I usually get very involved with the Durban July hosting a big get together, however this year I had a 50th birthday party to attend so scaled back considerably although that did not apply to my bets.
I placed a few losing punts early in the day, but all interest was on the July itself where I fancied the favourite Hawwaam. I structured all my Exotic Bets around it so you can imagine my disappointment when the horse was scratched at the start. I quickly raced to get a few bets down and ended up backing stable companion, Barahin who ran an absolute shocker.
I was well down and having taken a big knock in the Crusaders v Jaguares game in the morning, I was well and truly chasing. Most sound minded punters would have called it a day, but even as I was getting myself ready to go out I saw that one of our Forum punters Southpaw fancied a horse in the 9th race, the Garden Province Stakes, called Celtic Sea at odds of 12/1.
I was pretty grumpy by this point having had absolutely nothing going my way all day and I threw a bigger bet than usual at Celtic Sea who ran beautifully to break my run of bad luck and rescue the day. I was still down as a result of the rugby, but had actually shown a profit on the horses and was in a festive mood at the party.
Watching cycling the next day I decided to check the Goodforthegame Forum where another of our punters had put a couple of long shots up on the Sunday card. I decided to follow him only to find I had missed the first race where his fancy had paid R7 a place and ran 3rd. Still in a good mood from the 12/1 winner the night before, I then followed him on Pretty Penny in the 4th at 33/1. Pretty Penny came out of the stalls smartly and stayed handy before getting her nose in front at just the right time. In just 2 races I had managed to pull square and even show a small profit on the weekend.
Had I not won on my last race the night before I wouldn’t have considered betting on the Sunday so it is very much a case of being tankful for the “Lucky Last”.
Twitter: @BrentGraham
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 11 July 2019.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register