Value in horse racing is something that people don’t always fully grasp, yet for me, it was embedded in my thinking literally from childhood. It was 1986 when Dancing Brave set off as a very short priced favourite in the Derby. Sneaking out of school to watch, I was soon to learn that the best horse does not always win the race! To many, this could have been another of those races where it didn’t pan out, but for me, at the very start of my betting, it set me thinking and put me on a path towards understanding how outcomes such as this could help my own betting success. Over the years, it became clear that the best way to maximise return was to find those horses where their odds were far greater than their potential to win. In the early days, most of this analysis was intuitive but, while many teenagers were using their ZX Spectrums for playing games, I was busy writing horse rating programs. Inspired by Tony Drapkin’s seminal 1987 book, The Punters Revenge, I went on to spend the ensuing 25+ years building on those early programs. With these ratings, an odds-line is produced and then compared to the bookmakers and betting exchanges to determine which horses represent the best value. This method of analysis has revolutionised my betting and boosted profits, year on year but it doesn’t stop there, Formbet Ratings are now fully automated and available to anyone, for every race in UK & Ireland, every single day. So you see, it doesn’t take a PhD to get started with ratings, In many ways they can make simple improvements to your betting, but are also complex enough to take your betting wherever you are prepared to go. In my spare time I practice meditation, yoga, love hillwalking, trekking and cycling. Exercise and meditation I believe really help with the patient mindset required for disciplined value betting.