Directory of Past issues - July 2008

25th July - Does this sound like you? More 'mug punters' traits to avoid

18th July - Some unmissable statistics for this Saturday's Newbury meeting

11th July - The 4 tell-tale signs of a mug punter...

4th July - The lazy way to win big

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25th July 2008

Good afternoon, friends,

In today's Horse Racing Focus....

• More lessons in better betting from mug punters....

The cheapest way to learn from mistakes....

From time to time we all do daft things. It's an unavoidable aspect of the human condition. Where betting is concerned even the best of us are prone to the occasional dumbass move. Now and again, no matter what our best intentions, we all find ourselves caught in the act of betting like complete mugs. And, on those occasions where good sense goes out of the window to be replaced by a kind of punting delirium, we pay the price of our folly through our pockets.

One of the keys to successful punting is to minimize the dumbass moves we make. And when we make the mistake of betting like mugs we must accept responsibility for the inevitable financial loss and make sure that we learn the lessons of our experience.

Failure to learn from our errors and moments of madness condemns us to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Where betting on the horses is concerned, making the same mistakes repeatedly will decimate your overall betting performance and compound your financial losses. Learning from mistakes and improving your actions based on what you learn is central to improving your betting performance.

The most cost-effective way I know of learning from mistakes is to learn from those of other punters. By observing closely the actions taken by fellow punters and noting the quality of outcome achieved, you can learn from their experiences whilst avoiding the financial cost. It's a great win double.

A mug punter is a particularly valuable resource for the betting student. Mug punters have much to teach us - if only we take the time to observe and learn. Nobody is more qualified than your mug punter to offer instruction on bad betting and how to go about it. Nobody can demonstrate bad betting in action with such unwavering consistency. Nobody can show you how to lose heavy over the long term quite like your average mug.

A couple of issues back I wrote about lessons we could take from the mug punter's approach to betting on the horses. This week I want to highlight how the mug actually bets and what we can learn to improve our own betting performance.

Cut your punting cloth appropriately....

It's an average Saturday afternoon in the betting shop and Steve Muggins is busy lecturing his mates on how his pick in the 2.40 can't be beat. The beer's been flowing since noon, the atmosphere is boisterous and Steve's mates take the opportunity to yank his chain. They shake their heads and laugh like drains telling him the horse is a dud and that he is the punting world's equivalent of the village idiot.

Glassy-eyed Stevie is already a little unsteady on his legs. He's sunk more than his fair share of strong lager this lunchtime and now he feels both his betting credentials and his manhood are being called into question. He rears up in inebriated outrage and argues the toss.

'Put your money where your mouth is, Stevie,' one mate tells him.

'Don't worry,' splutters Stevie. 'I'm going to.'

'A proper bet,' another mate goads him. 'A man's bet.'

'I'm going to,' Stevie says.

Normally - when he's got the cash spare - Stevie is a basic £5 win punter. Today he's got £150 in his back pocket. This isn't punting money though. This is the money saved for the electricity bill, the council tax, nappies for the kids and life-saving medication for the wife.

However, in the all-consuming haze of alcohol, outraged sensitivities and misplaced confidence, all this is temporarily forgotten or ignored. Red-faced, wild-eyed Stevie writes out a betting slip, peels £30 from his slim wad and hands the bet over at the counter - feeling like he's put that manhood question to bed once and for all.

Ten minutes later white-faced Stevie is sat on a stool with his jaw hanging open slack and wide. His £30 punt has gone west and that £150 is now £120. The laughter has died down and Stevie's mates are ready to head back to the pub for more ale. But Stevie has sobered up now. He's got a big problem to solve - whether to go without electricity, the kid's nappies or the wife's medication.

Word to the wise: Only bet what you can truly afford to lose. There are no certainties in racing. Horses are not machines. Unexpected results are frequent occurrences in racing. Expect to win when you put a bet on, but accept that you can lose. Stick within strict staking limits and never use money you need for any other purpose to finance your betting. When you really need to win - the chances are you won't. Desperate, emotional and impulsive money seldom scoops the prize.

When you've dug the hole....stop digging....

Stevie's mates are back in the pub. But Stevie hasn't joined them. He's hard at work in the bookie's desperately trying to make some sense of the next at Chepstow. He wants that £30 back. And a bit more besides if he can get it. What he doesn't want to do is go home to the wife and admit to his stupidity. In his addled mind he can still win the day, pay the bills, get the supplies and turn a profit. He's not giving up. He's going to keep on digging.

