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How many people specifically bet on course?
Reading Mordin’s books he seems to do his research off course and then go to the course to make sure his selection looks fit and well enough before striking a bet.
Personally, the intricacies of the thoroughbred anatomy are beyond the extent of my knowledge and therefore I find it of little use ‘checking out’ my bet.
Also, I find that sitting at home watching the tv with laptop to hand a lot more profitable than betting at the course. There is not enough time to look at horses in the paddock, buy drinks, wait in queues, find out about going/jockey changes etc. in the 30 or so mins in between races.
Be interesting to hear whether we are armchair punters or Mordins…..
I always bet from work and never at SP .. that’s for mugs and pathological losers. Betting on-course is pretty much the same, except a few toffs will be in attendance and blokes with binoculars watching the giant TV screens opposite the stands.
I can’t remember the last time I bet at SP.
Most of my betting is done on-line, but I’d bet on-course more if I had the time to visit more meetings.
Rob
Can’t beat a day at the races with a pocket full of readies. Collecting in cash is 100% more enjoyable than hitting the "withdraw" button.
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Quote: from dave jay on 9:04 pm on Nov. 7, 2006[br]I always bet from work and never at SP .. that’s for mugs and pathological losers.
Though I would consider myself neither of the above, I do bet more at SP now than I ever have in my life.<br>Quite simply, and this is purely a personal view, I find the early prices at the business end of the market much tighter than previously was the case, no doubt owing to the influence of the exchanges in the early skirmishes.<br> Might not be everbody’s experience, but I would suggest that there is much more uniformity, and less need for ‘chasing the earlies’, than at any time I can remember.<br> I only go racing socially nowadays as the attractions of freezing to death at Wetherby to obtain half a point extra, or the fractions, no longer justify the effort. Like Db, I still feel the odd pang of guilt though.<br>  <br> <br> ÂÂÂ
From a betting point of view the advantage gained by going racing has long since disappeared though there remains an edge to be had for those competent in the somewhat black arts of paddock/canter profiling.
I attend c40 meetings annually down from a peak of c100 five years ago; the drop due mainly to Betfair but also ‘too much of a good thing’. Still thoroughly enjoy an afternoon at the races leaning paddockside ‘amongst’ the noble steeds or watching them being watered and washed post race, alternating with a wander into the cauldron of the betting ring: ’60 fractions the one horse’ ‘sorry mate you can only bet to a monkey with me’. These, the fresh air, exercising the legs/long sight and the general craic the antidote to being driven stir crazy by the daily grind of Betfair and Buttons.
The visceral pleasure in being handed a wad of cash and the pain at parting with a wad remains undimmed over the years compared to the lack of emotion discharged by the zillions of virtual notes flying back and forth over the ether. A good or bad thing? Not entirely sure.
Nowadays betting is 95% Betfair, 5% the good men and true on-course and virtually zilch with the turf accountants save for the occasional waking of a dormant credit account for old times sake.
Nothing like being there and there is the edge of paddock inspection.
Somehow winners online are just not the same and losers on course are nowhere near as bad.
Nice post, Drone.
"…….and losers on course are nowhere near as bad."
:biggrin: I’ll try and remember that next time, Clive.
Colin
To my mind you can’t beat going and I think anyone who knows roughly what a fit horse looks like will gain some advantage by seeing them in the paddock.
I went to a point to point meeting at the end of the season and having no idea what the form meant just backed the horses on appearance and I came out on top.. This is probably a slightly jaded example because some of the horses were blatantly out of shape but it does help..
I personally follow horse racing because I love the sport and it’s intricacies and provided I don’t lose morethan about 10% of what I stake (which isn’t loads) i’m happy enough because it’s a hobby and you’d spend probably 7 or 8 times that to follow a football team every week. Towcester being my local course and being free helps as well!!!
love repeating my post of 3 years back,
on-course shrewdies mug sit at home punters regularly.<br> apart from photos stewards and fallers,
laying favs that have bolted to post out of control before the mugs are aware gives me most pleasure.
<br>happy punting.
You may be lucky enough to witness one or two instances of a fancied horse bolting or boiling over on a card, but the more general edge to be gained from paddock watching is something that only a person going racing three times or more a fortnight is likely to be able to exploit. IMO.
I’m a laptop man. It’s all about playing to your strengths.
<br>When I first went full time as a punter there was no other realistic option to betting on course. Apart from the crippling tax and the difficulty of getting on in shops or over the phone, there was no live coverage of the racing on TV.
In my first full year, 1992, my diary shows that I went racing on 150 days and that I had fewer than 20 bets on which I paid the off course tax.
But the world has changed beyond anyone’s imagination since then. I now work entirely at home and only ever go racing as an owner. Even if I still loved being on the racecourse, it certainly isn’t the best place to bet now. At some tracks there’s hardly anybody left in the ring that I know and even fewer that want to lay horses to lose five grand or more. (Barry is obviously an exception to that statement).
But there are other reasons why the live event no longer attracts me as it did for almost forty years. First is the travelling – I went to Kempton yesterday to watch Greenwood and the journey home took 110 mins for a trip I used to do easily in 65 mins back in 1992.
Second is the change to to the tracks brought about by those great Gods ‘Health’ and ‘Safety’. Rails everywhere, restricted access to paddocks and worst of all the removal of the right to go out onto the track and watch close up to the action. There are a few places that still offer this pleasure (Fontwell is the best), but most have bowed down timidly to the council dictators.
But the over-riding reason is that I no longer feel that the courses want customers like me, who prefer to spend their time watching the horses rather than consuming vast quantities of lager before watching a pop concert, or sitting in a corporate box being told what to back by Thommo in exchange for a brown envelope. The contempt for the lover of the sport is shown most of all in the architecture – Ascot is by no means the first track to build a new stand that fails to provide a view of the racing.
Apologies if that all sounds like a middle aged conservative pining for the ‘good old days’. Basically I bet to make a living and to try to do that on course these days would be to do the job with one hand tied and a blindfold on – why spend three hours or more in the car for the pleasure of taking under the odds to a<br>restricted stake and then watching the race on a big screen!
AP
Hi AP
very well said.
But I do like, the site of horse flesh, brave jockeys, the spectacle and a tingling atmosphere.
byefrom<br>carlisle
"If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself"  MG<br>
would like to echo AP ‘S sentiments ,for me it was the travelling that killed it , going 4/5 times a weeek in 2003and 2004 cost me roughly 1000 permonth for costs , i barely scraped a living so nowadays its laptop and in running , with the occasional visit on course
good luck to all if you are going racing regularily , with the roads and probihitive costs , you going to need it
R
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