Warts and All (15th May 2007)

Regular readers of this blog would have noticed curtailed betting activity.

The reason for this is due to yours truly adopting a selective approach to my betting. “Guerrilla handicapping” ensures a balanced approach to my betting and also allows me time for other activities such as work and family. So what have I been up to?

Firstly on the forum I’ve opened an R&D lab. The first objective of the lab is to develop concepts based on my own views on handicapping. Similar to most R&D projects the hope is that some of these concepts will develop into profitable methods or systems. The other objective of the lab is keep me occupied in between betting opportunities.

Let’s face it; we all love the action and the “juice” of betting! Waiting for the next bet is boring and requires the patient of a saint to deny the siren calls that is the hype surrounding horse racing.

When I’m not working or betting or whatever in my spare time I coach a national league basketball team. Using the concept that my team spends more time in practice than playing competitive games, in theory I should be honing my handicapping skill in preparation for the next big punting opportunity. As I say to my players “all the time you are not working on your game someone else is!”

Two projects are in the developmental stages and both are looking very promising. If you’re interested they take a look at what the boffins are up to.

I’ve also modified and updated the betting records to accommodate a change in philosophy that is “two-horse” win betting per the Sartin methodology and “20–race groups” per the strategy defined by Dick Mitchell. Changes to those techniques are motivated by the underlying psychology behind gambling and should bear fruit once I iron out the irritating mistakes that I am making when evaluating a race.

Finally I’ve updated the look and feel of the blog to accommodate “labels”. When reviewing my notebook and my “warts and all” comments it became clear that my pre-race notes yield valuable clues to the source of my mistakes (i.e. the notebook) or inner most thoughts which I need be reminded of and review regularly.

Finally I’m off on another business trip to Japan this week. I’ll be back after the Bank holiday.