'I've just got to think straight and let the magic flow,' he tells himself, trying to ignore that twisted feeling of anxiety in the depths of his gut. He latches onto the 9/4 jolly. 'It's a short-price for a reason. It's got to win.' He does the math and bangs £20 on the nose. If this one comes in he'll walk away with a £45 profit - enough to pay for the last losing bet and produce a £15 profit. Sitting on the stool, chewing on the end of a pen, he feels he's already pulled it out of the fire.

Nothing can stop Stevie now - unless that 9/4 jolly goes down. And, of course, it does go down - nailed on the line by a rag. It's like a dagger plunged into Stevie's heart. That £150 for bills is now £100. He's lost £50 he cannot afford to.

Stevie thinks about cutting his losses and walking away - for all of five seconds. But he doesn't. Instead he goes after his losses - he chases them. £10 on a 6/1 shot. £10 on a 7/1 shot. £20 on a 9/2 shot. £10 on a 10/1 shot. Four more bets, four more losers and Stevie has got his head in his hands. Now that £150 is worth £50. Stevie is £100 down on his afternoon.

Word to the wise: Chasing your losses inevitably leads to more losses and makes a bad situation worse. Erratic staking compounds the issue. So too does backing horses based on how much you need to win rather than on your objective assessment of their chances. Chasing is a condition which often inflicts those punters who have already bet more than they can afford to lose. Avoid one problem and you can avoid the next. Never chase losses. When you lose, accept the loss and wait for the next good betting opportunity to come along. Don't get sucked into playing race after race until you're either square or destitute.

The get-out-alive stakes....

There's one more race to come - the last race of the day. 'This is the race,' says Stevie to the complete stranger standing next to him. 'This race will get me back level. It's got to. I'm due a winner in one. I need one, mate.'

'Give it a miss, son,' the stranger tells him. 'It's a bumper. Half of these have never even run before. Complete unknowns. They could be anything. It's a punter's minefield. Come back tomorrow, son. There' always more racing tomorrow.'

'Shut your hole, Grandad,' Stevie mutters to himself under his breath as he moves away to read the scant form of the bumper field. He finds nothing on which to base a betting decision and looks at the first show for the race on the betting shop's TV screen. The favourite opens at 7/2. 'I can still do it,' Stevie tells himself. '£50 at 7/2 means I'd be £25 up on the day. I can still do it.'

Stevie takes the price. His money is down, the die is cast and Stevie's day - and maybe even his marriage - hangs on the outcome of this guessing bet. He'll go home a few quid up at best - and with all his domestic obligations fulfilled. Or he'll head home with empty pockets, a belly full of self recrimination and a head full of excuses and rationalizations to an unpleasant Saturday evening of black looks and hard words from the wife.

I'll leave you to fill in the blanks and speculate on how things turned out for Stevie. There are times when I've seen people spectacularly rescue a day's punting in the last race. But more often than not a punter fails to pull out of the steep dive and hits the ground in a ball of flames.

Either way, the experience is emotionally intense and best avoided. When winning is more about relief than pleasure, you know you've been betting the wrong way.

Word to the wise: Don't bet if you can't accept losing. Don't bet what you can't afford to lose. Don't chase losses. Don't be afraid to have losing days. Last-race rescue efforts can add a big loss to already big losses. Hold your fire until the right race to recoup losses comes along. The right race doesn't necessarily mean the next race or the last race of the meeting. Be patient.

Until next time, be lucky.

18th July 2008

Good afternoon, friends,

In today's Horse Racing Focus...

• Mining for gold...
• Know who is winning...
• Latch on to this seven-pound claimer...

The numbers game...

When I'm looking for a bird's eye view on a race, a horse, a trainer, a jockey, a sire or a dam then my first port of call is always the numbers - the vital statistics and critical measurements.

I spend a lot of time poring over lists of figures, tables and spreadsheet reports. I enjoy the process of mining the data and spotting significant patterns, aberrations and angles that offer insight and lead to ideas I can develop and use.

I'm always looking at something. Sometimes my research is focused. Other times it's a more casual trawl - casting the nets over the side and seeing what I can catch. That's part of the attraction. You never know what you're going to get. You don't know what you're going to uncover. You never know how big that gold nugget you walk away with is going to be. It's more or less a treasure hunt.

I never get tired of the search. My most successful strategies for finding winners and avoiding losers are built on my statistical effort. The rewards are worth that effort. The insights I get are great payment for the work I do. And it isn't even hard work. Even a pretty casual look at a set of statistics or a list of figures can prove instructive.

