Garrick wrote: I have been punting for 44 years and can endorse most of the comments made in this thread.
Some of my comments which I have posted previously I am going to repeat hereunder as I have made them before but I hope they assist those who have not read them:
1.) My horse punting has historically been the least successful of my activities.
2.) South African horseracing has been the worst of those activities.
3.) I have had some significant successes with sports betting. The most important issue with sports betting is that I feel CONFIDENT (win or lose) putting down my cash whereas with horseracing I always feel at a disadvantage.
The big change for me came about 10+ years ago when I realized that I was making a fundamental error in my approach - I was punting just for the sake of punting and without any clearly defined objective.
To elaborate - we probably all punt too much (in volume). A week in punting can see you go from hero to zero or vice versa. Look back over just a single month and you might be amazed how much your fortunes have gyrated.
It was at this point that I accidentally tripped over what has become my core strategy - what I call the 'destination event'. Typically this will be any one of the following - English Premiership, Super 18, Football World Cup, Rugby World Cup etc. You usually have at least one of these events each year to fire into.
This means that you have potentially ONE ONLY payday per year but if you catch it right it will be massive and allow you to do something positive with your win - eg pay off your bond, buy a car or go on a nice holiday.
( I was fortunate to catch last year's Rugby World Cup right and accumulated 470 bets on NZ ranging from R10 up to a couple of thousand. My payout totalled just under R600k. I now have a Porsche Cayman S sitting in my garage to remind me of my success ).
My horseracing activity is now solely confined to the UK BUT WITH THE FOLLOWING exceptions :
I DO NOT punt on races over 1000 - 1200 metres as I find they throw up the biggest number of 'results'.
I avoid most juvenile races as owners like Godolphin often have multiple entries and, as they do not punt, can win with any one of those runners irrespective as to the fact that their 'fancy' is trading at 1/3.
I show extreme caution on steeplechase races of 4800m & further.
So my activity is fundamentally confined to the flat from 1400m - 3200m and both hurdle & steeplechasing with the exceptions as described above. Avoid 'bumpers' (flat races for young future jumpers ) - they can ruin you.
The rest you can learn for yourself as per your personal preferences. Certain courses have their own unique characteristics and produce results accordingly - eg Goodwood, Windsor & Southwell. You will learn......by paying!
Now here's the real bonus!
I hardly ever study form but, instead, use a combination of the (deadly) Timeform ratings/analysis & market movements to construct my bets. This information is available free on Betfair.
To this end it is essential that you use the market indexes next to each horse on Betfair to see how a race market is unfolding. It won't necessarily guide you to winners but it will show you supposedly 'fancied' horses that are weak and save you wasting thousands.
Every rand I make on UK racing is immediately rolled over onto my 'destination event'. On a really good day I am able to punt a couple of thousand into that event; leaving me with the prospect of perhaps winning a substantial sum with just my winnings at risk. Naturally this can tie up cash for fairly long periods but I console myself that it is not my money.
Why UK? In a few words - much better quality racing. Predominantly better horses backed by a strong market tend to throw up fewer hiroshimic results. A combination of many issues has weakened South African racing quality from a punting perspective.
And lastly - AVOID BIG MEETINGS. They are designed to hurt you & should only be played with token amounts 'for fun'. Assuming you feel that losing money is 'fun'. You can find a 5/2 'good thing' in the UK with perhaps only one live opponent as easily as your 5/2 July fancy with 17 'live' competitors. There is no bonus paid for backing a big race winner.
A lot of good posts in this thread. Thanks for this. A friend who is successful at sports betting also does what you do. he also had a TONNE on NZ by the final game, I remember driving and listening to the game on the radio thinking you lucky bastard. He wasn't winning 600k though but was like 100k - so still considerable.
I like horse racing though but I also like sport. Will not only be betting on horses but whatever I bet on I also now hope to put the money down (or rather click it down) confidently - knowing I'm going in with SOME advantage like you said.
