Tonight I played the racecard and I'm so pleased I did.
It was absolutely hammering down with rain when I left home. There had been a lot of discussion about the value of going out in the weather and if we would be soaked, or absolutely soaked. The hope was just to be soaked, but there were no guarantees.
We were due to meet three other couples when we arrived and as we had different origins we had arranged to meet in the car park.
We had to travel through Slough to get there, we were aware of some cars speeding along the road to Slough, then spotting a flood, then braking, temporarily losing control then, luckily regaining control and slowing. When others had done it on the same road but with ice and frost on the ground, their slowing was a little faster and came complete with reshaping the car.
Today they were luckier - and so were we. There was a fall of water as we went round the back of Slough, which was reminiscent of going under Niagara Falls on the Maid of the Mist. Brake lights appeared everywhere and a bathful of water was swept off the windscreen with each sweep of the wiper.
One of our friends messaged to say they had arrived at the car park. I messaged back to explain that we were:
"Still on our way, we are in a diving bell at 20 fathoms. 🦈".
The second couple arrived in the car park and we still had a couple of miles to run. I would have been quite happy to have gone home and watched television, feet up and dry! In the torrents which were falling we were trapped in our metal box on wheels, heading out for an exciting evening with a waxed, waterproof hat, a waterproof coat and wellies! So overdressed! And this is August?
I kept them updated with our status in case they were concerned we had drowned in one of the floods en route. "A332" , "A308", "Just turning now" and there it was before us, a quagmire that once was a grass car park but now resembling a boating lake - except for the lack of life jackets. We had made it, we were at Windsor Racecourse, but most of all we were still alive! Then the realisation struck we hadn't brought our cozzies, so no swimming. There again if we did swim we wouldn't have had a towel to dry with. Every step we took had to be carefully considered as one slip would have required a training course in Scuba diving.
Umbrellas were deployed which then resulted in brolly bash as we were all looking down trying to find the shallowist place to put our feet which meant we had no idea where everyone's brolly was. We saw it happening to other people which made us smile, then we found we were doing it!
Whilst I would describe the "Going" to have been "Slush to Flood" the officially declared "Going" was "Soft, Heavy in places" but amended to "Heavy" after race two. Which meant that racing was definitely on for the evening - so no money back for a cancelled evening.
All tickets were emailed to us and you could either print off the ticket or show it on your mobile so that the QR code could be scanned. Within the email was a link to the racecard. Smartly presented with all of the runners and related information to help you lose money. There were seven races and my wife and I decided we would splash out a whole £5 on each race, each. I decided that mine would be £2.50 each way, giving me (more of) a chance of winning. However, even with the racecard information it didn't help me as by the time you had chosen your winner, you found out that it was declared a non-runner.
I defaulted to my wonderfully consistent method of choosing losers. Bet on the third favourite. Forget choosing a nice name, a pretty horse, the colour of the silks. Chuck all of that out and look at the odds being offered. Work out which is the third favourite at the time and stick £2.50 each way on it. It's not so much that you are going to win, because the chances are you won't. But you'll generally have an "almost" got placed. Which helps with the street cred amongst your contemporaries.
If you're lucky and it does happen (just not often enough) you can get some money back - as with me tonight.
Overall there were seven races. However, due to the "Going" one of the races, which had seven starters, didn't have seven starters, just three. Betting on that race was then win only, no each way bets and payout on the winner only. Of course I could have bet on the third favourite quite legitimately. But it would have also been the least favourite. Hmm! I'll pass on that one.
So, I only gambled on six races, meaning my outlay was £30 for the evening. I did, however, manage to get one horse past the winning post in the first three, better still "Beautiful Crown" was the winner. The return on my £2.50 each way bet on a 7 to 1 winner was £26.88. Bookies are not all that bad really. As I didn't have any change (only notes), he paid me out £27.
That means my loss for the night was £3. A mere 50pence for each race I had bet on, so I'm quite happy with that.
Of course there was admission to be added to the total cost as well as drinks and fish and chips.
We had Grandstand tickets which gave us a clear view of the finish line and meant that where we parked ourselves, we were under cover whilst the rain was falling so stayed dry.
The rain continued on and off throughout the evening. I'm surprised, with the amount of rain which fell, that the boats cruising up and down the Thames next to the course didn't inadvertently veer off the river and chug along the home straight.
