Your Best & Worst moments of the festival

Best - The week or so up untill 1.30pm on Tuesday

Worst  - Tuesday 1.30pm - Friday 5.15pm.

best  brilliant ride by a.p on synchronised  made for each other ,and also p.carbury on bellvano sublime!

worst the casualtys , well now on to aintree !

The best and worst moments in terms of betting for me were;

Best = Balthazar King winning Cross Country (Had it at 14/1)
Worst = Geragthy getting beat in the Grand Annual when looking to have the race sewn up

Best: Ataglance win (25/1), Houblon Des Obeaux and Smad Place placing at 40/1 and 33/1 respectively.
Worst: Cotton Mill, Sizing Europe. Losing Garde Champetre

Best....watching dougie costello winning his first at festival.
Worst...peddlers saddeningly,confirming my view that he was given too many hard rides and probably will never get back to the force he was.

Getting 66/1 Son Of Flicka

Ground putting me off taking 8-1 Teaforthree and ended up not having a bet

Worst  Death of horses

Best financially Boston Bob getting beat,should have won IMO

Best Non financially  Hunt Ball winning for all his connections  Fairytale stuff

worst cotton mill , jock messed up on the turn could well have won ?

     best  brindini breeze  , for the scots  lass ,and  c gillies ,   and not to forget  peter  .WELL DONE   .OUT AND GOT ON WITH IT  ?

Sizing Europe was embarrasing for the Stewards, and Kauto pulling up was sad to see but glad he's ok
Alderwood my best, only winner! and Sprinter Sacre + Sir Des Champs look stars of the future

Best:The reception given to Hunt Ball was heart warming
Worst:Being in the centre of the course and witnessing the deaths of Scotsirish and Garde Champetre

best bking 10 winners :)

worst doing my brains in the hcap's im never playing in these again.....

and une artist winning the fred whilst i'd bkd him for the triumph ante post. didnt hav  a penny on him in the fred winter!!!

best bking 10 winners :)

worst doing my brains in the hcap's im never playing in these again.....

and une artist winning the fred whilst i'd bkd him for the triumph ante post. didnt hav  a penny on him in the fred winter!!!

Best non financially
Big Bucks hes a star
Hunt Ball gives us all hope of 1 day finding that horse without spending too much.
Winners for the North, especially Malton- I grew up on loving horses from this area and it's good to see some winners from there.

Bad
Any horse death, but especially Educated Evans who I had followed since his first bumper run.
Champion Chase debacle at the last fence
Kauto I really wish they had left him at home.

Financially
Rock on Ruby,Simonsig,Bobsworth,Attaglance

Bad
Too many seconds and biggest bet was on Royal Guardsman

All in all the usual highs and lows of this game in the most beautiful arena.

Best Moment: Stood right by the final fence when Court Red Handed fell in the 4 miler.  He lay motionless and everyone thought he was dead.  The screens were around for 10 minutes, and when they brought the screens down he was standing on his feet - he got a bigger cheer than Teaforthree who won

Worst Moment: Definitely Scotsirish.  Also, only had a fiver on Albertas but would have given anything for him to have held on at the line.

Best - Big Bucks & Quevega

Worst - To many brave horses dying

Best Financial - Cinders & Ashes backed Antepost and on the day pretty much guaranteed a winning festival after one race

Worst - Grand Crus & Sizing Europe meant just a small profit.

Best Performances - Simonsig & Sir Des Champs

Best Financial - Rock On Ruby 25/1 ap

Worst - Overall a very bad week for me on the betting front - the above was my only winner. But the betting low point was believing I had also backed Simonsig 25/1 ap all the way up until checking my account Wednesday evening and realising I hadn't confirmed the bet. A careless and costly error

I echo others in highlighting the higher number of deaths this year as the undoubted low point of this years Festival

Best: Finians getting up to win the QM and landing a nice 100/1 treble on the Henderson/Gerraghtys horses

Worst: Paul Carberry deciding to remember what a great jockey he is 6 races too late for me (could he have found more trouble on Shadow Catcher)

That race could have thrown up the tricast Uncle

I Backed Hisaabaat

Best: Sprinter Sacre

Worst: Alberta's Run

No financial involvement in either.

Best
Owner of Hunt Ball leading in him/Stable lads reaction to Riverside Theatre winning

Worst
Horse fatalities.

Best
Bobs Worth for the feeling of being right, sprinter sacre for the feeling of seeing a superstar, and gerraghtys ride on riverside theatre was special, anyone whos not watched it watch a replay from the start and follow him the whole way, slaps down the shoulder after 2 fences!

Worst
Toss up between big bet on sizing or steady e/w on finians. Can guess what i went for. Also pearl swan today, i still feel it would of won! and of course the horse fatilities, sadly part of out great sport.

Mar 16, 2012 -- 10:37PM, hemsby wrote:

BestOwner of Hunt Ball leading in him/Stable lads reaction to Riverside Theatre winningWorstHorse fatalities.

