GLORIOUS GOODWOOD

9.00am, the sun was shining, the bucks fizz flowing, pastries & bacon sarnies being quaffed... and so SPA’s summer day out began!
The girls were dressed in their finery & the boys had dusted their suits off & polished their shoes.. we all looked like quite a beautiful bunch!! ... no honestly we did.

Once boarded onto our luxury coach we were on our way to Goodwood…. in the direction of untold riches.
The Racing Post was doing the rounds on the coach and the professional gamblers among us were planning their day’s betting by working out which horse was best on soft or hard ground, who the trainer was, how many wins, etc. While the less professional amongst us were banking on the old “ooh look that jockey is wearing pink!! – I’ll bet on that one!” gambit.
Soon the eye spy started & the “are we nearly there yet?” shouts from the back. But luckily for us Ron, our coach driver was all too happy to share some facts on the Goodwood countryside....zzzzzzzzz

Once arrived we set up picnic in the hazy sunshine with our Harvey Nichols hampers, Pimms, champagne and a few beers… and so we were ready to win big! A generous cash gift from the Chairman gave us the (financial) confidence to back the fine fillies.

Although there were several ripped up tickets on the floor, most of us SPA-ers had a win at some point throughout the day ( Harriet, the newest member of the food and drink team was so successful we were beginning to doubt whether she would need to work again!) and so all spirits were high!
All, it seemed, apart from Greg who was found forlornly cradling his beer after a significant stint of backing the 3 legged horses. But even his despair lifted when he won his money back on the last race!

Jon Priest on the other hand insisted on ‘showing us how it was done’ and won on pretty much every race! Jealous?... us?.... never! ...I must stress that the whispers of Jon being spotted slipping the trainers and jockeys some cash are completely untrue!!

All too quickly it was time for us to board our coach again & head back to London.
Where we were graced with Martin dancing his way up and down the aisle and Jonny P serenading us over the microphone! – Rather surprisingly in tune too!

We had triumphs n tears, music n laughter, winners n losers, but most importantly we had loads of booze!!

Another successful SPA Summer Day Out.

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