I thought I might re-do the blurb at the top of the website. I'd like to advertise this little enterprise as The Poetry and Horse Racing website, or some such catchy slogan. There can't be much competition and I might even be the best in the field.But now isn't the time to encourage readers with an interest in the turf because I don't do much on the flat these days and certainly don't regard myself as a tipster in non-jumping races and so perhaps I'll wait until October and the new series of The Saturday Nap before making a point of that.
However, bills keep arriving in the summer, too, and it would be nice if bookmakers could help out with paying some of them. I've never done so well as I did in the jump season just finishing and this year so far is showing an unrecognisably healthy profit. This is unfortunate for Paddy Power, to who I have taken my business, but I'll give them the consolaton of the highest recommendation of their enterprising and comprehensive service.
Looking through some of their more imaginative markets last night, I noticed they are betting on Glastonbury. The particular markets of interest are the first and last songs (including encore) played by The Rolling Stones. It's worth a go, if only to reward their enterprise and see if we can study the form and other factors well enough to get it right. I will e-mail them and ask if one can do a double because at present they only offer 'singles' and I don't think it means album tracks are inadmissable.
At present they go 9/4 First Track Paint It Black but it looks like a favourite worth opposing. A little bit of research into recent set lists shows Get Off My Cloud to be the most regular opener but Paddy doesn't quote a price on that, as if he's hoping that punters won't ask and he'll get a 'skinner', a market in which the bookie takes the whole lot with no pay outs. Another candidate would surely be Start Me Up, which is 4/1, and my initial thought was Jumpin Jack Flash, which isn't quoted either. But I can't see it being Wild Horses, at a miserly 6/1.
I haven't made a move in this market yet as I'd like to see prices about the above mentioned runners and be allowed to do a double.
But there's an obvious form choice in the Last Song market, albeit at a short enough 6/4, which is Satisfaction. On recent form, it would seem that only Sympathy for the Devil is a serious challenger, and so at 6/1 would be worth a hedge bet. But JJF is second favourite here.
So, I've had my bobs worth on Satisfaction as the banker but would be interested in the cross doubles of Cloud and JJF to begin and Satisfaction and Sympathy to end.
Paddy will also offer prices on the Mercury Prize where he makes Bowie 7/2 favourite but Foals are an attractive 9/1 shot at present.
They used to say of obsessive gamblers that they would 'bet on two flies going up a wall' but as Cliff sang, in Some People, I'm not like that at all. It's the appliance of science for harmless fun and a possible profit.