another one for taylor

U should meat up with him. talk one hundred and eights

I only backed the second one, Unico in the 8.30. I can never trust Hughes so I passed on that winner.

GL Sage

Are his tips on subscription?

Hugh Taylor has been tipping winners for 21 years to my knowledge. I first came across him on an early forum called uk.sport.horseracing. He tipped up La Landiere for the Cathcart at 12/1. His logic was as always impeccable. The conditions gave her a huge weight concession and she was backed down to 2/1 and hacked up.

hope you are right sage

i have a £60 ew double pegasus of harry w 13/2 going on unico at 4

if you can be arsed have a guess at the cash-out. get it and i will send you a bottle

No Reg. Just sign up to the Attheraces website and look for tips. Have you seen the Starlings lately? Quite a sight still.

Forget my question, just seen it free on ATR

Cheers sage....
Yes, I was in the village of Polsham last week and it was probably the most spectacular sight of them I've ever seen

heard murmurs about this

never seen it meself unfortunately, being stuck in the steaming sh1thole

why is it that they behave in this way? i dunno, but would like to

Sage will hopefully answer that question, mitolo

wd tolo..a 50% aftertime.

ty ricardo

i wooden have men shunned it had knot formsage braw t1t up

Starlings as a summer breeding species have declined a bit in UK but we get a big winter migration from colder places like Poland and they like permanent grassland as we have here in Somerset (and garden feeders of course). They roost in the large reedbeds that we also have here and in some years can number over a million. They roost together for 2 reasons (we think). One is to generate heat and the other is to reduce predation. There are usually a few Sparrowhawks and Peregrine Falcons around when the Starlings are arriving but they find it hard to pick out just one from a dense flock. Very like a shoal of fish.

Mitolo, there you are
I knew Sage would know

If Unico wins the 8.30 you'll be flying high

ty sage

i get that but wonder why they are unique in this way. maybe their once prolific numbers produced such behaviour and no other species had enough mass. anyway, its a great sight

the cashout was £350

Plenty of species roost in flocks. We also have Cattle Egrets around here these days and when 300 of them try to crowd onto one tree, it is quite a sight. House Sparrows like a dense bush close to a house wall, again for heat. No smutty comments please.

Mitolo, as you framed the cash out question at Sage, I didn't put up my guess but it would have been 350,believe it or not
PS I'm not after a bottle

Getting offered less than the running up stake doesn't seem right but it's what they do

should have taken it reginald! great guess. do you have knowledge of their algorithms?

ive done this before and bokked meself every time. serves me right

but the extra place got me a return

No mitolo, worked out you had 450 running on, and just guessed an amount which was less but possibly enough to tempt someone
If it had been the full 450 or slightly less I suppose it would be tempting to cash out and then have a smaller bet on the second horse?

i never even comtemplate taking it. you just know its no value. tried the ew place lay and ended up laying the 2nd. like the d1ckhead i am

you could have had a bottle of amarone had you piped up earlier

not now. im well into it

Been off the drink since 1st may last year
Was just drinking too much
Gonna try and make it another 2 months then it'll be one year

Then I'll reconsider, but not missing it at the moment

can you drink too much? i told the quack half of my actual consumption and she said 'at least you are honest, most people admit to half of their real units' 

depends what you are drinking and if you enjoy it imo. quality over quantity and then more quantity is my motto

Well done Reg, keep it going ! it will benefit your health and your pocket. i was drinking a bottle of £15 (cheap shyte) spirit a week for the sake of it. 2or 3 glasses a night out of habit. £15 x 52 = £780 a year, or well over 8K in 10 years (inflation).I dont smoke but people are spending fortunes on ciggies !

Mitolo, real ale followed by gin or vodka was a standard evening

But had a really bad night that scared my missus and promised her I'd cut it out

Scared her in the sense I was comotosed... Not proud of it

Tiger, you're right there
Was spending about 300 a week in the pub and at home drinking

saw the starlings from near on the top floor of guys hospital many years ago amazing sight ,also saw them near leysdown one summer evening they were at it for about an hour around half a million of em i reckon .

Foyles, I was born in Guy's hospital but would have been too young at the time to notice the starlings!
The Somerset Levels adds a certain something to the event that I don't think happens anywhere else... People travel miles to see it

reg not sure what year they built the tower block at guys but from where i was i had a real good view of them , gonna take a trip to london zoo sometime to see the hummingbirds lovely little colourfull things .

you aint much of a tiger tiger. only joking. but 780 a year. thats less than a month for me

but the point remains-its about enjoying it and quality of what pleases you

reggie-if you scare your mrs then its a psychological problem that comes to light when your inhibitions are reduced. its not the sherbert to blame

sherbert is a great pleasure for a giant majority-look at france and spain and italy-its part of their daily fabric. but they dont guzzle gallons of fizzy sh1te lager. thats not a pleasure, its a ritual that few enjoy but too many go along with because its become an abnormal norm in these isles. and i deplore it, despite being a raving lagboat meself

in my experience those who drink vodka(its neutral, and why its always adulterated)  and similar dont really want to drink anything, they just want to be part of the scene, and out and about. no serious sherberteer drinks it, unless its zubrovka

despite this, there is a sizeable minority of brits who really should give it up because they cant behave themselves when theyve had it. i deplore and deprecate them. but its not just about the sherbert. everyone i associate with luvs one. no surprise. but they dont cause trouble or ruin their lives. they just like a sherbert. none consume cooking lager or drink vodka

Last time I went to a zoo, I told the missus to keep moving because they were stocktaking!

