Anything.
I want to write anything so that that last post isn't at the top. As it was written in the middle of the night and is really annoying.

Errr ... I am obviously embroiled in some kind of writer's block and have even stopped having long stream-of-conciousness thoughts which would be perfect to post if I got round to it. So ... I spent the afternoon betting on the horse racing on-line. Last year I had a phase of being interested in it as I found that if I read slowly down the list of runners I would get a 'feeling' about some of them and not others. And large numbers of the 'felt' ones would finish in the first three. This is obviously the kind of statement which makes people want to punch you in the face but .. what can I say ... they kept winning. I was determined not to be sucked in stupidly and end up losing vast amounts of money and so forced myself to promise (in my head) that I would never bet more than one pound on any one horse ... or two pounds ... or ABSOLUTELY definitely not more than five pounds. Naturally when I started putting on larger sums I immediately started losing and finally gave the whole thing up.

Last weekend the weather was horrible in some multi-faceted way like rain with ultra-low cloud and an icy wind and knee-deep mud all around the house. So I was reading in bed in the afternoon when the racing came on the tv .. and for old times' sake I quickly chose three horses from each list when they were shown a few minutes before each race. And in EVERY race my horses were .. mostly .. first and second .. with a couple of disappointing second and thirds. Weird .. and annoying .. as I could have won quite a lot even with my feebly conservative betting amounts.

What does it all mean? Where does this amazing knowledge of horse potential come from ... especially when based on nothing but the sight of a string of names on the screen? There is one possibility - although slight. Maybe I am being contacted from beyond the grave. My grandfather was obsessed with horse racing .. it was the passion of his life and his year was dominated by the need to attend all the big race meetings. This interest died with him as my father couldn't give a toss and had refused to go anywhere near a race course as soon as he was old enough to turn sulking into an art form. Was my grandfather .. possibly bored and still hankering for the 'turf' .. desperately attempting to channel his expertise through me?

I hunted down an old photograph of him .. the only one I had .. He looked about thirty and was posing stiffly in a smart suit .. sitting on what looked like a church pew, oddly. And with a restless look. He probably only had half an hour to get to the course and the photographer was still putting his glass plates in position .. or whatever they did then. I carried the photograph through to the computer and brought up my W1ll1am H1ll bett1ng ac0unt. Great! There was still a reasonable sum resting there since I correctly predicted the winner of Big Br0ther at such an early stage that the odds were brilliant.

I decided to spend the afternoon at one racecourse only to ensure better concentration ... from both of us. I read quickly down the list of runners for each race and then held him up facing the page .. a race at a time .. then I re-read slowly, waiting for his 'guidance'. To test him .. well, I don't have perfect confidence in anyone .. even a close relation .. I decided to choose only ONE horse .. and that just to win .. in some of the races. Otherwise three as the 'field' was pretty large, generally. Even though I am practised at using the site .. this time one of the horse's odds changed between two clicks of the mouse and the bet was apparently 'invalid' so I had to go back. And when I pressed 'confirm' all the bets came up twice. I had doubled my intended stake. My grandfather seemed to be avoiding my eye, casually.

In the first two races 'we' were second and third ... this is from a field of eleven or twelve horse. And THEN both the races where we had picked just one horse ... were both FIRST. And THEN ... we didn't win anything for the rest of the afternoon. So I came out of it up by a mild amount even considering the extravagant (in my terms) level of betting.

Is he helping me to make small sums of money from the Great Beyond? If so Why? Is this all a waste of time? (Actually I think I can answer that one). Would anyone picking horses from a list get a certain number of winners by the law of averages .. or am I 'special'? Maybe time will tell. Meanwhile it is rather nice to have his picture here in front of me. It is not one that I had ever looked at closely before and I am reminded of how charming he was and always ready for a good time. I feel sad now that he died before I realised that I would have really enjoyed some days out with him at Asc0t. Perhaps together we would have made our fortune.
- posted by Iris @ 2/15/2006 07:37:00 PM comment