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Hi Folks,
Just curious if anyone out there can recommend any resources to help improve punting? (books, internet sites, contacts etc..)
Im always looking for new/alternative angles in to winner/selection finding, so if anyone has any suggestions, Id love to hear them!!
Happy New year to all
The Peter May website is quite informative and has some free ebooks.
I recently read the biography of Alex Bird which was quite interesting. It gives some insight into how he made his money, especially on photo finishes.
I believe the new Jon Gibby book has good reviews – I haven’t read it but previous books have been good.
However, I am struggling with some of the stuff that gets discussed on this forum, like head carriage and other finer points. A lot of it is arcane to me. Rather than put up lots of questions it would be good if beginners could be pointed to sources of reference and education that the experienced people take for granted.
Hi Kasparov,
Thank you for the reply – i will check out the website.
Are you refering to ‘Well Handicapped Horses’ by John Gibby? If so, I have it, and have found it very informative. I would recommend it to anyone.
Cheers..
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I have a strategy like this:
First work out the races yourself using a good orthodox method.
Then look what the others are saying. If it is the same as you then it’s probably because the other fellow is orthodox too.
If you spot differences it may be because the other source are fools who throw darts on the board or because they have some inside info (info of whatever quality).
If you know which among the columnists/websites are the "state registered fools", the remainder provide you with the desired inside info you look for.In this game what counts is who bets what, much more than the amount of money he uses to back his selections.
But you cannot normally have access.You should also read the Dunwoody thread about parade.
Both books by Mark Coton are ones that I re read regularly, Value betting and 100 hints for better betting. Also Phil Bull’s autobiography (if only for his principles of betting list).
Of the US authors, Mark Cramer’s Value Handicapping was very helpful to me early on (although US based, the art of compiling a tissue is de-mystified).
The Phil Bull book aside all three are difficult to get hold of and will probably cost 20 quid+. Cheap in the long run though.
I’m very much a novice, but since I began doing the following my understanding of the sport has improved no end:
-Follow a stable (not blindly but spend time learning how they operate)
-Learn the programme book inside out
-Avoid low grade racing
-Watch races with the sound switched off
-Once you have a degree of confidence in your ability, set a minimum amount win amount for each bet. Then double it.Everyone has their own style though and no doubt others will think the exact opposite to the points above!
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Somebody has yet to write the perfect book about horse racing.
I know progress will be made one day.
My favourite school subject was Physics.
In the days before internet and the first days after we had it, I was always probing people about computer assisted learning.
Most replied it’s too big a project and only specific cases can be handled.
We had the AMSTRAD company those days and Sugar was the man of the year. I asked their local shop one day and they said "ah the best we have for you is a form filler for house electrics for the municipal authority" !
But these days you can readily find about the most curious of Physics theories in the web, in quality style and it’s free too.
So therefore someone will tackle horse racing too.
The objective should be to make the bulk of the population understand and at the same time make it useful for those who are already involved.Interesting you should mention the Coton books. Alan Potts’ books get mentioned a lot too in this context. They go back to the late eighties and early nineties, which was something of a golden era.
My collection of racing books seems to end in the mid nineties – though there is the brilliant "Horseplayers" by Ted McClelland from the United States; a beautifully written, absorbing, streetwise book about a journalist’s season as a professional punter at Hawthorne.
The last decade has seen something of a drought. What has happened to racing literature? Has the ubiquitous Internet killed something else? High streets, record shops and now the racing book?*
Of course there are the two long winded, bitchy, disappointing (for avid Outlook readers at least), Nevison diaries and the Veitch book – the latter one of the most pathologically narcissistic exercises I’ve ever encountered outside a celebrity novel. Jordan is more modest. Apart from those, what else exists?
-Avoid low grade racing
The fundamental horse racing paradox. I attend Southwell every week. I have to risk the mortgage money, the joint account, the pawned wedding and engagement rings, the maintenance payments, the unit trusts, the offspring’s pocket money and the mistresses’ weekend motel fund to give me a buzz.
Even then it’s like crack – you have to have bigger and bigger bets to get the same impact. What is the point of this racing if not to bet on it compulsively and with steadily increasing madness?
Yet, I can watch every race from a Class 2 handicap to the Derby without having a bet and love every single magnficent moment of it.
Good post though, Richbowman. Wish you every success.
*with the exception of equiographies and trainer biographies, the horse racing equivalent of the celebrity book.Not really my bag.
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Why does the internet kill books ?
We can make better books, with the help of multimedia presentations.
