How's everyone feeling?
I'm exhausted. It's a tough week that seems to get harder every year.
Tuesday was great with Constitution Hill and Honeysuckle both bringing the house down (I even managed to sneak into the grandstand to watch honeysuckle win). It was great to catch up with fellow FJ's to watch the Ultima. Not great that I had 2 pints of very expensive and flat lager to drink when I got back to my group:boxing:. 5 winners on day one put me in a strong position for the week, although Brandy Love pretty much ruled out any chance of a face spitter!
Wednesday was noticeably quieter on the course but the weather, and hangover, took the edge off it for me. It was freezing. IEP was outstanding, Energumene routed them, but the cross country was the highlight for me as two of my all time favourites battled it out up the hill. Galvin has to go close in the Grand National (albeit 12 months too late!).
It was back to Cumbria to watch the racing Thursday and Friday. Flooring Porter and ADV were the last legs of a few bets that got turned over and they would have made a huge difference to my week (both were worth 750 pts). As it was, had an outlay of 315pts and returned 688.65pts so happy enough.
I'm not sure I'll go back to Cheltenham next season - most of the group I go with are thinking of doing something different. Going abroad for it, or a trip to Newcastle or Edinburgh, are being considered. Paying nearly ?8 for a drink on course is one thing (having to pour your own too!), but we were paying that in some of the bars in town. Taxi's were charging us anything from ?12 or ?30 for the same 4 mile trip. It felt like everyone wanted to rip us off, even the lapdancers were wanting extra - so I was told! :confused-new:
It was great week but time to recharge the batteries ahead of Aintree.