Cheltenham Hell

Yesterday wasn't a great start to the festival - Sweet Wake was many people's Irish banker and it was heavily backed but easily beaten.

Thankfully I backed Brave Inca @ 19/10 which took the bare look off my bookie account - but some of my horses would have been better off running at Shelbourne Park.

Today I've backed (so far)
Sun Alliance Hurdle: Denman @ 6/4
Sun Alliance Chase: Commercial Flyer @ 6/1
Champion Chase: Moscow Flyer @ 11/4 - now available at about 6/1.

Cheltenham is a metaphor for one of the great perils of western life - paralysis by analysis:

We're bombarded on all sides with information, tips, whispers etc.. - media, friends, pub-talk, our own opinions. Much of it is uninformed, most of it is conflicting.

Radio, TV, newspapers - every correspondent becomes a racing pundit this week and every race has several potential winners - often 10 or more - if you listen to the "experts".

You'd be better off to just get the morning paper, make your own mind up and then just watch the actual race on the TV. That way you'd hopefully end up backing just one loser in each race and you might even manage the odd winner.

As in many other areas, we have too much choice, too much money, too much "information", too many opinions to consider, too much time to think about it, coupled with a fear of making a wrong choice that will cost us money and/or be derided by our families, friends, colleagues etc..