Why my relationship with jump racing now reminds me of Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner
Pick your favourite appalling calamity that befalls a villain in the Looney Tunes cartoons. I mean the most grisly, spectacular disaster that leaves them blinking, charred, with all their hair blown backwards. That's what my betting's been like since the new year.
There was the Grand National where I spent months accumulating interests in what turned out to be seven runners, the best of which finished seventh. That was Wile E Coyote trying to shoot dynamite at the Road Runner but contriving to fire only the bow, leaving himself with the explosive-laden arrow.
Being cunning, I realised Willie Mullins would fare pretty well at Cheltenham and so combined his shorties in a handful of trebles and accas, all of which, as it turned out, contained either El Fabiolo, Dinoblue or Mystical Power. That was Yosemite Sam shoving Bugs Bunny out of the way and showing him how the piano should be played, having forgotten he'd loaded it with TNT.
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- Imagine a horseracing version of The Traitors - or is that just the world we already live in?
- Strength of your views on affordability is hidden away under Gambling Commission's diplomatic verbiage
- Time to lavish unqualified praise on Willie Mullins, an unstoppable force unlike any in jump racing history
- I'm feeling a deep sense of loss over the Grand National - and I know many of you feel the same
- Expensive barristers, BHA staffers, trainers and jockeys tied up for hours - all for the sake of a Class 4 handicap
- Imagine a horseracing version of The Traitors - or is that just the world we already live in?
- Strength of your views on affordability is hidden away under Gambling Commission's diplomatic verbiage
- Time to lavish unqualified praise on Willie Mullins, an unstoppable force unlike any in jump racing history
- I'm feeling a deep sense of loss over the Grand National - and I know many of you feel the same
- Expensive barristers, BHA staffers, trainers and jockeys tied up for hours - all for the sake of a Class 4 handicap