Warts and All (28th Mar 2005)

I am now moving on to the next phases of my journey towards professional horseplayer.

Now my part-time duties as a Basketball coach have finished for the season, I now have a lot more time for race analysis and weekends free to attend races in person. As I will be clocking up a number of miles I have decided to replace my current vehicle with a fairly new VW Golf (diesel).



I now have a separate current account purely for my punting activities. During this week I shall open internet and telephone accounts with various bookmakers to ensure that I achieved the best possible price for every bet when I am away from the race course.

Development of the ratings process is progressing well however, I have been advised that I need to create a betting forecast (“tissue”) as part of the process to benchmark my assessment against the rest of the world. If the selection process is sound and there is a discrepancy in my favour, I should (in “theory”) identify “value” selections and bet accordingly. However, in the words Ian Brindle from the internet based SportsLive Radio (dedicated to horse racing and BAGS commentary), “its only value if it wins”!

My results thus far indicate that my selections have not been winning AND not achieving value. Hopefully, developing my own tissue should help me to crystallise good betting opportunities or races that I should avoid. I shall suspend/minimise all bets until I can prove on paper that I am heading the the right direction.

The flat season has started in earnest and as mentioned last week, the focus of my punts will be sprint events. I am also warming to 2yo racing given the excellent information detailed on the British 2YO Racing, the web site is proving to be an invaluable tool in assessing the merits of these unexposed juveniles.