It depends on how you started out betting on horseracing.

I was lucky enough to meet and talk to real on-course professional gamblers when I was a kid and teenager. Having an analytical mind I was intrigued by how they made it pay and adopted some of their methods early on with mixed results.... but it was a learning curve, it was my University Of Life.

Rather than being a compulsive gambler, I was the opposite, it had to stack up for me to have a bet, but what was instilled in me at the time was that the percentages were in my favour by being patient and gradually building a bank I could go to war in the hope of coming out on top over a season.

It was then "a job", attending race meetings every day (sometimes 2 a day), seeing with my own eyes what was going on and mostly not having a bet. But when the time was right I had the courage to back what I had worked out to be the winner to lumpy single stakes and more often than not came out winning.... to the extent that those who knew I was a regular winner would follow me around the betting ring ... asking "What's he backing?"

With no all-weather racing in those days, there was an early opportunity at the start of the flat turf season to see stables with runners that were more forward than others from notable yards, plus I was very clued up on early 2yo form that paid the expenses for the rest of the year.
I could see that those that relied on newspaper tipsters and never ventured out of the betting shop could never win, they were easy fodder for the big bookmaking chains.

I can give you an instance of racing newspaper journalist (and later Editor) of the Sporting Chronicle Graham Rock (RIP) having a lumpy bet on a 2yo running at Haydock whilst we were at Ascot where he had napped the favourite in the paper, but he was backing the second fav., when I questioned this, he said well I had to find a way of getting the best price for the winner at the away meeting. Later proved his shrewdness with horses trained by Sir Mark Prescott for him.

Another way to make gambling pay in the winter (I was never a lover then of jumps racing, I just wanted them to go to the start and come back without obstacles put in their way) was if there was a day with no horse racing because of abandonments the betting shops would revert to concentrating on greyhound racing. So the ploy was to select the 4 most valuable "Open Races" on the card (usually at Hackney BAGS), leave out the forecast favourite and couple the next 3 in the betting in combination forecast multi's using the Tote returned f/cast divi (the pool was strengthened by the interest on the day because of no horse racing and some returned £10 to 10p or more) ... the bet resulted in it becoming increasingly hard to get it accepted after a couple of 4 figure returns and was a factor in bookies reverting solely to their manipulated CSF and introducing stringent limits on what you could win.

Like now, if you are a regular winner, accounts are closed or you are severely restricted ... so it is a continuing battle of wits of how to get bets under the radar, you have to adapt and go with the times and try to find loopholes to exploit. Once you find a winning formula you have to hammer it whilst you have the opportunity, because it will not last long now that bookies have all the latest tracking and monitoring software.

Sparrow,

Stop trying to be "clever dickie"


Wrong ...Tote returns were still available in 1974 ... I think the use of sole chart forecasts came in about 1976 by the big 3 ... Hills, Ladcrooks & Corals (with Mecca still going at the time).

'Cork Linger', re: sympathy for tipsters. I do understand, and point taken nevertheless, still appalled by the callous 'marketing' spiel of bookies dished out by the majority. Keep posting,...I'm selective in what I read and take-on-board, and never accuses any poster on aftertiming. I never look a gift horse in the mouth where superior intellectual and sophistication on the subject are on offer; conversely, quick to bin those on the opposite spectrum.

Unlike the City this is game closely follows the adage..."there's no such thing as a free lunch" too ie a degree of success one is barred or severely restricted in no time. Even here bots are used to manipulate one's position at every opportunity; cash outs are relatively poor value compare to elsewhere; liquidity is derisory most of the time except on race day. And nothing is truly 'live'.

Sparrow, far harder to back a 2 year old AOB horse today than backing a 2 year old Henry horse, you could put your house on his first 10 two year olds every season for about 10 years.

Sparrow,

Yes ... I had a McLaughlan's postal account when I was 8 (nom de plume "Boy") and went racing a lot with my Dad in 60's before betting shops (used to get the tartan diary every year) and later when 11+ cycled to Hurst Park, Sandown, Kempton, Epsom, & Lingfield ... also long gone Ally Pally & Lewes. Had the Sporting Chronical Handicap Book every week (later renamed Update).

It improved my maths no end .. working out the % over-rounds, WFA and private handicap ratings.

Anyone remember Mason's Time Test ... was a definitive book that gave Mason's own average times, was good for h/capping early season 2yo's to see what were decent run races. Race times differed in the results section of Handicap Book & Weekender (a later publication by Sporting Life), with some handheld times and some no times recorded.

Used to see Jim McGrath (Timeform) when he had just started with stopwatch in hand at places like Salisbury, Lingfield etc., he tripped me up one day as we descended the steep staircase in the stand at Salisbury, we clipped heels and I demanded a stewards enquiry (met interference in running) LoL!