This past Saturday saw the running of the Vodacom Durban July and as has become tradition friends and family gathered at my house to take part in festivities. 

I don’t bet a lot on the horses these days but for this great race I make an exception and when the starting stalls eventually opened I was heavily involved.  Most of my money was split between the well backed White River and Yakeen but none of them were involved in the business end of the proceedings where “Do It Again” under legendary jockey Anton Marcus did enough to prevent Jeff Lloyd from a fairytale end to his career. 

The beauty of doing a Durban July draw is that there are always going to be a few winners and while I was not amongst them it was great to see one of my daughter’s friends who has never even heard of the Durban July scooping the pot and a nice little cash bonus.  I am sure her parents are delighted I have introduced her to gambling

I had also invested in a Jackpot and Pick 6 both of which went belly up in the first leg and the only saving grace for me is that I had a good weekend on the rugby.  I am one of those punters (some call them addicted gamblers) that refuse to accept defeat and as the last remaining guests sat around having coffee the 12th race at Greyville came up. 

I decided to have a big bet on a 5/1 shot with the aim of “getting out of it”.  Being the last race the beauty was that if I won I wouldn’t have the opportunity of giving it all back again.  I fed the stake into the bet slip on my World Sports Betting account and as I hit submit the gates opened and the horses jumped.  To my dismay my bet was not placed as the race had closed.  Those sitting with me in the room including a concerned looking mother-in-law sat in stunned silence as I now shouted against the horse that I previously hoped would win. 

Despite moving up smartly at one stage it was beaten and the fact that I wasn’t able to get a bet down meant that in a strange and perhaps twisted way I was in fact a winner in the “Lucky Last”.

Twitter: @BrentGraham

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This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 12th July 2018.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a  free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register