Went to the festival in 2010 and a fella came with us we only half knew. A sound man in fairness but he was living in Germany and used follow the racing for want of something to do at weekend over there. He was fair sweet on Dunguib in the supremesā¦ All the way over on the boat he was talking up his chances, the Monday night he was talking him up, pondering what price he would go off etc. None of us were mad keen on it but not to the extent we were putting him off it either
Race day arrives anyway and all morning the talk was the wallop he was going to have at Dunguib on the trackā¦ We thought maybe a hundred or so would be the stake as I said we didnāt really know himā¦
He wandered off in search of value anyway and we saw no more of him. Dunguib flopped anyway, inevitably. We had a usual spot for gathering after a race where we could get a pint and a post mortem. He never showed. We reckoned he was licking his wounds and we would see him laterā¦ No sign of himā¦ Wasnāt answering the phone but didnāt take any notice of that
Anyways at end of racing we went into town, assumed yer man had met some pals and we would find him somewhereā¦ We went for a heap of pints anyway and went back to the house at closing time.
There he was. All he was short was a shotgunā¦ He had a bottle of whiskey polishedā¦ He was seething stillā¦ He had gone in and had 2k on Dunguib, basically all the cash he had brought to Cheltenhamā¦ He brought no bank cards with him to races and didnāt know us well enough to ask for a subā¦ So in a fit of pique and shame he fucked off back to the house after the arkle
Itās some laugh. Itās too small a town really for a proper night out but when there was 30 of us on the bus youād always have a great laugh.
We stayed up in the hills one year. About an hour away. The bus couldnāt fit up the lane for the last half mile so we were piggy backing the women at 3 in the morning back into the accommodation. A miracle nobody got broke up badly.
Itāll be interesting to see how he gets on in the grade ones in Cheltenham this year. The most amount of horses and the most expensively purchased horses mean heāll need to be making a serious dent in these grade ones. At the moment ballyadam looks to be his his 2 miler/2 and a half miler novice hurdler.
Youāre going to be as happy as a dog with two mickeys this year mate. Liverpool in the midst of a mental breakdown and Utd cantering home and the emperors new clothes, Gordonās operation being found out.
