Sunday 16th February 2020 + Summary

When I saw what the weather was like yesterday, I told myself that I would not be doing any betting today. The conditions would make a lottery of any racing that went ahead. Like a complete tool, I went ahead, “chasing the win.” I probably got carried away with the last few days’ results. I ended up getting hammered on all 3 systems and lost quite a fair bit.

I was absolutely furious. But, my wife came in the dining room and told me that Caroline Flack had taken her own life and I then heard that a horse (maybe more) had to be put down due to the conditions they were ordered to run in. Put down for God’s sake! All because I wanted to increase my winnings. It certainly put things into perspective. Even though my Bank took a good thumping, it’s NOTHING compared to the loss of life that occurred earlier. My thoughts and prayers go out to Ms Flack’s friends and family and also to the owners, trainers, jockeys and associated people involved with the equine fatalities.

For this reason, I am now going to put a temporary hold on my betting activities until the bloody awful weather calls it a day. I don’t really class HRP as gambling, as a great deal of uncertainty is removed by the guys’ software. However, in such atrocious conditions as we’re having at the moment, racing really does seem to be a pure gamble. 

Horses which such finish high up, if not win, are stumbling, slipping, falling and dying for our “entertainment” and as an animal lover, I am not taking any more risks until the weather starts to clear up and the horses at least have a good chance of actually finishing their races without endangering themselves or the men and women that ride them.

I am not a horse racing guy so I don’t know the official rules about racing in conditions like we’re having. All I can say is that I hope the Stewards, Course managers or or whoever makes the call for racing to go ahead, should take a long, hard look at themselves as to whether they let the meetings continue for financial reasons, or should they have taken a hit on their income stream and called the meetings off for the sake of keeping the horses and jockeys safe? I don’t know, but I am as guilty as anyone for “betting” on horses in such dreadful weather conditions as these.

I will be back, hopefully in a day or two when there are signs that this, the shittiest of all weather, has started to improve and that I can see the horses have a good chance of at least getting round the course without running the risk of being killed unnecessarily.

My monetary loss is insignificant in comparison to the loss of life, be it human or equine.