But you get the real results when you take it seriously. Then the statistical approach can turn into a really powerful lens through which to observe the racing game.

Like I say... I'm always looking at something. And I make notes of my observations. I'd like to share with you observations I made this week during a late-night casual trawl through statistics on the Racing Post website.

It will give you some insight into how I work, what informs my thinking and how I form opinions. You might find that useful. I know I've often learnt something after being 'shown' how someone else goes about it.

You might also find the observations I make useful in their own right. I share them in the hope they might lead you to good bets and away from bad ones.

A trainer on a red hot streak of form...

There's no doubt whatsoever that Andrew Balding has his string in exceptional heart right now.

His figures for the season so far read like this:

Balding has saddled 28 winners from 156 runners - a winning strike rate of 18%. If you'd backed all his runners blindly from the start of the season to a £1 stake you'd now be in profit to the tune of £45.06. To a £10 stake you'd be up £450.60. To a £100 stake you'd be £4506.00 to the good. Balding is a loser for the layers this season.

Balding's figures over the last three months read like this:

A 20% strike rate and a £56.06 profit from a £1 stake on each of the 135 runners to win. Balding horse layers are not having it good this summer.

A real purple patch of form...

So Balding is going pretty well?

Let me put it into perspective. Balding has never scaled these statistical heights before. Right now he's in the form of his life and his string has never produced the goods in such abundance.

Until June, Balding hadn't had a single monthly strike-rate of 20% in the last 5 years - and he looks on course to repeat the trick this month.

The older horses in the Balding yard appear to be going particularly well. Take a look at the breakdown of runners and their age range:

The strike rate of the older horses speaks for itself. Okay, the profits don't exactly make the mouth water - only winning £8.49 to a £1 stake. Maybe the market has latched on to the trainer's older runners? The market is an efficient mechanism. It eventually blunts every edge, closes every angle and squashes every advantage.

However, I still think Balding's older horses might have a bit more to come than the wider market anticipates. In addition to supplying 14 winners from 65 runners, Balding's older team have gone close and taken 2nd place in their races 13 times.

The big point I'll be taking away with me is that Balding is on fire and his older horses are very competitive right now. Winning breeds confidence which, in turn, produces winners. It pays to know who has the winning bug and under what particular circumstances they are getting their best results - whether you're betting with them or against them.

Some Balding horses you wouldn't want to be on...

Now I'm not suggesting you go out and back every Balding runner.

For example, I wouldn't want my money on any Balding runners ridden by Franny Norton. Nothing against Franny Norton personally - but the numbers go against him. Check out the comparative records of the jockeys who have ridden most for Balding this season:

When Norton's up, the outcome is less likely to be positive by some margin. I like all the percentages in my favour. Balding is going well. But his runners with Norton up aren't keeping pace and I'm making a note to this effect.

The record with one-off jockey bookings isn't good either. So far this year 13 jockeys have been booked by Balding to ride just once or, in one case, twice. None of these horses have won.

So what can I do with all the information and insight my statistical trawling produces?

Follow where the stats lead and take a view...

Well, I can bear it in mind or make a note for when I need it in betting situations.

For example, if I was punting in the Group 3 at Newbury on Saturday I'd note that Balding's 5-year old, Dark Missile is in the race. Knowing what I do about Balding's ongoing purple patch - I'd expect the horse to be competitive.

I'd also note that Balding's Pinch of Salt is running in the handicap and is not being ridden by the jockey I'd expect.

Looking back at the records of the jockeys riding this year for Andrew Balding you can see that David Probert has a good looking record. This 7lb claimer has ridden 7 winners from 17 runners for Balding this season, a strike rate of 41%.

Good claimers can be priceless to trainers - they can take 7lb off a horse's back in a competitive and valuable handicap, for example.

The best claimers tend to get noticed. Probert has already attracted the attentions of Walter Swinburn. Probert has ridden 4 times for the ex-jockey and repaid the faith with two winners. Other stables may soon come sniffing.

Right now Probert gets most of his rides with Balding. And you'd think - given Probert's good run this year - that Balding would want to use him on Pinch of Salt on Saturday?

But the fact is Dwyer will ride Pinch of Salt. Dwyer is starting to pick up rides with Balding again this season and has a current record of 2 winners from 11 runners for the trainer.

