This year’s Crabbie’s Grand National race will take place today (5th of April) at 4:15 p.m. at Aintree Racecourse, and is one of the high points of the year for Abingdon’s Betting shops.
The two Ladbrokes in Abingdon (Bath Street and Stert Street) have notices reminding people to “Gamble Responsibly: Set you own limits and stay in control.“.
Stan James say “Get Lucky. Best Odds Guaranteed.”
In the empty premises next door a notice says that William Hill have applied for a License under the Gambling Act 2005 to trade there, so they could well be competing for the Abingdon trade in next year’s Grand National.
I read The Guardian tips for the race which were all quite amusing to read. The last was for Swing Bill which is not strongly fancied … “Has had a couple of stabs at this race and not been good enough. Now he’s 13 and likely to be slower than ever. Would be a most surprising winner.“
Awww – how depressing that must be for those who look after and train him!
Not the race it was and, in many ways, for the better. I’ll be having modest wagers, for interest, on Double Seven and Teaforthree. At Fishers Cross in the 2:50 looks more of a ‘proper bet’.
I understand that the TC has put in an application for the Abbey Meadow to be developed as either a National Hunt Racecourse, or a Grand Prix circuit. They are applying for Heritage Lottery Funding.
Sounds good to me …
Is that before or after Abingdon’s favourite builder has “acquired” the old town council office building??
Ooh. There’s nothing like a piece of biting satire. And that was nothing like a….
I just checked and see Swing Bill came 9th – hope they let him retire now, but if not I’ll back him to win next year!
Well. Hester, one of mine came third in the big race.
Earlier, At Fishers Cross, which I felt confident about, had his off-fore shoe hanging off for most of the second part of the race which explains why he was jumping right and losing lengths on the outside as the jockey didn’t want to barge the animal he was racing alongside at the front (Aintree s a LH track).
I had Balder Succes in the 2:05, so I came out okay.
It’s a sport I love, but feel ambivalent about.
Life ain’t simple.
newcomer – Inspired choices. The two joint favs in the National and a 11-8 fav. All losers. No mention of your ‘winner’ in your earlier post?