Flying high

By Ronan Groome

My main interest on Saturday was my bet on Inter at 16/1 for the Champions League, which looked very clever on Saturday morning, and looked even cleverer when they beat Bayern Munich 2-0 on Saturday evening. I whiled away the afternoon watching racing. Despite the fact that it was Irish 2000 Guineas day at the Curragh I anticipated a quiet afternoon on the lap-top. I never really got much of a grasp of the form of the main contenders in the Guineas. I thought Canford Cliffs was the most likely winner but there was a slight question over his ability to stay the mile, in the way he finished his last two races. I could not have Steinback, on his first run of the season and Fencing Master probably needs further. By process of elimination, I ended up backing Xtension, on the theory that he may be the best over the distance after his solid 4th in the English Guineas. The process of elimination method is never a good way of deciding things, imagine we decided everything using it, life would be ridiculously boring. In betting it is probably the wrong way as well, goes into the ‘having a bet for the sake of it’ category. Canford Cliffs cruised to victory, and I along with a lot of others was told off angrily by Richard Hughes in his post race interview. Before that, I was unlucky in the first race, I had €12 on Musical Rain at 11.5, he ran a fantastic race from a wide draw, but was denied by a 25/1 shot who was giving his trainer first win in nearly 5,000 days. No winner in 5,000 days, is that even legal? And of course I would back the horse that eventually finished second to him.

Sunday morning, instead of withdrawing the €500 resting in my Betfair account from Saturday night’s Champions League final, I was ready to play up the winnings and get stuck into some serious action. My head really was not in the game for studying form (tough night last night after Inter’s win), so the easier option was the GAA, where my instinct has served me so well down the years. I had €27 on Meath to win by 6-10 points in their first round encounter with Offaly at 3.3 and had €12 on Meath over 11 points winning margin as cover. Even in my awful physical state, I think I would have kicked frees better than Offaly kicker Niall Darby who could not buy a point. Meath were far more clinical up front, notching an impressive tally of 1-20 to win by 10 points.

The next game on was Tyrone and Antrim. I was not going to fall for the ‘Tyrone will hammer them’ attitude. Antrim are quite useful and their manager was talking them up as if he was approaching a boxing match and defeat was just out of the question. However I still thought the red hand men would get over the line, so I played another winning margin, having €35 on them to win by 1-5 points at 2.7. When you’re hot you’re hot, Tyrone surged into what looked a huge lead, only for the honest Antrim men battling back in the second half to lose out by just three points. Both bets landed.

I travelled down to Maynooth after the Irish 1000 Guineas (no bet) to start studying for an exam on Monday. Before eventually getting down to the books, I decided to get my French Open tennis bets on. I don’t bother researching these things, a friend of mine who bets on tennis regularly advised me to have a decent bet on Federer at 9/2. You’re better off listening to someone who actually knows what they are talking about when it comes to betting on other sports. But there was no way I was being told what to do on the women’s side; there were only two women getting my money, Caroline Wozniacki and Elena Dementieva. Particularly Wozniacki I believe I have a general connection with the beautiful Dane. I backed her in the first ever proper tournament she won and went with her on her magnificent run to the U.S. Open final last year, on that occasion I was on at a huge price, but stubbornly decided against laying off, as my heart would not allow me to. I got €12 on her at 27, €7 on Dementieva at 26 and €22 on Federer at 5.5. Surely this run can’t continue, can it?

By Ronan Groome