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Has anyone else read this book?
I think Dave is an excellent punter and a nice bloke, whilst he had his ups and downs its nice of him to share the experience in this book and there’s so many quotable’s on how to improve your punting although he doesn’t directly tell you how to and I think it’s a good chance to learn from his mistakes that he has written whilst not losing a penny doing it.
I am only up to chapter 7 but I have seen so many flaws in my punting thus far and feel that the snippets of information I have dug out is defiantly going to make me a better punter and one day be in Dave’s shoes although you can forget the Marathons .
I enjoyed his first book and was looking forward to this but its a disappointing follow up. The frank opinions which were such a feature of A Bloody Good Winner are largely absent this time and he has taken plenty of opportunity to use No Easy Money as a promotional tool for his tipping line and burgeoning bloodstock business. The rest of it is a formulaic log of his bets with the odd ¨night out¨ at a festival story thrown in for good measure.
If you can get a cheap copy or borrow it from a friend its not a bad read but definitely not worth the 26 Euro I handed over for it.
Agree with Cav. Pretty poor really, and I’m usually easy to please when it comes to such books.
- Total Posts 17716
Appauling response thus far
I enjoyed it.. but not as much as his other book. I thought that a lot of the information had been published before in his columns in the Racing and Football Outlook.
To be honest, I would have preferred more about his bets, as I am actually interested to read why people back horses. As others have said above, the amount of info relating to his bloodstock interests didn’t really captivate me.
Also, without wishing to spoil the book for those who have yet to finish it, I think he’s very, very wrong about the Tote bets.
I also don’t agree that Betfair has the ‘best brains’ when it comes to pricing up markets. Nevison has argued for some time now about how the moves on Betfair, either positives or negatives, are more informative than changes in bookies’ prices. My belief is that with an increasing number of people ‘trading’ and using machines to trade, this creates a ‘follow the leader’ pattern in the market. Money follows money, but it’s not necessarily an indication of confidence in a horse.
For those still backing horses at the bigger price end of the market I still feel that the margins are good for us.
Having said all that, I like the fellar. There’s no reason why Nevison can’t release a book like this every year. Despite my misgivings I’d still buy it.
Agree with Cav. Pretty poor really, and I’m usually easy to please when it comes to such books.
Even after you have coloured them in DJ?
i thought first book was 10 good pages and 200 fairly unmemorable. think i will swerve this one….
I put his first book down as the sort of publication I wouldn’t bother to buy for myself. However a pal did buy it for me this Christmas and I’d read it in less than 2 days – despite all the good TV and other distractions. With David Ashforth’s assistance I thought it was a very easy read with lots of interesting ideas about betting and how enjoyable racing can be.
Given your appraisal however I’ll wait for another friend to buy me the new book as a present!
A enjoyable read -it made me laugh out loud a few times but in fairness its blog material as opposed to a book.
Am in two minds whether to buy this book.
Don’t like the guy much, but admire him for making a buisness out of racing, but that does not matter. Bought his first book and although it was o.k. it had very little about his betting strategy, what he takes in to account when having a bet etc. And seemed to criticise everyone else. Can’t say as I learnt anything useful from it.
Is there anything in the new book about what he takes in to account?
Learnt far more from AP’s books and Betting The Timeform Way.
Mark
Value Is Everything- Total Posts 17716
Am in two minds whether to buy this book.
Don’t like the guy much, but admire him for making a buisness out of racing, but that does not matter. Bought his first book and although it was o.k. it had very little about his betting strategy, what he takes in to account when having a bet etc. And seemed to criticise everyone else. Can’t say as I learnt anything useful from it.
Is there anything in the new book about what he takes in to account?
Learnt far more from AP’s books and Betting The Timeform Way.
MarkWhere can I buy this book Ginge?
Ginger
In answer to your main question: no, not really.
I think he considers himself a form student (most of the time). He uses John Whitley’s ratings, Timeform Perspective, Raceform Interactive and then gets stuck in. However, he does not go into detail regarding how much influence certain factors have in his betting: recent form, course, draw, trainer form etc.
I like his approach and it’s one that I use (to a large degree) and I know that you produce your own tissues as well. However, I sometimes wonder because of his proximity to figures in the racing world whether he is over partial to gossip, whispers, tips etc.
I like his columns in the RFO but I do get the impression that he gets excited by new ideas every so often and then discards them. For example, one week he’ll talk about going to the paddock and seeing horses he fancies sweating up. He still backs them and the horses lose. So the next week he pays more attention to the paddock and finds that horses looking well in the paddock then run badly and he bemoans his luck. Or, after sitting down with Harry Finlay, he wonders whether he should be punting huge amounts at the front end of the market… and then loses.
I think his ’tissue’ approach is by far his most reliable tool in punting armoury. But if you buy the book you’ll see how wounded he is at the end due to ‘non-tissue’ battle.
Am in two minds whether to buy this book.
Don’t like the guy much, but admire him for making a buisness out of racing, but that does not matter. Bought his first book and although it was o.k. it had very little about his betting strategy, what he takes in to account when having a bet etc. And seemed to criticise everyone else. Can’t say as I learnt anything useful from it.
Is there anything in the new book about what he takes in to account?
Learnt far more from AP’s books and Betting The Timeform Way.
MarkWhere can I buy this book Ginge?
I don’t think they make it any more Mr. Wilson.
I have heard it sometimes comes up on ebay, that might be the best place. Or try a Racing book shop / site which sells second hand stuff too; if there is such a thing.Mark
Value Is EverythingYou could have a look at http://www.browzers.co.uk
Colin
This sort of thing gets washed up on http://www.abebooks.com sometimes, too.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
It’s long out of print, but quite sought after it would seem as I got a score+ for my copy on eBay a couple of years back.
A sound, sensible read but outdated. IIRC there’s a long chapter detailing just how badly off those having to pay off-course betting tax were compared to those once-lucky souls who restricted their betting to the books on-course.
Good maths though and a salutary reminder that a base-5% ‘tax’ on exchange winnings is actually a much greater tax on accumulated gross profit: the less your gross profit the greater the percentage take-out roughly speaking.
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