Horses for (the wrong) courses

Sometimes I feel as if I'm making these hard-luck stories up, just to entertain you (or maybe not). But they are all genuinely true.

My luck reached a nadir on Friday. I had a day off work (OK - I've taken two weeks off work to watch Cheltenham, but that's not the point). During a steeplechase, there was a horse running very poorly in the heavy ground. So I offered an £8 bet at 7/1, which somebody snapped up. The horse was soon tailed off and finished about 300m behind the winner. I had pocketed a very easy £8 and moved on to the next race.
About an hour later, the racing channel I was watching announced some 'incredible news' - that following a stewards' enquiry, the first four horses home in the aforementioned race had been disqualified and that the horse that I had laid had been awarded the race. They then showed a re-run of the race that showed the guilty horses going the wrong side of a temporary marker bollard. Such a manoeuvre would have saved them perhaps 0.25 seconds each, but because they hadn't completed the correct course, they had to be disqualified. So rather than winning £8, I had lost £56.

The following day, I had my usual football bet. You've heard this one many times before, so I'll be brief. I backed seven matches to have 'more than 2.5 goals' each, combing them in fivefolds, sixfolds and an accumulator. True to form, I got five out of seven right, while the other two finished 1-1 (ie one goal short). I won my stake money back, but another goal in the final 50 minutes of either game (they were both 1-1 before half-time) would have netted me £450 profit, while one in each game would have scooped me £1,700. Needless to say, there were numerous chances in each game (three of the four sides hit the woodwork). Why are there only last-minute goals when I don't want one?

After last week's debacle, such a win would have been a much-needed tonic.