WEDNESDAY was a very small winning day for me, the last race proving the difference.

The crowds were okay, I believe the attendance figures were up slightly, but I didn’t feel there were as many bodies in front of me as there was for this day last year. But the business was okay and at the end of the day, I was a little surprised to see my total turnover was actually up.

The big difference these days is the lack of punters wanting to go in big at odds-on. There seems to be a huge gap in the market. I was keen to stand-up Buildmeupbuttercup at well odds-on in the maiden but I was roaring my head off and getting nowhere. I was even beating the exchange but the only bets I took were from Paddy Power and Ladbrokes. The days of people coming up having €2,000 on to win €1,000, seem to be fewer and fewer.

The other thing I’ve noticed is the lads coming up to you with €50. A few years ago, they were having that on the one horse, but now they’re waiting for their €40 back. There are a lot of those type of small punters now.

We won a small bit on the first race but the second race provided some damage. Ilikedwayurthinkin was probably the plot of the week and he won like a good thing. I held a decent bet from one shrewd individual and in all he was very well-backed – from something like 9/2 right into 2/1. We took a bit of a hammering there.

The Plate was a good betting race, as it always is, and we did okay. Snugsborough Benny was my worst result – I laid €1,000 each-way on him and I also laid the same amount Mengli Khan. Movewiththetimes and Yorkhill, the two fallers, were two other decent-sized losers. I laid a bit on Borice but took just about enough to cover it and survive the race.

Tauran Shaman was very well-backed in the penultimate race so that was a loser, but I made it a winning day in the last, laying plenty on the top two in the market, Eight And Bob and Conron.