Laying myself open to ridicule

Another bad day at the office. I should have known it when I horse I had backed in the first race of the day (with the intention of laying it off for a small profit in-running), unseated its rider as it came out of the stalls. So one second into the afternoon's racing, I was already £20 down.

The next half-dozen races were all profitable. Then disaster struck. There was a horse jumping like an arthritic pig at the back of the field in the 2.50 at Market Rasen. It had been pulled up in its only three previous races. So I laid it at 44 for £2. It beat the odds-on favourite in a photograph, losing me £86.

The situation got even worse a couple of races later, when I laid a horse at 15 for £3. It stuck its neck out on the line in a finish in which the first six were covered by less than a length. No matter the margin of victory, I had lost another £42.

It was hard to believe that my luck could get any worse. But it did. An outsider fell in the 3.25 at Market Rasen, bringing down both joint favourites in the process. The horse I had laid too advantage and trotted up. Another £20 down the drain.

Desperate times required my utmost concentration. And I almost pulled off. I won on the next 15 consecutive races, simply by laying horses in running. As always, the wins are never as large as the defeats, but I did claw back £75.
But all good things come to an end and I laid a horse that looked beaten in the last race of the day, only for it to a find a second gear and get its nose in front on the line. This loss was £35.

My overall loss on the afternoon's racing was £110. Considering I made a profit on 23 of the 30 races, this was a disastrous result. Two successful football bets (£20 profit on each of the Portsmouth v Spurs and Wigan v Man City games) kept my losses on the right side of three figures.

Running total: getting smaller by the day