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I remember having plenty of success in the late Nineties using a computer program called Compunter that had one module that was, the author said, based on VDW methods.
By restricting yourself to the best quality races, the program made consistent profits. I remember inputting form figures, total runs, total wins, win prizemoney and CD record. This was then turned into a rating and, from that rating, a value price calculated. It recommended bets when the value price was less than the forecast SP.
Sadly, the program’s author is no longer with us but I suppose this part of the program would still be relevant as it doesn’t ask for trainers and jockeys.
I’ll see if I can dig it out and put up a couple of selections for tomorrow.I forgot to mention the appeals for calm! I know plenty of other experienced racegoers who were far from happy with the situation.
I also spoke to a couple of the old-school stewards who were unhappy at the numbers of people allowed in and apparently it was just as bad on Thursday.
I also saw a policeman marshalling the door to the County Stand bar, which I have never seen before!
I am from the north-west so am used to huge crowds at Chester and Aintree but this was something else. The course just can’t take that many people and I echo the comment about the poor viewing because of the tented village.
End of whinge now!I went to Doncaster for the first time on Saturday and my impression was that they had let far too many people in.
So much so that people who had paid for County Stand tickets weren’t allowed upstairs because the enclosure had exceeded the fire regulations capacity. That led to long queues of disgruntled punters waiting at the bottom of the escalator, stopped by bouncers, sorry stewards.
I have also never had so much trouble getting a bet on – even on Cheltenham Gold Cup day.
The organisers were fortunate that the weather was decent otherwise it would have been a real crush to get under cover. I left after the Leger and, judging by the number of people streaming out of the gates with me, I wasn’t the only one who won’t be going back on a Saturday.
But moans aside, the whole day did illustrate how popular racing is for a day out – and there wasn’t a hint of trouble despite the horrendous queues to get a drink (or possibly because of that!). I would go back midweek as the new stand is a good facility – but they need to look at the capacity.Daily Mail is definitely the best of the bunch because they are actually compiled by a private handicapper. Aside from the Mirror, most of the other dailies get their form ratings from the Press Association so they are essentially the same. I know the Daily Star used to have speed-figure based ratings which offer a different perspective.
Tuesday, Feb 13<br>Folkestone<br>1.40 Bite Un Fight (T Murphy, joint third with Sam Thomas)<br>3.40 Cervinia Two (AP McCoy)<br>
I very much agree about the fashionable nature of systems and the fact that people are always reluctant to take a long-term view of anything in betting!<br>I will post selections up time permitting.
Definitely in the pro camp. Getting the cards in the evening papers is an often overlooked yet very important plus of 48-hour decs.
Fortunately, I haven’t had the pleasure of working with any of them! I am talking about the majority of racing press – the people behind the scenes who don’t get the picture bylines.<br>The soaks in the nation’s press rooms make up about 5% of the people actually working in racing journalism.
Just wondering – do any serious punters rely on the RP form? Surely you have a form book or use one of the internet/online services. Would a racing paper survive on spotlight comments, colours and tipping alone – or is pages and pages of form a necessity?
It is interesting to hear that a lot of people think a second racing paper could be sustained. I’m not sure that a daily is worth doing unless a deal with the betting shops could be reached (guaranteeing about 16,000 daily sales just from that) but surely a good quality Saturday/Sunday paper is viable.<br>A circulation of around 20,000 would be more than enough to sustain such a title if it had a realistic-sized staff and modest offices.
This debate about getting into racing journalism is interesting. I got into it the old fashioned way, by moving across from news reporting into racing. To get my first job after getting my NCTJ and degree, I worked unpaid on various papers around my area and when a vacancy came up I was already known to editors and therefore had a foot in the door.<br>That’s just what you have to do – Trinity Mirror even charge people the thick end of £5,000 for journalism training and don’t offer a guaranteed job at the end of it. Because so many people want to be journalists, it will always be a challenge to get your foot in the door. Once you do, there is the chance to show your ability and a rise from local to regional to national paper is perfectly possible within five or six years. If I was running the Post’s newsdesk, I would want people who had worked in the ‘real world’ before coming into racing. Most people I worked with on national newspaper racing desks had been news reporters earlier in their career.<br>I have edited the monthly Racing Ahead magazine for nearly three years now and in that time, despite appeals in the magazine, we have had no more than 10 letters from people wanting to break into racing journalism. (Before anyone says, we do have more than 10 readers!)<br>I have given nearly all of them a chance and one person is now working on the racing desk on a national newspaper.<br>I would have expected a lot more than 10 letters from people wanting to break into racing journalism during that time. We are always happy to give people a go and give bylines which helps for the cuttings file.<br>Racing Ahead doesn’t have the resources of the Post etc so we ask people to work initially without payment and then offer a small fee if a writer becomes a regular. I am always astounded when unknown writers with no other experience expect £200-plus for a 500 word article but it happens.<br>The opportunities are out there – you just have to work at it and realise that journalism of any kind won’t pay fantastically well. Despite all that, it’s still better than a proper job.<br>
As someone involved in Racing Ahead, we have had a lot of positive feedback but the problem has been getting it in front of people.<br>Given that the major retail chains are difficult to interest without writing a large cheque for retail promotions we have had to rely on a lot of goodwill and the local, independent newsagents which is a tough way to sell the mag.<br>But I think sales of 10,000 a month aren’t bad for a small, independent title. We try to keep away from tipping because of the long run-in times and focus more on ideas and methods. That said, our ante-post guide has had some spectacular results (and failures) in past couple of years.<br>I don’t think there’s a lot of waffle in it and there are only two people who write articles in return for ads – and I shuddered to see our name mentioned in the same breath as In The Know!!<br>But the fact that I suspect that many of the people on this forum will never have seen a copy highlights our problem with lack of marketing budget, although we have done a fair bit of work on the racecourses.<br>Any constrcuctive criticism of the magazine would always be appreciated.
