Big Bad Dom

Here’s a quick update from me.

I’m still unemployed and have very few irons in the fire. AQA, Texperts rivals, decided they didn’t want me, which I just can’t understand as any monkey can do the job and this particular monkey did it for 17 months. Meh. Just got a few bits off the Job Centre website, will be sending off e-mails after this.

Laura was down last weekend and we nipped up the road to York – what a fantastic day out that was. The weather was ridiculous, we both came back with bright red faces and there was a Queen tribute band on after the meeting, which was fine banter. Apart from the fact that they were quite good, it seemed to spark all kinds of partying. We even enjoyed a streaker and some of the most relaxed stewarding ever – football security abroad ought to take note. A gang of them were stood watching and laughing at a group of blokes play fighting and the streaker was allowed basically to roam free – when he was caught, he just walked back to his mates, posing for photos before going off up the home straight again. The police waded in and restored order/spoiled the fun!

As for the gambling, I didn’t have a great day. I’d said to Laura that the card was a tough one and you’d be lucky to pick one winner from the seven races as they were really tough to call. As it happens I did get one winner, from five bets: Esoterica in the last race, 1 point each way at 9/2 (just missed out on 5/1) to leave me up a paltry 1.6 points for the day. The racing however, was of a superb standard and was well worth the visit. Pipedreamer (pictured) took down the Group 2 feature race.

York Lowlights: telling everyone that my nap was Four Miracles and then ridiculously not only failing to back it, because the price eased ever so slightly, but then backing a market mover which lost, to Four Miracles. It’s no coincidence that when I write everything down and stick to it, I have a good day but when I go racing unsure of myself, I have poor days. Also, Tajaweed. Backed it in it’s Derby trial and was thoroughly unimpressed and I correctly wrote it off for the Derby (as you may have read). I vowed never to forgive the run in the trial. Well at York I forgave it, for several reasons and I was wrong to do so. Why oh why did I change my mind about it?

York Highlights: being really surprised by what a fantastic race the 16:15 Maiden was. I’d said to Laura that it looked the worst race on the card and I was happy to just half watch it whilst really watching the King George at Ascot on the screens. What a pair of races we were treated to, the long odds on favourite at York kicked on before being caught up by Cruikadyke after a clever switch by the jockey and the lead changed hands a few times, before the 6/1 shot finally got up and then minutes later, a cracking race at Ascot saw Papal Bull and Duke Of Marmalade exchanging similar blows. Also, Laura’s ridiculous performance – “I can’t come racing and not have a bet” she proclaims before the fourth race of the day, the biggest field with 15 runners. The one she liked the name of was a non runner so she proceeded to sit and study the card. I reminded her that this was probably the worst race to bet on, so many runners, so many with chances and no clear favourite. She then decided she liked Lesson In Humility as it carried number 10 (her birthday) and was drawn stall 3 (a number she likes, I forget why, her house number back home I think) - plus it had a cool name. I had just seen it move from 16/1 to 14/1 and as I was suggesting she go each way, should she choose to back it, some cut it to 12/1. That was enough for me, I pushed her towards the last guy offering 14/1 as his neighbour cut it to 10/1. You know it waltzed home. I was on the Pricewise horse, which was nowhere. She also backed two more horses, one was unplaced and the other was Esoterica (which she only picked for it’s Scottish connections, she didn’t know I was backing it) which gave her a fine record of 2/3 and a scoop of around £140, from £25 placed.

I had three bets the other day, all of which were losers. Shame really because my July strike rate was quite high until then. Stat attack for July: 44.44% from 27 bets, total return of 28.94 points. Also, 8.74 points £1 level stakes profit. A good month really, which saw me reach an all time high before the slight dip at the end. Graph attack:

I haven’t played the A-Z game for 24 days, for one reason or another, so I’ll have to resume that soon. For those of you who were following it, I’m on ‘L’ and haven’t placed any bets yet. I may wait for the football season to start. My current score is 4.16 points profit.

The main reason I haven’t been gambling much is because I’ve been whoring bonuses. I don’t want to blog too much about that as I don’t want to risk losing my good thing, but I broke the £1,000 barrier yesterday and I started on June 28th – a nice months work. If you want details, you know where to contact me. I’m about dried up now, that I know of there is only £300 I can get at, so I’m now relying on the bookies offering me generous reloads and loyalty offers and new websites popping up. Roll on the new football season. I did make a quick £90 yesterday by signing up at JackpotJoy via Quidco. I deposited the required £10 and played Deal Or No Deal slots, scooping a £43 offer from the banker and a £73 something offer. Of course, I had to piss a lot of it away to meet the wagering requirements, but it did manage to cash out a round £60 profit plus the £30 cashback from Quidco. Hurrah!

Okay, so that’s me all up to date on the gambling front. Take it easy folks.