Our top columnist is toning down his screen time in an attempt to help boost the coffers before the Flat season comes to a close - starting at Ayr this week.
It’s the addiction that many fall victim to but few acknowledge.
The symptoms are no different to other forms of compulsive behaviour, dominating time and emotion at the expense of other aspects of life.
The habit is hard to break once it takes hold but, nearly three quarters into 2021, I can say with confidence that sucking constantly on the tit of social media has done my punting no good at all.
My approach to betting on racing - grinding through replays and ratings in search of something the market has missed – hasn’t changed much over the years.
It’s worked passably well overall, but that method simply doesn’t mix with a yearning to be first with the Twitter news or a juvenile desire to get the Likes and Retweets rolling with a pithy one liner.
As ever, the first step towards recovery lies in owning the problem - and you can’t help but accept your focus has gone awry when your mobile pings to life with a cheery reminder that your screen time over the last week has weighed in at over 20 hours.
Twenty hours. That’s the equivalent of at least two full working days and much of it taken up struggling to find the odd pearl among a sea of industry trivia, podcast plugging and bombastic booming when certain folks hit on a winner.
I suspect the seeds of my phone addiction were sown through a desire to stay in the Euro loop while living in HK. Four years responding to every other Trump Tweet with “your organisation is terrible” was something of a red flag with hindsight, but being wired into the web from morning until night – and yes, sometimes while visiting the loo at 3am – is no way to live.
Fleeing Facebook has proved far easier than tossing Twitter but, with a little over three months left to stop 2021 being a losing year, the mobile and the seductive siren call of its Larry T Bird Twitter logo now sits in a separate room during working hours.
Am I missing it? Well, I certainly miss jousting with interesting characters with so many people now working from home full time and the chance to chuckle at the predictable “thanks for all the messages” Tweets when certain parties snag a winner.
But freeing up a massive amount of time to re-focus on which horse will finish in front – without having views pre-rinsed by a slew of Tweets on the same topic - has provided a back to basics boost both for my enjoyment of the sport and the way I punt on it.
True, two weeks in is way too early to draw firm conclusions but the early signs are promising.
And so thanks in advance for all the messages if this week’s File pin alights on Saturday’s Ayr Gold Cup winner – though please don’t be offended if I stay off the radar until after racing has finished.
Ayr Gold Cup weekend is upon us and with it come the usual flashbacks and debate about the possible effects of the draw. The flashbacks are a little hazy in some respects – as auld Ayr has always been a fun place for a night out – but here are five that resonate:
The addition of the Silver and Bronze Cups to the Western Meeting – sorry, the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup Festival – has trebled the fun for sprint handicap junkies and provided extra fuel for the annual draw debate fire.
And, having spent way more time trawling through the last ten Ayr Gold and Silver Cup videos than is healthy, the following points seem well worth noting.
Of course, pointers such as this are only of real value if you have a clear idea of whether a split is on the cards.
But the evidence of 2015 and 2016 – when none of the 16 placed horses in the Gold and Silver Cups were drawn higher than 12 – shows that high drawn horses who work their way left as the stalls open are playing a very dangerous game.
And that point was rammed home again last year, when the first six in the Gold Cup were drawn 13 and lower and Magical Spirit streaked clear from stall 4 in the Silver Cup having raced in a group of just four who raced alone on the far side.
York winner Great Ambassador looks a very worthy favourite following his recent fine efforts, though he’s priced accordingly and could do with ironing out his tendency to drift from a true line once he gets a view of the front.
The favourite and his old rival from the Stewards' Cup - namely Commanche Falls - are drawn right on the far side in stalls 1 and 2 and could be in the perfect spot if those drawn high take the long way home.
However, I'm going to take the chance that the freewheeling Just Frank will blaze the trail towards the stand side from gate 18. And if he does then that could set things up neatly for a strong late charge from Bielsa.
Kevin Ryan's love of this race must have been encouraged by his early days with the great Jack Berry and the Hambleton handler has lifted the trophy four times in the last fourteen years with Advanced, Our Jonathan, Captain Ramius and Brando.
Bielsa is a little like his footballing namesake in that he's yet to really cut it against the big boys in Britain even though a lot of industry wiseguys are full of praise for his abilities.
Those abilities haven't always been seen to very best advantage this season, including when he ploughed a lonely furrow up the centre for sixth in the Stewards' Cup on his latest start, but that could be about to change.
Bielsa has a healthy pull in the weights with Commanche Falls and Great Amabassador this time. The forecast rain is in his favour and he looks a solid each way option at 16/1 or thereabouts with the progressive Popmaster (11/1), blinkered for the first time after an emphatic Ascot success, making plenty of appeal as saver material.
This has been a mixed week for people called J Harrington. Jessie cleaned up on Irish Champions weekend with four winners including two at G1 level, while Julie’s slot in the Luck On Sunday spotlight left plenty to work on.
There was a lot to unpack in the BHA Chief Executive’s 35-minute interview but the corporate wrapping was way more impressive than the actual content of the answers on several key issues.
This yielded much chat about “a complex eco system” and “keeping the customer as the north star.” It also produced an admission that “occasionally we get the balance slightly wrong.” Which, coming after a summer of unprecedented small fields, is simply using words with zero regard to their meaning.
“We are trying to understand the story behind the numbers” was a key line here, followed by “there is no magic wand solution” and “we will learn through innovation.” But next year’s Fixture List is almost identical to the 2021 version. The story behind the numbers is that the numbers simply aren’t changing. And whether the BHA can innovate to prevent another damaging summer of short fields in 2022 seems increasingly doubtful.
The pattern was well established by now, with Luck giving his guest the floor to lay out key ambitions. But the moment passed. No clear vision of how to engage a young audience or drive turnover so that key players can gain a reasonable reward for their efforts. Just another “there is no magic wand” response followed by “rearguard action” chat about working behind the scenes for Levy reform.
Luck is on the BHA’s Whip Steering Committee and this part of the conversation involved hands and heels coaxing rather than use of the persuader. It was no avail. Harrington seemed nonplussed to be asked and danced increasingly awkwardly around the topic before pivoting swiftly from “it doesn’t matter what I think” to saying that her modus operandi on crucial matters is to ask “what does Julie think?"
Funnily enough, I share Julie’s tendency to refer to myself in the third person on occasion and, once Sunday’s chat concluded, I asked myself “what would Graham think?” And, despite Lucky’s best efforts to give the BHA boss a chance to shine, the first answer that came to mind was: "Wow, that was a bad segment."
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