Kitty's Light and the Grand National

As a child I was told that gambling was "wrong". There was no explanation attached to this assertion and it was rather a mixed message since my Dad filled in the football pools coupon every weekend. That wasn't something I was curious about because it concerned football and I wasn't interested in football. Only I grew up knowing that gambling was something that "people like us" did not do, and never challenged that.

By the time I had children of my own I'd become aware of lives blighted by gambling addiction, especially online gambling which makes it all too easy to exceed any self-imposed spending limits. So I passed on the message to my youngsters that gambling was wrong, something that people like us did not do, and stretched the definition of gambling to include buying raffle tickets or taking part in prize draws.

This became embarrassing when the church school the children attended sent every pupil home with books of raffle tickets to sell to raise funds for school projects.

"Why can't we, Mum? Everybody else is selling them!"

"Because they're all about greed and wanting things you can't have."

I could almost see the high horse I was sitting astride while moralising to my offspring. The school needed funds right enough and I didn't want to come across as mean if "everybody else" really was taking part. In the end I sent the raffle tickets back to the school, enclosing a letter explaining our family's moral position on gambling, and with a cash donation. The following year the grand school raffle went ahead again, but an alternative to opt out and send a cash donation instead was offered. (Influence is difficult to measure but I felt my stance was vindicated.)

All this background is by way of explanation, why I have never been into a betting shop, and had never placed a bet, before this month. Growing up on the Wirral, close to Liverpool, I was aware of Aintree race course and the Grand National race. We had driven across the road which is closed annually to complete the grand race track. I'd even been allowed to watch the horses running, on the television. It all seemed exciting, so remote from my own experience. And it never occurred to me that there was a connection to forbidden gambling! Now and then my Dad would mention "having a flutter". Perhaps there was a sweepstake in his office?

Anyway, there was an item on the local TV news in the run-up to the Grand National 2024 about the Welsh trainer of a horse called Kitty's Light. The focus of the report was not only on the trainer and his horse but also on his young daughter who had been diagnosed with leukaemia. The child, Betsy Williams, formed a special bond with the horse, providing some light at the end of their tunnel for her family. It was a moving, compassionate report, an insight into a different kind of community life.

I stood in the completely unfamiliar surroundings of a betting shop thinking of the child and her horse - not about gambling, not horseracing in general, not "people like us". The staff w friendly, patient, helpful. I took the opportunity to ask for an explanation of the term "each way". It does not mean, as I had imagined, that the horses run in either direction around the track! Rather it's a (percentage) win if the horse is in the first few places - five in this instance - rather than only winning with a first place. (Just about everybody seemed to know that but me. Only nobody laughed at me, for that I'm grateful.) I put my money on Kitty's Light each way. He came in fifth place - so I won!

With the success of my first foray into gambling, I'm sure you're wondering if I am now on a slippery slope to addiction? It did occur to me that another thing I have never done is to buy a National Lottery ticket. I resolved to spend some of my winnings to do just that the following Friday, so that I could blog about it next time. And then I forgot.