Horse Racing Backing Systems : Using The Racing Post Website Part One 

If you ever want to get involved with horse racing and in particular betting then, the Racing Post is a must and is the bible for horse racing fans and punters. There are other sites out there which are decent, but for reading and understanding form this should be your number one choice and can be the difference between making the right selection and gaining a profit!

Any horse racing backing system should have a few decent rules and filters in place or it just won't work in the long term. Things like weight, distance, ground, class, trainer course from, age of horse, recent horse form, course characteristics and fitness of horse should be considered.

The first thing I want to look at and is one of the most important factors in my opinion is distance. There's no point in betting on a horse who is a 2m specialist in a 3m race? I'm not saying it can't win, but if it's not proven over that distance then, you'd be taking a punt and that's something I try and avoid and never recommend.

The three main filters for UK handicap turf meetings in my opinion are distance, ground conditions, weight and trainer course form and for the purpose of this exercise, we'll stick with that. 

From the above screenshot we can see that it's the 5.30 at Ludlow. The race has nine runners over 2m 5f and is a class 4 handicap over hurdles and the current ground conditions are good.

The next thing you'd want to do is click on the horse one who is called Helium and check there previous distance form for the last five races. The filters I would personally have is a 1f parameter either side of 2m 5f, so that would be 2m 3f - 2m 5f and the horse has either won or came within 10 lengths of the winning horse. For each qualifying race score the horse one point to a maximum of five.   

From the screenshot above I've placed the black dots against potential qualifiers from it's last five races. The race at Towcester the horse came 2nd 4 lengths behind the winner, the next one at Taunton the horse won the race by a head and the final race at Market Rasen the horse came 4th 9 and a quarter lengths behind the leader. The next stage is to open up each of these three potential races and check the distance parameters of between 2m 3f - 2m 5f.

From the screenshot above we can see that the Towcester race was over 2m and therefore doesn't qualify within our distance parameters.

From the next screenshot of race two at Taunton we can see that the race was won over 2m 1f, but again it doesn't qualify within our distance parameters.

      

From the final screenshot of our three races from Market Rasen we can see that our horse came 4th, but again it doesn't quality as the race was over 2m 1f and not within our accepted distance parameters, so you would award Helium no points for the distance category.

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Horse Racing Backing Systems : Finding A Reliable Betting System

There are many betting systems in the horse racing marketplace and whilst that can be a good thing with the different choices, it can also be overwhelming going through all of the available information and trying to make an informed choice.

There are no hard or fast rules in finding a system which bests matches your needs, but you can break it down easier by the type of bettor you are. You may like betting on the win markets, perhaps e-way betting is more appealing or you like betting against a particular horse as a layer, you may even like to trade on Betfair or Betdaq or even be involved in the ever growing in play markets. What ever style suits you best, you should be looking for a proven system that can satisfy your betting needs. 

Most of the modern day bettors have been involved at some stage with the world's largest betting exchange Betfair. A lot of the older horse racing betting fraternity still like the more traditional high street bookmakers like Bet365, Coral, Ladbrokes, PaddyPower and Willian Hill and the use of fractional odds. Regardless of whether you're trading porkbellies or betting on four legged animals the bottom line is always profit and without it, well, what is the point?

If you're planning to get involved with any type of betting then, it's crucial to have some form of plan. Are you going to develop your own system through some form of trial and error or buy a system that ticks most of the necessary boxes? Without a proper plan of action in this business and your doomed to fail -fact! You might not experience this at the start of your betting journey, but those shark invested waters of the horse racing markets have sharp teeth and can be unforgiving at times, so don't get caught out and end up with a reaction like the guy in the picture below.

If you decide to invest in a system then make sure it has either been reviewed by some reputable and related betting blog and/or offers you some form of money back guarantee, giving you that much needed piece of mind. The last thing you want to do is start betting on a system you've bought and lose some money and then, not be able to get a refund for it's failure to impress or turn a profit. You'll be out of money on both counts and that's not a predicament that anyone needs!

There are good systems out there in the marketplace for most forms of betting, so do a little bit of digging prior to parting with your cash. If you do the prep work just now then, it will save on future headaches further down the line. Best of luck in what you choose and I hope you can make a steady and long term profit from your betting.

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Horse Racing Backing Systems : Races I Avoid For Betting 

There are many horse racing betting ooportunities throughout the year, so wheteher you like your NH or flat meetings, you'll never be stuck for choice.

I enjoy the lower key meeting which aren't hyped up, as the odds on offer are more natural and tend not to be driven by hype and punter pressure. I would much rather have a bet on for example a class 4 NH meeting at Ludlow over hurdles with seven horses involved than a hyped up class 1 NH meeting at Aintree over fences with forty horses taking part! 

I do enjoy big and hyped up national hunt and flat meetings like the Gold Cup at Cheltenham (my personal favourite), the King George VI at Ascot, the Grand National at Aintree, the Derby at Epsom or the Ebor at York, but only from a spectator point of view and not as a betting medium. I keep my hard earned in my pocket for these type of meeting thank you very much. Now, I'm not saying don't put a bet on these type of races, but make it more of a fun bet than a serious one and a nice £10 win or a £5 e/way bet is ideal.

I think you can sit back and relax more for the big horse racing meetings if you don't have money on the table or at least a serious amount. I confess that, I do have a fun bet on the Grand National which goes against my betting philosophy, but hey, it's just once a year and I still do my analysis on most of the forty horses. My huge bet is normally for £20 and have 5 £2 e/way bets on five horses that tick most of my boxes and offer decent odds. I usually do quite well with this, but I honestly view the Grand National as more of a lottery and it's much to do about luck as there is with skill.

