Family Fun - Watching The Grand National

There are two times a year where I will step foot into a bookies (or do it online now as that is just as easy) and that is on Boat Race Day and on the day of The Grand National. It's just a bit of fun, I doubt that anyone would consider me a seasoned gambler! I started off young with The Grand National, as my parents used to let me cut out the runners from the paper and choose ones that I liked. I took it very seriously and would choose based on the colour and pattern of the jockey silks as every child knows that is how you can tell if the horse is going to run well or not! As I got older I developed my system and would take into consideration the name of the horse as well as the colours and patterns of the jockey silks and although I never won, this didn't matter as it was the fun with my family that counted!

When daddy and I were married we carried on my tradition of placing a bet on The Grand National, (although now I was old enough to actually go into the Bookies and didn't have to wait outside on the step) and cutting out the runners from the paper to place at home 2p bets. It was a little bit of fun once a year and Daddy loved it! When top Ender was born we would include her into the game including one year recording the race whilst she was asleep and then helping her to choose the winner when she woke up. She didn't really care that she won until she saw the pile of coins that she could take to the local sweetshop with her!

The first year that Baby Boy was old enough to help choose a horse he sat on my knee behind the paper (before I had cut out the runners out) and stuck one finger out to choose a horse. Baby Boy choose Mon Mome in what some might say was a random fashion but we know is his very own system. The bets were placed online and we took ourselves to my Mums to watch the race with her.

Baby Boy the day he picked his first Horse in the Grand National

During the race Top Ender's, Grannys, Daddy's and my horse fell, or come the final few jumps was so far behind we knew that they weren't going to win. We had had our fun though and so were in fine spirits when we suddenly heard the announcer mention Mon Mome was in the lead. At this point Daddy quickly did some mental calculations and realised that if Mon Mome won we were going to win over £500. As soon as we knew this our gentle cheers of encouragement turned into great big whoops of screaming excitement... especially as Mon Mome stormed across the winning line with no doubt of who the winner was.

So who has Baby Boy chosen this year? Well, that's a secret.