Probert is available too. He's down to ride Jeer in the same race for Ed Dunlop. Jeer has looked recently like a horse that could do with losing the 6lbs it was hiked up in the weights in May. That 6lb has made the horse uncompetitive in recent races. Probert's claim takes 7lb off the horse's back. If weight has been the problem - that problem won't be a factor on Saturday.

Is it a red herring? Is Jeer just a spare ride thrown hot-streak young jockey's way? Or might Probert's recent record with Balding have got other trainers paying notice and queuing up to you a claimer who can get weight off a horse's back and do the job?

Trainers like Ed Dunlop with horses like Jeer who need weight off to get competitive, perhaps?

Can we read anything into this? I'm not sure. You must come to your own conclusions. But it's interesting to know. It's something to think about.

And that's the thing about numbers and stats. They lead you down unexpected paths. They give you plenty to think about. You never know what you're going to stumble across.

Until next time, be lucky.

July 11th 2008

Good afternoon, friends,

In today's Horse Racing Focus...

• An observer's guide to the common mug punter...

The mug punter and how to spot him...

'You mug! You're a mug punter, mate. That's what you are - a prize mug!'

'Mug' is an unpleasant word, my friend. In the world of betting and punters it's just about the strongest abuse you can heap on the back of another punter or have directed at you.

Nobody wants to be seen or thought of as a mug. Where betting is concerned mug means fool. It means gullible and feeble-minded dupe. It means the rest of the market has got you beat on the basis of your own stupidity - your stupid preparation, your stupid decisions and your stupid actions.

Bill Oddie can get worryingly fixated on the wood tapping labours of a lesser spotted woodpecker. For me it's punters not birds. I could sit for hours listening to the soothing dull thud of mug punters banging their heads of solid bone against brick walls. Few things amuse me more than watching some crazy betting nut spank his cash on some really dumbass car-crash punts.

In my experience mugs are generally hapless creatures living lives of quiet desperation. Unable to operate effectively in their arena of choice, and unable to change, most are doomed to see out their days as losers - their stake money always ending up in a winning punter's back pocket.

It needn't be this way. A little self-awareness and a bit of honest self-appraisal could work wonders. Changing a few bad habits into good ones and replacing some negative patterns of behaviour with more positive patterns would improve the betting performance of almost any mug. I guarantee it.

But that's the problem with your average mug. So wrapped up is he in his thick comfort blanket of denial and self-deception that he never questions his preparation, his decisions or his actions. It's almost as if his own input into his betting is completely disconnected from the results he experiences.

In his mind there is no learning curve to address and climb. There is no better way. There is nothing to think about and improve. A mug won't be reading this by the way - a mug doesn't want to put himself in a position where his thinking gets infected with common sense or fact! He might LEARN SOMETHING - God forbid.

In his own mind the mug punter is the betting master. He's a punting legend. He's just on a chronic run of bad luck - a run that's lasted for years and will most likely endure for a lifetime.

It probably seems like I'm being hard on the mug punter. And perhaps I am. But that's only because I wish some of them would WAKE UP and THINK!! But some people you just cannot help. They don't want to be helped. They don't want to listen. You have to leave them alone on the carpet to play with that box of matches and that can of four-star. You know the whole house is going to go up in a fireball eventually - but all you can do is look after yourself.

The best way you can look after yourself as a punter is to make damn sure you're not in danger of betting like a mug and experiencing the same results as him.

In future issues I'll talk about some simple ways of improving the way you bet. But for now here are four simple preparations you can make and decisions you can take - RIGHT NOW - to make sure you're punting is on the right footing.

1. Get your information from a good source...

Just as the robin is easily identified by his bright red breast, you can often identify a mug on the basis of the red top daily newspaper in his possession. In my experience nobody makes money long-term using a tabloid (or even a broadsheet) newspaper as their primary source racing news and information.

The daily newspapers just don't contain information, news, statistics and analysis in sufficient depth to make them useful. The information they contain is basic.

Anybody relying entirely on this scant information to inform their betting activity is like the young squaddie heading off to the frontline in a theatre of war in just a pair of slip-on shoes. When the bullets are whizzing past his ears, the shells are exploding all around him and it's time to sprint like a gazelle through the blood and the mud to the extraction helicopter, our man is going to be slipping and sliding about like a drunk on a skid pan and wishing he'd had the foresight to equip himself with a pair of sturdy boots.

