Juliette 's Weekly Frolic
I may throw the pounds around in print, but privately my gambling stakes and wins, are pathetically small. It was, therefore, most satisfying that the only non-voting inhabitant of 99 Gower Street, should scoop her largest ever dividend of £25 on that long drawn out marathon last Thursday night. The bookies left little to chance, yet in the midst of the string of improbable combinations and uninspiring odds, Ladbrokes came up with the outstanding bet on the card — 25 to I against the Liberals gaining 11 to 15 seats — I've never known them so generous.
Having made my pile on the election, anyone with an ounce of guts would have doubled up at Newbury the following day. Not me, the money went to the bank and I returned to my minimum bets which grossed the grand sum of lp — however, since transport, racecard and alcohol were, on this occasion, provided; that can be counted a clear profit.
Next weekend it's the turn of the hurdlers — at Sandown with the William Hill Imperial Cup, and at Chepstow with the John Player Hurdle Final. Once the top hurdling prize in the country, the Imperial Cup suffered many years of neglect, thanks first to competition from the Champion Hurdle, and then from the far more lucrative 'Schweppes.' In 1971 it was worth only £2,299 to the winner, but sponsorship, arrived in the nick of time and last year a prize of £6,440 attracted such star material as Lanzarote. Now with the additional benefit of the cancelled 'Schweppes,' a high class field is assured and the principals for the Newbury race, Flash Imp and Something's Missing, are once again heading the ante-post market and clocking up the column inches in the Sunday press. Needless to say I have other ideas.
Saturday, February 23, was a day trainer Vernon Cross is unlikely to forget in a hurry. Not only were two of his best 'chasers, The Ghost and Indaba, killed in collision with a Landrover, but Persian Majesty, the horse he nursed back to health, won his first race in two years only .days after being sold out of the stable. Three seasons back, this horse beat Killiney six lengths in Cheltenham's Gloucestershire Hurdle and had he lived up to expectations would be carrying at least a stone more than Saturday's In contrast to the Imperial Cup, the John Player Final comes up for only its fourth anniversary but with Killiney, Celtic Cone, and Dark Sultan, the race has produced three outstanding, and in different ways ill-fated winners in its short history. This year True Song is the name on most lips. Myself, I prefer Red Vase, who won his 'qualifier' very easily and can be forgiven faltering in the sticky ground at Kempton on his most recent appearance.
• Francophile has run ten times this season and only twice finished out of the first two. An easy win at Teesside on Friday or at Sedgefield or Ayr on Saturday, would make a mockery of his ten-stone National weight and, together with the news that Richard Pitman will ride should see a rapid reduction in his current 33-1 Aintree price tag.
Assets: £55.45. Outlay: £3 to win Persian Majesty, Francophile and Red Vase, £3 ew Francophile (33-1, Corals) for National.
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