Best financially: Sprinter Sacre, TeaforThree, Finnians Rainbow, Sir des Champ

Worst financially: Oscar Whiskey and Binocular done my conkers.

Best non financial: Seeing Kauto come home in one piece

Worst non financial: the 5 fatalities

Worst hearing a few idiots cheer when Kauto pulled up                                                                Best AP McCoy getting two in today

Best: Crowd applauding Kauto when he pulled up

Worst: Champion Chase being turned into a farce

Best betting: Backing Riverside Theatre at 12s for Ryanair before he won at Ascot

Worst betting: Hurricane Fly

Best: Sprinter Sacre, Hunt Ball, Quevega 7 winners for Nicky H
Worst: Kauto pulling up, Boston Bob being given too much to do, The Fly

Worst: Was balls deep on Hurricane Fly, devastating
Best: Made plenty on the third day, had a go on salsify on the last - my mate emptied his last ton or so out onto salsify so we went mental!

Best:  Champion Court placing saved my festival bacon via various ew multis
Worst: I too would agree with Carberry on Shadow Catcher - disgrace of a ride and of course in the next was always up there giving Plan A his best shot.  Absolute bugger trying to second guess this jockey and Elliott is no better.
Comedy Moment: Bald Fred on the morning line "we are here to take a bet"

Best: Big Bucks
Worst : Champion Chase farce & Number of Horse deaths on the first 2 days

Best: Cue Card's brilliant run that would have won 75% of Arkles. Rock on Ruby, Bobs Worth and Sir Des Champs winning were also great.
Worst: Boston Bob summed up a sorry, sorry Friday.
Best: Alberta's Run - Festival legend, great run even though I was on Riverside.
Worst: Garde Champetre dying unnoticed by the commentators.

Best for cash: Son of Flicka, although I missed the 66-1 and just got 40-1.
Worst for cash: Hurricane Fly letting down a 26-1 Tuesday treble with Quevega and Sprinter placed at Christmas.
Best for enjoyment: Barry getting Riverside home in the best-ever Ryanair. 
Worst for enjoyment: Seeing Educated Evans smash through the barrier right in front of me in the Guinness Stand with a broken leg before the screens went up. Awful sight. And watching Toner Doudairies get slower and slower coming to the last in the Pipey race before being nutted by Attaglance.

best= Une Artiste

worst= sizing europe

overall a profitable festival!

best - synchronised jumping to the join the leaders at the last and storming up the hill

worst - seeing binocular held up at the back, I was screaming "what the fcuk are you doing?"

best: fruity o'rooney, salut flo, decent weeks profit,
worst: those fcukin p@ddy p0wer adverts on c4, "triple the whammy, thank you mammy" god f'in help us

watching sir des champs jumping ability, and the ride on sychronised which was like something from the wild west, a pure joy.

all those seconds and thirds !!

Within 20 seconds of each other for me,

Best, cheering Hunt Ball up the hill to victory

Worst, turning around to see Educated Evans trying to get to his feet, then seeing the stable lass running down to him crying her eyes out.

A truly heart wrenching moment.

Best - Anthony Knott,before the race and after.And watching his horse do exactly what he said he would do.

Worst- Al Ferof ruining the Arkle by taking off too early.Oscar Whisky not staying,Kauto Star,and Albertas getting beat when i thought he was going to do it again.

Best - Malcolm Jefferson's horses!

Worst - It was my second best punting festival in 25 years, but if Fruity o'Rooney and / or Kazilian had held on or if I hadn't tried to be clever and got long time fancies Sunnyhillboy and Teaforthree beaten, it would have been stellar.

Other than punting, best was tipping Attaglance to a bunch of mates, who all went mental whilst everyone around us was in complete silence.

Worst - other than the deaths of horses, probably the sound of hundreds of pi$$ed up voices singing in the Best Mate stand when the Gold Cup was on - why not just save your money get legless and go to a Karaoke bar and keep out of everyone's way?

rogerthebutler, I think they should designate the Tuesday "Purists' Day" with admission doubled and all the bars shut.

Roger, same two i didnt back(Plus i chucked out Alfie Sherrin for Pentiffic) still no good beating oneself up after the event

Seeing the confirmation of Sprinter Sacre as a real talent. I hope he is lucky because he's very good and worryingly for potential opponents, will be even better next season when he is fully mature.

Worst is the death of horses who are there for our pleasure, the nasty incident involving Dickie Johnson and the photgrapher which was a graphic reminder of how dangerous the sport really is.

best ...ap on synch winning the bigun

worst ..fruity o rooney getting chinned on the line

worst de boitron not getting placed cost me 2.4k in an antepost e/w treble

best teaforthree 16-1 antepost

Best for cash was Champagne fever (could not believe the price)
Worst was the fatalities
worst for cash was again paying 70 notes to get in.