My favourite racing event of the year is at Cheltenham and the penultimate Gold Cup race. I just love the meeting with the layout of the course and it's twist, turns and undulations, the main stand, the famous, the surrounding scenery  and the famous Cheltenham hill near the end. This course empitomises everything that is good about horse racing in my humble opinion.  

Betting is just a numbers game and the problem with big horse racing events is the number of horses in certain races and the hype surrounding the event. Most of the trainers and certainly the top one's have their best horses primed and ready for these big meetings, as the money on the table is quite hard to resist, so that usually means a bigger field and the other factor is hype. Getting value on a decent horse in any big meeting is quite tough because hype drives the prices down and when you look for value, it can be quite hard to find as nearly every man and their do piles on to the favourite few horses in each race and therefore doesn't usually offer much to hang your hat on.

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Horse Racing Backing Systems : Getting Value 

You've probably heard this countless times in horse racing betting circles, but value is and always will be one of the most important components of betting and can be the difference between a healthy or small profit. Let's just say you had a class 3 horse race at Ffos Las and there were eight runners. Based on the information that you've perhaps looked at on the Racing Post website you thought that, the horse in question had a 40% chance of winning. Would you accept evens money at the bookies or 2.0 at Betfair? If you answered yes, then you need to rethink your strategy, even if the horse did go on and win the race. In the end it will catch up with you and net net, you will eventually show a loss.

One of the most difficult things to overcome with a rigid system with specific rules and filters is value. How do you know that, the chosen horse selection offers real value when your faced with the current odds. The real answer to that is your DON'T! The only way you can address this issue is by having a minimum odds criteria which I always have with my horse racing backing systems. This still doesn't guarantee us value from every selection, but what it does do is to eliminate horses that have lower odds and allows folk to concentrate on horses that have odds which are reasonably attractive.

I've never been a layer of horses, as it doesn't suit my style and I enjoy the analysis side of betting more and looking for sensible angles in trying to find the winning horse. One race however, that sticks in my mind is one which took place at Kelso in Scotland back in February 2010. There were four horses in the race and two of them were donkeys in my opinion. The hot favourite was a horse called Zaynar and there was another horse called Quwetwo who I though had an outside chance of winning. Zaynar had a rating of 168, liked soft ground and the 2m 2f distance and trained by Nicky Henderson, whilst Quwetwo had a rating of 133 also liked soft ground and wasn't really proven over this particular distance, but was trainer by Paul Nicholls. The odds read as follows -

Zaynar : Bookie 1/14 | Betfair 1.06

Quwetwo : Bookie 12/1 | Betfair 14.5

I thought to myself I need a new television for the back bedroom, so this could be a chance to grab so money. Do I back Qwetwo at 12/1 with £20 or lay him for £300 give me a liability for just £18. The laying option gave me the better option, as I have £2 less on the table to lose and the two other donkeys in the race are also on my side :)    

Quewtwo did win this tight battle over Zaynar by one length and I got £300 added to my Betfair account less the 5% win commission and a new TV for not much risk. The moral of the story is, did I get value? You Bet!

These one off bets very rarely come along, but when they do pay attention to the odds of the favourite horse, as some punters just pile money on hot favourites without doing a bit of due diligence. You must ALWAYS have another horse in the race which has a genuine chance of winning, as there's no point in going against the favourite, if the rest of the field are more suited to Blackpool beach than a race course?

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Horse Racing Backing Systems : So You Think You've Got It Sussed Out?

We can all be wise after the event and say I knew that horse was going to win, but the truth is, how many times have your said that when the horse your were going to bet on gets easily beaten? Probably more than once! Don't beat yourself up about missed opportunities or even betting selections with tasty odds that fall at the last or get beaten by a short head. That's horse racing for you and things DO even themselves up in the end.

I recently had a horse with Betfair odds of 38 lead quite comfortably and get beat by a nose on the line. Now that was a sore one to take and the difference between nothing and adding a nice £433 to my betting bank! These are the kind of moments that will test your metal and do you have what's required to stay focused. It does require strong discipline and I keep emphasing this point in any sytem I have. You can have the best system in the world, but if you don't have the discipline required when the losses arrive then, you WILL lose money.

There are many people in the horse racing marketplace that claim to have found the secret sauce to easy money, but believe me that's just BS. I spend about half an hour each day go through Racing Post stats in order to make an informed choice on a particular horse and that's only in specific UK meetings. It's not because I love RP stats or anything like that, but I need something to have confidence in and hang my hat on. Even if my selected horse falls at the first, pulls up or gets beaten by 30 lengths, at least I know that I've done some due diligence prior to making my betting selection and this gives me confidence because I believe in my selection process and the filters I have in place.

I wish there was a quicker way to making a betting selection, but in my opinion and from what I've read, you have to do some form of study covering things like the weather, distance, weight and trainer course form and mark each horse up accordingly or what chance have you got of making a long term profit? Yes, there will be certain people who've picked a random selection and won a few hundred quid with the best, but was that down to skill or luck? Try relying on that in the medium to long term to make a profit and the bank manager would probably be calling you in for a chat.

It's important to either buy a proven system that can withstand drawdowns or even create your own selection process, as you need a consitancy with your betting selections or you'll get yours;ef tied up in knots. In the end discipline it the final and most important ingredient and that goes for any form of betting or trading.           

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