Faith In Humanity

Good morning all,

With all the madness going on in the political world at present, I thought I'd share a true story from Huntingdon on Sunday that might just raise a smile and restore a bit of faith in your humanity!

Another heads-up for you – Saturday's preview might be patchy again, the hotel we're staying in has sent an email that literally tells us the phone signal is very limited and the wi-fi isn't great either! But I'll do my best. 

I was working at Huntingdon on Sunday for Steve and Daren under the “Stevie Stretch” banner, and as it was Peterborough Chase day, we expected it to be busy and ran three pitches. Steve ran the rails, and Daren and I ran two separate pitches in the ring.

A pretty uneventful day followed until after the Peterborough itself, at which point an elderly gent came up to me to tell me he'd lost his ticket. He knew what he'd had – £20 on the winner at 13-8. I looked at my payout sheet at the unpaid slips. Sure enough, there was a £52.50 unpaid.  It was probably his, especially as he knew he'd had the bet quite early and that was how it appeared on the sheet. He was very apologetic, saying what a fool he was for losing it and he'd had a look where he thought he might have dropped it but couldn't find it.

It's a bit of a rigmarole when someone loses a ticket. There's been bookmakers I know who pay out on the missing ticket, only for it to magically reappear with someone else half an hour later. I remember a time when I legitimately paid a lady out her £4 winnings and I dropped the ticket as she presented it to me. The wind took it and I thought no more of it. An hour later a bloke brought it up. I knew I'd already paid it and told him so. But he wasn't having it. “I have a winning bet” was all he'd say. In the end, I thought “if you're that desperate for four bloody quid, have it,” and paid him.

So I call the ring inspector over and explain the process to the gentleman, that he'll have to wait and see if anyone tries to cash the ticket and if they do, then the ring inspector steps in to resolve the issue. However, just as we're taking the details, a young man has already been to Daren's pitch, and has handed the missing ticket in, without trying to cash it. He realised someone must have lost it and did the decent thing. The ring inspector fetches the missing ticket from him and the issue is resolved. I tell him he's a lucky man – I reckon 95 out of 100 would have tried to cash it – but he's so grateful he asks Sarah (the ring inspector) if he knows who handed it in. As it happens, he's standing just in front of us and so the elderly man offers him his thanks and a cash reward. He won't even take that. He merely says “it's no problem, it's your money mate” and carries on eating his chips. A happy ending, and faith in humanity restored!

On to Warwick today, where I'll be working, and I got the shock of my life when I saw Macchiato down to run in the 12.50. Those of you with (very) long memories might remember he was a Ten To Follow horse a couple of seasons back after seeing him win a Newton Abbot bumper for Colin Tizzard as he was very impressive, both pre-race and in the race itself. He looked different class from his opponents that day, a lovely big chasing type that had endless scope but clearly needed time and in the race itself, despite obvious greenness, was still too good for Our Merlin (and that form looks very good now too).

That, however, was over two years ago and he's not been seen since. In fact, he's been through the hands of another trainer (Brian Barr) before ending up in the care of Ian Williams, a trainer I have all the time in the world for. You can only think there's been some issues but nevertheless, the fact he's coming back at all suggests there's something to be gained with him and I'm trying a small e/w bet today. He may well need the run and fall away, but whatever he does, get him back in trackers.

Good luck with all your bets today,

David.