Mitolo, I think you misunderstood what I said

I didn't regularly scare her because I intimidated her after having a drink, quite the opposite
This was a one-off because she was scared that I was so drunk that I might choke if I was sick so she stayed awake all night to make sure I stayed on my side
I decided I couldn't put her through that again so said I'd go on the wagon for a while
I'm a real ale fan, so that was my drink of choice, but used to enjoy a gin or vodka at the end of the night probably because had too much volume on board
Trouble was that the spirit drinks got larger and more numerous

Do you carry a spare liver ?

Tiger, I hope mine may have regenerated itself, or whatever it is they do

I'm like at atom short of two electrons. (Quite volatile in that respect I guess). Drinking and gambling. I've dabbled with smoking and narcotics. The former is a disgusting habit, some merit with the latter, but my valency has always been a pint and a punt. Trouble being, these days, it's hard to enjoy a drink without someone telling you it's bad for you. As for punting, the Gambling Commission don't understand harmful addiction. They have no clue whatsoever as they're not gambling addicts, nor have they ever been addicts. If they had been, Horse Racing would be the very least of their concerns and the Bookies would be stopped from peddling their loathsome Casino operations

Good post , big Cat

What's the odds of having a post sandwiched between posts from a Tiger and a Big Cat?

im a real ale fan meslef reggie. and a craft beer fan and a vino fan and er.. anyway

not criticising anyone for giving it up. or for never starting. for me its a pleasure. it once was a ritual drinking millions of pints but no longer. too many brits just do it unthinkingly

My wife and I share a bottle of wine each week but that is about it these days although I did enjoy a cold Cana most days when we were in Spain. Only 300ml so hardly an issue. I do like Lager when the weather is warm but not when it is cold. I gave up beer 50 years ago as I am allergic to yeast. Back to birds, I saw my first Red Kite of the year over the garden this morning, They are not as common here as in some places.

Sage, I parked up on the levels the other day and watched a bird of prey doing his hunting. I wouldn't know if it was a red kite but absolutely fascinating to watch how they hover after spotting a potential victim, before swooping down.

To join in the 'alcohol' discussion - something close to my own heart and habits most days.

Often wondered about the advice on drinking in particular - I know I'm well over the 'recommended' units for sure, most days basically. But I've wondered why do they recommend so low, when there's only some evidence it's massively bad for you? It's much less a clear correlation than smoking, which is still allowed - that is lethal in comparison.

And I agree with mitolo, it's surely one of life's real pleasures having our bevvies. I agree some moderation is needed, but it's similar to the gambling argument - that doesn't mean abstinence for sure, or anywhere near.

Pleasure is surely something that is constantly trying to be controlled in our society these days...and without pleasure, what exactly is the point in being alive...?

One study actually showed that for a ratehr drastic measure of 'early death' the worst groups actually came out in order from 'best to worst' for outcomes as:

1. Moderate drinkers (best)

2. Heavy drinkers

3. Non-drinkers (worst)

The teatotallers were the worst on that, which seems a fairly pertinent measure (pardon the pun)

Should add these studies are often contested and have opposing studies showing opposite - but point is it's a very mixed picture about alcohol and health.

The non-drinkers is always a suspect category as it includes ex-alchoholics and people who have been told by their doctor to stop drinking!

Mar 5, 2024 -- 8:19AM, sageform wrote:

My wife and I share a bottle of wine each week but that is about it these days although I did enjoy a cold Cana most days when we were in Spain. Only 300ml so hardly an issue. I do like Lager when the weather is warm but not when it is cold. I gave up beer 50 years ago as I am allergic to yeast. Back to birds, I saw my first Red Kite of the year over the garden this morning, They are not as common here as in some places.

sageform 
We get red kites here  and also buzzards, blue tits nest outside our front door every spring,
we have two large standing pots with topiary balls on them, there's enough room for them to get in and out but too small for predators.
Once they hatch, if you stand outside and whistle, you can here them all whistling back. they normally all survive, but last year there was one chick left and i thought if the mother doesn't come back by tomorrow, i'll hand rear it.
the next morning it never made it, wish i'd have taken it in earlier..

There are many confounds often in these types of study yes. Same goes for linking drinking to bad health also though - many drinkers have other issues health related, especially the heavy drinkers.

It's funny however we don't labour the points the same way about 'eating' though - many eating behaviours are prob more likely to kill you than having a few evening drinks...

Surely it is eating that gets the attention lately with the obesity crisis and so many people eating junk food.

Guess it depends on perception, but I personally don't see the same level of 'lecturing' about eating, as there is about drinking habits.

Eating (even unhealthy) is more of an accepted norm - swigging drinks less so.

Depends where you get your news I suppose. Obesity costs the tax payer a lot more than alcohol (as does tobacco of course)