back in my time on the turf as punter and never the big one I must say I did learn that my own judgement was the best judgement. no one swayed me. never. if I had done the homework on a race as was confident then to the prelim paddock first. see the horses out there one race before their paddock walk. if it was kind news then to the paddock as they came in. catch them all but watch those front legs. if the legs were right, all was on. march the length of the bookies in the cheap enclosures. take any silly offerings and work my way back to the ring. I very rarely bet on the rails. by then the odds on my selected had established themselves as the ring usually only started taking bets mins before the off. I was known rarely to bet below starting price. that was very rare indeed. in fact I never went to the track without having made my own list of odds.
one yr at goodwood I had done my homework on a race due a few days later. I was introduced to the trainer richard hannon of my selected. I was working on form strictly at this moment. I ran the course to keep fit and knew every blade of grass, every ant hill and every bloody wild flower. the ground was very very hard. my pal was clerk of the course and ruled on the watering. whatever he tried he was not going to soften it. no way, not with the weather then. the race was filly 3 yr olds. 5 nags only. my selected was the outsider. the only one I knew who would act on the going. I ignored my pals news reports of going. I knew it for myself. I had an advantage. I backed my selected mon fils to beat the field. 4 bets. the fav pulled up on the hard ground. mon fils won and I collected tote of 66-1. second time I had those odds at goodwood. great memories.
a great greyhound story. it was a flapping trap and a top dog was 'painted up' and as they all did, run under a different name. my racing partner (much older than i) was a young lad when this happened. it's his story. he was to be doing the betting. the trainer was seen not to be betting. the news had leaked. everyone and sundry was on. as the dogs reached the first bend the trainer whistled and the dog leaped up over the fence. out of the race. lovely one that, eh ?
over the yrs had a few good tips. some impressive ones but by the time I had become the student of form all my knowledge was what I needed. if the horse had been prepared and polished ready to run for it's life, an not just an outing, I was on. I truly believe that it is this being 'polished', as the trainer believes his chances are very good and will therefore do all he can to win.
you call it juicing up ? all it is, is getting that training to perfection for the day. one can improve and one can go backwards but those last 3 runs are the most important to go by. studying past those runs and back into the previous season throws up gems. but no time here to go into it all. form reading is a science. I was a decent runner myself and used the knowledge of how I got fit, ran and the tactics to use and put it into my racing. there is no difference imo. tactics win most races. not the best horse on the day. the fittest ridden best will usually win. saying that, of course a good horse outclassing it's rivals can win half ready but that is usually general knowledge at the time.
there was a time I would back over the sticks and assess who would make it round. if it was a track I knew well then I would look for 'strangers' to the track and check their jumping records. if their records were floppy but the horse was a decent type then it was often the occasion that a local nag who new every jump backwards would get round whilst the others didn't. I needed the odds to outway the poor nags form to that of the class horse. had some great wins this way. 33-1 (3 runners the other two fell) and a tother time at a nice 25-1 for my purse. I was happy happy.
best memory was at ascot in winter over the jumps. a well known bookie had been watching me run the line looking. what are you looking for 40, he said ? 100-1 said I. 5 runners and I wanted 100. he offered me 66. I said no and toted it. as the two top class horses had tumbled my nag took the last in front. only to be beaten on the run in. but I stood firm to my convictions and to this day seeing luis napoleon jump that last fence in front and the pleasure it gave me was a good as winning. in the race were two Cheltenham gold cup winners but they did not like the heavy ground. luis loved it and that was what set me off on this one.
betting on every race is for pleasure. if one is serious then it will be a few bets a mth. even after all that hard work ! stocks are a lot better. you can get out when in front. there is no finishing line unless you get lumbered with one of those bally rough directors whose company goes out for suspension and loses it's listing lol but then one should have seen the clouds hovering before the storm. so yep, stocks are best.
happy punting and don't forget the wife and kids need to eat. one cannot enjoy eating a losing betting slip, no matter how much it what worth before it got cooked to a cinder.