In punting terms the Racing Post is our pair of sturdy boots. It's the industry rag and is the only daily newspaper with detailed reports, news, form, statistics and analysis that are any use to the racing punter. Ignore it at your peril. Remember, you are betting against a wider market. If that wider market is betting on the basis of better, more incisive and more meaningful information than you are then you are going to be at a significant disadvantage.

For in-depth information on specific horses you should register at the Racing Post website, if you haven't already done so. Also consider taking the Racing Post Weekender and Raceform Update - both of which contain comprehensive results and analysis which build into a complete formbook over the season.

2. Get disloyal and do it quickly...

How many accounts do you have with bookmakers?

The mug will have a single account. No matter what happens he's going to be betting with that single bookmaker. Whether or not that specific bookmaker is the best price or the worst price in the jungle - that's who he's punting with anyway. If he gets the best price or value - it's luck and nothing to with good planning or design.

I have accounts with over a dozen bookmakers. This means I've got sufficient options to always ensure I get on at the best price available on the horses I'm betting on.

It's not hard. When I fancy a horse I will always check the live prices in the race I'm interested in.

It doesn't take a minute to checkout http://odds.sportsxtra.co.uk to identify the place you are going to get the best value from your bet.

My aim is to determine which bookmaker actually deserves my custom. I can also check place terms - that way if I'm betting each-way I can make sure I take advantage of any Enhanced Place Terms on offer.

Make sure you also have exchange accounts with the three big players - Betfair, Betdaq and WBX.

Loyalty is overrated when it comes to selecting a bookmaker to bet with. Be promiscuous. Open as many accounts as you can to make sure you're always on at the best prices available.

3. Stay out of the mug's natural habitat...

Stay out of betting shops, my friend. These places are heaving with mugs. We become the people we surround ourselves with and in a betting shop you are surrounded by mug punters.

It's hard not to get sucked into silly bets in these types of environment. I've done it myself. The wild-eyed and raving lunatic standing next to you can seem to be making a cast-iron case for a horse if you've let your guard down.

'I'm banging on a hundred notes', he tells you. You're impressed with his sense of certainty and the way he froths at the mouth while he tells you. You mistake his fervour for conviction.

You fail to notice he's got a hole in his shoe or that he's dressed up like a refugee from a secondhand clothes shop. You don't even know whether he's got a hundred quid to his name or he's all talk. All you do know is that, if you're not careful, you've got a few quid on this guaranteed loser too.

4. Specialize or perish...

Like the tourist who wanders unwittingly into the worst part of a bad town, the punter who starts messing about in parts of the racing game he doesn't know is heading for a good, old-fashioned kicking.

Mug punters take a scattergun approach into their betting. They don't discriminate. They bet on every and any race - whatever the fixtures for the day throw at them. Maidens, Groups races, sellers, handicaps, bumpers, novice events, jumps, flat or the all weather - it's all the same stuff to these guys. If the race is being run then he's going to be betting on it - that's the basis of his approach.

He can't possibly know all the horses he's betting on. He can't possibly be following some kind of systematic approach. He's in the grip of a random approach - betting on anything and everything. He's the punting equivalent of a sawn-off shotgun - loosing off volleys of shot in all directions, hoping to wing something - anything. And he makes an awful mess of things in the process.

The cure for this losing habit is specialisation. If you focus your attention on one small area you can become an expert in that area - and that's a real edge. You'll know more about what you bet on than the vast majority of people you are betting against.

And, if you do the necessary work the fruits will be seen in your betting performance.

Word to the wise: Mug punters are fun to watch and great to bet against. But a mug punter is the last thing you want to be. Mug punters lose - short, mid and long-term. They lose because of the way they prepare to bet, the decisions they make and the actions they take. They think the wrong way. Think the same way and you'll experience the same results. For better outcomes from your betting - think differently, more productively and more rationally than the mug. Do what the mug won't. More on this in future issues.

Until next time, be lucky.

July 4th 2008

Good afternoon, friends,

In today's Horse Racing Focus...

• A day at the races...
• The pleasures of a Placepot...

A day at the summer jumps...

The summer jumping programme is not my bag. I leave it alone. I rarely take any notice of it. I certainly don't follow it. It's just there in the background - tootling away while the real action - the flat season - unfolds around it.

Nevertheless, last Sunday afternoon saw a pal and I fire down the A50 to Uttoxeter for their summer Grand National meeting.

Okay, so I didn't know a great deal about many of the horses on view. And okay we were stuck out on centre course with the bouncy castles and kids charging up and down. But the tickets were free (courtesy of Britannia Building Society) and not only would there be Guinness on tap but also the opportunity to indulge in an
afternoon of purely recreational punting. There are worse ways to while away a Sabbath.

