Ascot report

[TGJB]

Broke even Tue, did very well Wed, despite only hitting 1 race each day. It\'s different over there-- almost all the betting is through the books, who do not offer exotics-- the tote does, but the pools are small. The tellers are not great, at least these days at that track. The data is awful, but won\'t be next year, when we start publishing.

Wore a morning suit the first day, not the second. The Royal Enclosure is not the place to be, especially when it\'s hot. The clubhouse equivalent is, especially if you like looking at women. Not the Queen.

The first race the first day was held up about 15 minutes. I found out that evening it was caused by a TG/Rag customer (seriously) who left his binocular bag on his seat, causing a bomb scare.

I noticed Friedman stuck his head out of the rabbit hole on the changing track speed stuff-- he must not realize they have the internet over there. This is a very rich vein, and I\'ll be analyzing his comments when I get a chance to come up for air in a couple of days.

One more thing-- stay away from the trendy restaurants in London. They are more concerned with being trendy than good--they truly suck. I ordered a duck dish:

Waiter: \"How would you like it cooked? We usually serve it pink\".
Me: \"That means rare?\"
Waiter: \"Bleeding\".
Me: \"Medium.\"

Paris was better. Didn\'t get to the track, but the grub was a lot better.

[Silver Charm]

Welcome back.

Racing got boring while you were gone.

[Josephus]

Had a similar experience 3 years ago when I would bet a few races each day with the book shops in Dublin and Galway.  I think the racing paper there is called THE RACING POST, which I thought was pretty much equivelent to the DRF in race data.  Of course betting with the books you get paid off with the odds at the time of your bet, which is nice. And it seemed to me that some obvious choices went off at higher odds there than they would back home.  By the way, the restaurants in Galway, and Dublin especially, are very good.  Great Italian food.  And the \"carving\" bars and Guinness for lunch also are excellent.