My 2 biggest bets of the week Bertie in the Ryanair & Toner D'Oudairies in the Martin Pipe...

Do I need to say anymore??? Total shocker.

Had a small save on Riverside purely based on Hendersons form but still... I'm still having nightmares regarding Toner, was on him at tasty prices as well. Thought the Jockey was quite unlucky tbh

Best-Alderwood
Worst-Toner D'oudairies

best= hunt ball/knotty

worst= jonjo o neill.

My best was the very first race. Cinders and Ashes had been my main fancy for a while and ensured a profitable week. Hunt Ball finished the day off in style as I and all of the friends I was with had backed it.
Worst was the very last race when Oiseau de Nuit looked ensured of at least a place when getting brought down. I backed him last year at 80 but laid off at 50 so was determined to keep the whole bet this time. Cotton Mill had been a place only bet but still hard to take one going out like that.

Best - Going nuts with 4 mates after having backed Attaglance to win plenty in the Martin Pipe Conditionals race, whilst everyone around us was in complete silence. Also, seeing a decent, honest, non-media Jesus trainer like Malcolm Jefferson have success with the two arrows he fired at the festival.

Worst - Fruity O'Rooney getting chinned

(Best schadenfraude: Peddlers Cross and Grand Crus getting stuffed after their trainers d1cked about with them in the lead up to their races)

Ooops!

Forgot I've already contriuted to this thread.

Just so everyone is crytal clear - I backed Attaglance and Cape Tribulation and am still tumescent with pride about that fact. I did back Fruity O'Rooney and can bstill barely surpress my anger at the result of that.

LOL Rog.
My worst was going thru the Martin Pipe and declaring that nothing would win it, so no bet.
The best was then noticing a little later that Postdata and Spotlight had both put up a horse in the race that was 30+ in the tote window, so having a cheeky tenner each way for an interest (which I never do, but I was ratted by then, due to my one day of corp hosp, they will not let you empty your glass!!!). I was almost too embarrassed to cheer as Ataglance swooped late. Almost.

Best - Big Bucks turning the tide for me. Saw 5/6 and immediately knew what I had to do.

Worst - Unscheduled bollock deep on the Fly, putting me up against it early doors.

Those that live by the odds-on favourite, die by the odds-on favourite

lol, I didn't have the Fly at odds on. 9/4, 5/4. Big Bucks 4/5, 5/6

This small sample of my festival bets has you assuming I back all odds on favs, hmm stick to butling.

Not at all.

Doesn't work for me as I couldn't bear the tension of having a huge pot riding on a short-priced horse but fair play to those that do.

Will never knock any fellow punter's modus operandii.

I certainly try to avoid it, but needs must and I am as well having it on sorts like the Fly and Big Bucks...

Best: McCain/Maguire - saved my bacon with Cinders & Ashes AP at 16/1 ; Overturn to place at 11's & lucky enough to back Son of Flicka in the morning at 66/1   - I had to look at about 4 bookies boards on track when the prices opened for SofF, thought they had the wrong price !

No money involved but Hunt Bal / Anthony Knott was just older full for racing

Worst: The fatalities losing wonderful NH horses like Garde Champetre, Scotsirish etc

Best - Finally going along on the Tues after 12 years. i will never be going on Friday again!

Best bet Rock on Ruby.

Worst - My hungover bets on Weds, including a thoughtless punt on Grand Cru. Also losing on Long Run again and not backing The Giant Bolster despite making proclamations that it was a Gold Cup horse after its first run at Chelt. In all I was over 300 quid down so my worst festival ever, which was a shame. Having spent so much time on the cards.

Having also been to Punchestown for the 3rd time this year it really does make Cheltenham look like a poor relation. The overall standard of racing is probably better at Cheltenham, but the racing experience is better at Punchy. As much as it pains me to say it. I will now choose Punchy over Chelt every day of the week.

^^^^Been saying for ages that I'll go to the Punchestown Festival but never have. 

Hopefully I'll get round to it this year.  Pretty glad I never this year though with the crap weather though.

What do you like so much about Punchy Looking?

Gambling wise:

Best - Rock On Ruby & Bobs Worth
Worst - Montbazon making a hash of the last (though not sure he'd have won) and Fruity O'Rooney getting done on the run in. Wasn't looking like a great Festival at that stage

Non gambling wise:

Best - Just being there and being involved
Worst - The deaths and seeing the police with dogs go charging in from the car park to obviously break up a huge fight in the tent in the Best Mate enclosure on the Thursday. I like a drink as much as the next person, but the continual references as the Festival being a booze up rather than a race meeting mean it's starting to attract those who plague Saturday night flat meetings around the country

Best moments, were Riverside Theatre and Sir Des Champs. Thursday was an amazing day.

Worst moments were Fly losing and Kauto being pulled up.

Best-Just being there to see Sprinter Sacre win the Arkle
Worst-The Gold Cup, poor standard this year