WE’RE losing after day one, but the buzz is back in the betting ring. The atmosphere was great on Tuesday in the Tattersalls enclosure, where we have pitches one and two.

There’s gangs of young men coming racing now and when they’re winning, they’re chanting, football-style. It used to be ‘Ruby, Ruby, Ruby’ and now it’s ‘Lossie, Lossie, Lossie’.

We like to offer them doubles because I always feel you have a chance of getting a double beaten. The problem is that, if the first leg wins, you’re facing a huge liability.

We offered 17/2 on the Old Park Star-Kopek Des Bordes double and took in three grand. So we were facing a £20,000 payout if Kopek won, which looked likely going to the final fence.

But I’m coming here since 1999 and have seen so many good things get beaten. Especially in the handicaps. How often have I seen J.P. McManus have two or three in contention turning for home and he wins it with an outsider, like Johnnywho (18/1). Any one of his runners can win, like Saratoga (10/1), but we don’t take as much money in the handicaps as we do in the Grade 1 races.

I don’t know much about racing, but it must have been a poor enough Champion Hurdle for them to run Lossiemouth (7/5 favourite) in it. She won easily and it was a bad result for us, even though there was late money for The New Lion.

We were well behind after that race and Madara (3/1) was another loser for us but, as I was saying, we don’t hold nearly as much on the handicaps. As I told Brian Gleeson of ITV Racing at around that time, you will never win 10 grand on a handicap, but you could lose 20.

Holloway Queen (12/1) was a good result in the last as she was well down the liability order behind Backmersackme and Kurasso Blue, who were never at the races.

So, we’re down after day one and don’t forget the expenses, which are crippling. Between accommodation and pitch fees, we have spent £15,000 before a ball is kicked.

But as I look out of my fine digs here on Wednesday morning, the sun is shining, there’s not a cloud in the sky and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now.