and reminisced about the betting the evening before. As we had a hearty brunch we decided that in order to make this interesting to read we need some sort of goal or target and to that effect we’ve decided to make our wagers a little more structured.

We’re going to start with a bankroll of £2000 and make as many bets as we like from it. The only stipulation is that both parties must be aware of the bet being made before it is placed and they all have to have a side bet with each other if it’s not a direct competition. Whosoever of us has the most money after 3 months (14^th July) wins another £2000.

As it was the day of the Grand National we agreed that any bets on were now to be deducted from the bankroll total and that we’d have a side bet of £50 on who could make the most.

Now, I already had £800 worth of bets on the National, but I’d put them on weeks ago and had Point Barrow and Joe’s Edge at more than double what they started the day at, so was quite happy to agree that the bets would count, of course Jack didn’t need to know that.

We were going to another friend’s house for a barbeque and bets day and Jack thought he better catch up in the wagering stakes and chose to bet on the first couple of races of the day. I don’t know what he bet on but they were both donkeys and one of them finished dead last. Good start for me.

After a few beers and a couple of hotdogs the main race was about to start. I’d ventured down to the bookies and put £100 on Hedgehunter as he was the only horse neither of us had covered and were worried about. I’d also put £20 into the sweepstake for two horses. Le Duc (40-1)(le donkey) and some 150-1 horse whose name I forget.

Grand total wagered - £920
Jack’s grand total wagered - £805

So after an eventful race Silver Birch won, with Mckelvey 2^nd, Slim Pickings 3^rd. Another 10-15 yards and both of us would have shown a profit as Mckelvey would have taken the win. As it stands we won... £0.

Neither of us had backed Silver Birch and all of our bets were to win rather than each way. Not the greatest start to our challenge as almost half our bankroll had been wiped out!

If only Cloudy Bays came home I’d have been £11,000 up but alas it was not to be.

The rest of the evening was dominated by drinking and eating although it was a fairly early night and I was in bed by midnight.

JACK – So I won £50 from Owen by not betting as much as he did – suits me! We also got talking to some guy at the Grand National party and the subject of our prop betting came up. We told him the whole story and he said he wanted to get his name in the blog, so he suggested that we both try to guess his birthday, with the closest guess winning. A £50 handshake later and we were both deep in thought, pretending to use some kind of skilful technique to randomly guess the birthday of this guy we’d never met before. We eventually gave that up and we both said our guesses at the same time:

Owen said “10^th of June”, as I simultaneously said “21^st of September”.

The guy said “Oooh… 9^th of February!” and we spend a good 10-15 seconds in silence trying to figure out who had won. Eventually we came to the conclusion that Owen was the victor and I gave him my last £50 I had on me.

Well, the day was a lot of fun, but ultimately disappointing bets-wise. Surely it must get better soon or we’re both going to go bust.

Oh yeah, and after all his efforts to get a mention here, I’ve forgotten the guy’s name.

Current bankrolls

Owen £1,080

Jack £1,195