Just select the favourite, Each/Way

Today, I won my first ever 'professional' bet on horse racing. That's excluding the Grand National, of course, which the whole country bets on every April. That doesn't count.

I've been inside most of the 'bookies' in Exeter - dotted along both Sidwell Street and the top of Fore Street, at the other end of the High Street. I've been in Corals, Ladbrokes, Stanley James (now ToteSport) and William Hill, of course. But only to get the Weekend football coupon, for my customary 1 pound bet, seven selections usually. I only won once, and that was only about 7 quid. Now it's time to step up to horse racing, the professional gamblers sport, the Sport of Kings.

There is a Teach Yourself book that I actually bought, last Sunday in Waterstones, Roman Gate. 8.99 and worth every penny. It tells you about how to bet, the different types of bet and the different strategies to consider.

I now know about Lucky 15s, Yankees, Tricast, Patents and so on. I know how the odds work, the difference between betting on the Tote and in your high street bookmakers. Fine. Well - oday it paid dividends!

Each-way is the obvious bet - at least I now know what this is. It is really two bets; a straight win bet and a 'place' bet, all put on together, in one. My first EVER non-Grand National bet on the races was on Brave Inca, the Champions Hurdle, at 4.00 at Cheltenham, on the first day of the famous Festival, just 100 miles from here. £3 each-way on the 7-4 winner, Brave Inca, ridden by the master jockey, Tony McCoy.

I'm actually getting the lingo right-away, and I've only been in the 'job' since last Sunday! I know the difference between 'flat' and 'steeplechase', the different grades of race (Class 1 to Class 7), and the distances, handicaps and everything else! Brilliant!

Really, there is a certain atmosphere you get in betting shops that you experience nowhere else. You get the excitement of the big race - this week is the Cheltenham Festival, the greatest of all - and you get forty tv screens to watch, simultaneously if you want. You get loads of old blokes - never any women! - and a room full of smoke. The have nice refreshment machines, now, tea and coffee, chocolates, and so on. Really, you could spend a whole day here.

Screwed up sheets of paper everywhere, a garish blue decor if you are in William Hill or Corals and a garish red decor in Ladbrokes. I prefer Ladbrokes. The staff are young, polite, neatly presented, and there's a nice-looking Polish cashier in the Sidwell Street branch.

My 3 e/w got me 12.47 return (including the stake, 6), not bad for a few minutes work. That's 6.47 in winnings, the most ever.

BRAVE INCA - YOU WERE BRILLIANT. TONY MCCOY - YOU ARE BRILLIANT.