It takes crafty design.
Here is a nice effort using some fancy artwork:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvsICxG1K2M
It does get expensive though.
I know someone who makes music video clips and he tells me such productions are expensive.Are you talking about Self-Publishing, Froddo?
I found a self-published horse racing book called "Black Type" written by one Kevin Outlaw. Seriously. I paid for it automatically, not knowing it was self-published, because I collect racing books and I’d not seen it before. I sat down to read it and got through six pages before I got a headache. There are reasons why publishers don’t publish everything they get through their letterboxes, despite the protestations of budding Tolstoys, but "Black Type" does at least look like a book. Hardback too. He clearly spent a fair amount of money to get his story out there.
What I meant was, people seem to be increasingly consuming their racing (and other) writing online. If the Kindle takes hold, Froddo, then I give the physically produced book two more decades. I genuinely hope the Kindle goes the way of the eight track or the Betamax, but early signs are that it is here to stay.
Max , I note you did not post on the Binocular thread , also Glen absent as well
Are we keeping the company line ???
Ricky
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Are you talking about Self-Publishing, Froddo?
I found a self-published horse racing book called "Black Type" written by one Kevin Outlaw. Seriously. I paid for it automatically, not knowing it was self-published, because I collect racing books and I’d not seen it before. I sat down to read it and got through six pages before I got a headache. There are reasons why publishers don’t publish everything they get through their letterboxes, despite the protestations of budding Tolstoys, but "Black Type" does at least look like a book. Hardback too. He clearly spent a fair amount of money to get his story out there.
What I meant was, people seem to be increasingly consuming their racing (and other) writing online. If the Kindle takes hold, Froddo, then I give the physically produced book two more decades. I genuinely hope the Kindle goes the way of the eight track or the Betamax, but early signs are that it is here to stay.
I like the Kindle.
Whatever the mechanism, it’s a collective effort and it is of course a job for the "national experts" when it comes to horse racing. I can’t write about America.
I ‘m not happy because nobody likes collective effort. Everybody wants to be chief and does n’t want no Indians either.
Re. the publishing companies they ‘re out to make money. I have no problem with them.The fundamental horse racing paradox. I attend Southwell every week. I have to risk the mortgage money, the joint account, the pawned wedding and engagement rings, the maintenance payments, the unit trusts, the offspring’s pocket money and the mistresses’ weekend motel fund to give me a buzz.
Even then it’s like crack – you have to have bigger and bigger bets to get the same impact. What is the point of this racing if not to bet on it compulsively and with steadily increasing madness?
Maxilon 5 – All I can say is that you sound like an absolute maverick and I take my hat off to you
Thanks for the kind words and likewise I wish you continued success.
No party lines here, Rickster.
Hendo is one of the sport’s unlikeliest political hot potatoes. I’m no great supporter of his for very different reasons and anything I wrote would be biased by that, so I’m staying out – as I did last year during the Cav-Lydia battle. Certain weird synchronicity about all this.
Froddo, reading a book on a Kindle is like eating a blueberry muffin while still in its wrapper. There’s something wrong about it, but I accept its a new world and you young guys love the Good Ship Internet and all who sail in her.
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No party lines here, Rickster.
Froddo, reading a book on a Kindle is like eating a blueberry muffin while still in its wrapper. There’s something wrong about it, but I accept its a new world and you young guys love the Good Ship Internet and all who sail in her.
I don’t have one.
Happy-go-lucky George Papandreou showed us one in the parliament one day.
You mean the pages are not conveniently laid out for you to read ?
Maybe that’s true because whenever I need a pdf I print it.Isiris Unveiled
Best ever racing book, though the bookmakers (I believe) got it banned from being published in the UK and I think they had to get it printed in east asia, it was only sold to members I think and I doubt you would get a copy of it now. Though if you do manage it then the book is gold dust.
Isiris Unveiled
Best ever racing book, though the bookmakers (I believe) got it banned from being published in the UK and I think they had to get it printed in east asia, it was only sold to members I think and I doubt you would get a copy of it now. Though if you do manage it then the book is gold dust.
And exactly how would bookmakers go about getting a UK book banned?
It is available on ebay and Amazon have sold out.
For the truly and determinably gullible, why not be guided in your reading by Isiris?
"Also available is a copy of the book “ISIRIS UNVEILED” at £40, which includes a secret never before revealed in 50 years, and which will turn your betting world upside down. If combining high profits with a high strike-rate suits your style of betting, then phone today for a free brochure or immediate membership ."
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