I'm pleased we continued to the course even though I would have been more than happy to have headed back home before arrival, as I wouldn't have had a need to look at the racecard and had such an interesting (and successful?) evening.
We were due to meet three other couples when we arrived and as we had different origins we had arranged to meet in the car park.
We had to travel through Slough to get there, we were aware of some cars speeding along the road to Slough, then spotting a flood, then braking, temporarily losing control then, luckily regaining control and slowing. When others had done it on the same road but with ice and frost on the ground, their slowing was a little faster and came complete with reshaping the car.
Today they were luckier - and so were we. There was a fall of water as we went round the back of Slough, which was reminiscent of going under Niagara Falls on the Maid of the Mist. Brake lights appeared everywhere and a bathful of water was swept off the windscreen with each sweep of the wiper.
One of our friends messaged to say they had arrived at the car park. I messaged back to explain that we were:
"Still on our way, we are in a diving bell at 20 fathoms. 🦈".
The second couple arrived in the car park and we still had a couple of miles to run. I would have been quite happy to have gone home and watched television, feet up and dry! In the torrents which were falling we were trapped in our metal box on wheels, heading out for an exciting evening with a waxed, waterproof hat, a waterproof coat and wellies! So overdressed! And this is August?
I kept them updated with our status in case they were concerned we had drowned in one of the floods en route. "A332" , "A308", "Just turning now" and there it was before us, a quagmire that once was a grass car park but now resembling a boating lake - except for the lack of life jackets. We had made it, we were at Windsor Racecourse, but most of all we were still alive! Then the realisation struck we hadn't brought our cozzies, so no swimming. There again if we did swim we wouldn't have had a towel to dry with. Every step we took had to be carefully considered as one slip would have required a training course in Scuba diving.
Umbrellas were deployed which then resulted in brolly bash as we were all looking down trying to find the shallowist place to put our feet which meant we had no idea where everyone's brolly was. We saw it happening to other people which made us smile, then we found we were doing it!
Whilst I would describe the "Going" to have been "Slush to Flood" the officially declared "Going" was "Soft, Heavy in places" but amended to "Heavy" after race two. Which meant that racing was definitely on for the evening - so no money back for a cancelled evening.
All tickets were emailed to us and you could either print off the ticket or show it on your mobile so that the QR code could be scanned. Within the email was a link to the racecard. Smartly presented with all of the runners and related information to help you lose money. There were seven races and my wife and I decided we would splash out a whole £5 on each race, each. I decided that mine would be £2.50 each way, giving me (more of) a chance of winning. However, even with the racecard information it didn't help me as by the time you had chosen your winner, you found out that it was declared a non-runner.
I defaulted to my wonderfully consistent method of choosing losers. Bet on the third favourite. Forget choosing a nice name, a pretty horse, the colour of the silks. Chuck all of that out and look at the odds being offered. Work out which is the third favourite at the time and stick £2.50 each way on it. It's not so much that you are going to win, because the chances are you won't. But you'll generally have an "almost" got placed. Which helps with the street cred amongst your contemporaries.
If you're lucky and it does happen (just not often enough) you can get some money back - as with me tonight.
Overall there were seven races. However, due to the "Going" one of the races, which had seven starters, didn't have seven starters, just three. Betting on that race was then win only, no each way bets and payout on the winner only. Of course I could have bet on the third favourite quite legitimately. But it would have also been the least favourite. Hmm! I'll pass on that one.
So, I only gambled on six races, meaning my outlay was £30 for the evening. I did, however, manage to get one horse past the winning post in the first three, better still "Beautiful Crown" was the winner. The return on my £2.50 each way bet on a 7 to 1 winner was £26.88. Bookies are not all that bad really. As I didn't have any change (only notes), he paid me out £27.
That means my loss for the night was £3. A mere 50pence for each race I had bet on, so I'm quite happy with that.
Of course there was admission to be added to the total cost as well as drinks and fish and chips.
We had Grandstand tickets which gave us a clear view of the finish line and meant that where we parked ourselves, we were under cover whilst the rain was falling so stayed dry.
The rain continued on and off throughout the evening. I'm surprised, with the amount of rain which fell, that the boats cruising up and down the Thames next to the course didn't inadvertently veer off the river and chug along the home straight.
I'm pleased we continued to the course even though I would have been more than happy to have headed back home before arrival, as I wouldn't have had a need to look at the racecard and had such an interesting (and successful?) evening.
