Happy new year – for some

I have been doing well on my racing trading, regularly making £60 in an afternoon. In fact, I was £300 up on my betting on the horses in the last three months of the year. Whether it was the effects of going to bed at 04.30 I don’t know, but all my good work was wiped out in the space of two disastrous hours on the afternoon of New Year’s Day. A horse with no previous form sprouted wings in the final furlong of an all-weather race to catch the leader on the line. As the commentator said: “There was no way you could have predicted that.” It was little comfort to me, as I had lost £150 in 90 seconds.

Then I started chasing losses – and managed to back five consecutive losing favourites. The horse that was generally regarded as the “bet of the day” fell, while another was overhauled in the last 100 years of its race. In desperation, I decided to lay the next favourite. It won, of course. I was lost for words. And my bank balance was £250 lighter.

One of my friends has started asking me to tell her what I am going to back, so that she can do the opposite. It’s hard to argue with such logic, at the moment.