Kar(ma) Crash

Well, I didn't come back to you on Saturday to tell you how my horses got on in the Grand National..

Two of my 3 choices got in the top 4... none of them managing to win (wish I'd had a quid on the winner though... 100/1 - wow!).

Our Flunky had a go working out how much I should have won this morning in advance of me going to collect my ill-gotten gains... and he reckoned that I should get something like £18... and I thought "Okay... at least I got more out than I put in".

Anyway, went down at dinnertime to collect the money... and the bookie gave me £38.13! Which came as a bit of a shock, but I decided that Flunky must have got his sums wrong.

So... came back to work, and asked him how he worked it out...

First Horse: £2.50 each way @ 14/1... so 2.5 x 14 / 4 = 8.75
Second Horse: £2.50 each way @ 7/1... so 2.5 x 7 / 4 = 4.37
plus 5 quid stake money back = £18.12 (or £18.13 depending where you do your rounding)

Meaning it looks like the bookie has given me £20 too much!

Now, the right thing to do for my karma would be to go and check with the bookie and tell them that it seems like they've made a mistake... but that £20 will instead take me and my pal for our tea in the pub tonight since we didn't go out on Friday night. I figure it's too late for me to save my soul by doing the right thing karmically... There's a room in Hell picked out for me already, all decorated in my least favourite colour and with Daniel O'Donnell's greatest hits playing 24/7!

What's the bets I get food poisoning as temporary karmic revenge anyway?

I did manage an honest win of £5 on the lottery Thunderball on Saturday night, though!

It's A Grand Day...

Grand National day, that is... the one day of the year when my principles take a holiday (okay, so my principles are fairly part-time anyway), and I put a bet on a horse race. I don't approve of horse racing... I think it's cruel, but one year I got involved in a sweepstake at work, and since then I've usually had a little flutter on the race - not that any bookie is going to get rich on what I spend!

This year I've got £2.50 each way on:

Can't Buy Time @ 50/1
State Of Play @ 14/1
and one of the favourites My Will @ 7/1

Watch them all keel over!

Horseing About...

Okay, okay... once again my anti-horse racing principles have taken the day off.

It's Grand National day and, ever since we used to have a Sweepstake at work years ago, I put a bet on. It's the only time I EVER even set foot in a betting shop.

This year I'm staking money as follows:

£5 on Slim Pickings to win (this was the horse I won on last year when it came in each way).
£2 each way on Dun Doire.
£2 each way on Slim Pickings (as I'm not convinced it's actually going to win).
and £2 each way on Hedgehunter.

Fingers crossed...