And a day at the races is never less than instructional. There's always something to learn... If only that you should carry an umbrella with you, for example.

I didn't. And nor did I take a coat. A deluge during the opening novice hurdle meant I spent the rest of the meeting regretting it. My shirt wrung out like a dishrag in the bar. It's not the first time I've suffered physically at the races because I haven't gone prepared. It's a small point to bear in mind but take it from me - it pays to be warm, dry and comfortable when you go racing.

When you're freezing your bag off on a windswept racecourse simply because you couldn't be bothered to carry another layer of clothing, your betting suffers. Discomfort scrambles the mind and senses. Whinging and bleating through chattering teeth fast becomes your primary focus and your mind is no longer on the job.

But that's enough whinging about the elements...

The joy of Placepots...

Sunday served to remind me that there's more to life than betting with fixed odds firms or playing the exchanges.

The Tote (referred to in some quarters as the Nanny Goat) also offers a range of pool betting options you should keep in mind - especially if you're betting for recreation.

By recreational betting, I mean betting where the motivation is to have some kind of interest - and probably not too much strong expectations of winning. Recreational betting, in my book, is betting for the purposes of entertainment in the hope of profit. As opposed to your more serious betting, where you've done some heavy
spadework and expect to see some decent rewards for your efforts.

Recreational punting is not to be encouraged on a regular basis. But, on a Sunday afternoon at the summer jumps, a Placepot (one of the range of Tote bets) is a fun bet that gives you an interest in the whole card and the chance of hitting a decent payout in return for a relatively small outlay.

As I said earlier, I don't follow the summer jumps. So, I don't want to be trying to go through the card and identify the winner of every race - always a temptation when you go racing. Trying to find winners in the areas of racing you specialize in can be hard enough. Trying to find them in forms of racing where you know squat
about the horses involved is a one-way-ticket to financial oblivion.

Having a Placepot means you don't have to find the winners necessarily. You just have to find a horse in each of the first six races of meeting that places. So, if a selection wins a race - great. But if it can only place - then that's great too.

Cover all bases with multiple selections...

You're not stuck with just one horse per race on your Placepot either. You can have multiple selections. Having multiple selections means your stake increases - but you get to cover all the bases you think need covering in each race.

On Sunday my Placepot at Uttoxeter looked like this:

Race 1: Mutual Friend, Benmore Boy
Race 2: Hills of Home
Race 3: Three Ships, First Boy
Race 4: Wotchalike
Race 5: Surface To Air, Out of the Black, Ice Tea
Race 6: Blandings Castle, Meet The Legend

Hills of Home and Wotchalike represented my 'bankers' for the meeting. I felt confident enough about their chances of placing to make them single selections in a race. In races I felt were more competitive and where I wasn't so certain of a horse's chances of placing I picked two or three selections.

You figure out your Placepot stake by multiplying the number of selections in each leg. For example, in my Placepot this equates to 2 x 1 x 2 x 1 x 3 x 2 = 24. You then multiply your selections by your chosen stake unit. In my case this was 24 x £1.00 = £24.00 total stake.

If I'd had two selections in the races where I chose to go with bankers then my stake calculation would look like this: 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 2 = 96. Multiply this by my £1.00 stake and I'd be looking at a £96.00 stake.

Those two extra selections would really inflate the price of playing! So you can see how identifying a couple of bankers you can rely on (or think you can) keeps the costs of the bet down and makes it possible to go with multiple selections in races where your certainty is something less than cast iron. Without bankers a
Placepot can become a prohibitively expensive mode of betting.

You don't have to bet to a £1 stake. You can bet to a 50p stake. Or a £10 stake. Or more. That's down to personal preference and how deep your punting pockets are. But when the races are done and the
placings known, the Tote will declare a Placepot dividend to a £1 unit.

So, if the Tote declares a Placepot dividend of £380.00 and your stake unit was £10 - then you multiply one by the other to get a payout of £3800.00. To a £1 stake you'd draw £380.00.

So tell us the happy ending, Nick...

Errrr...

It was all going so well. The Guinness was flowing and my picks were doing the business. Both my fancies in the first race placed. Hills of Home justified its banker status. First Boy won the third. For about twenty minutes after the third I basked in a beery glow of hopeful expectation. Fuelled with Guinness and feeling like King
of the Course, I'd halfway convinced myself that it was my afternoon.

And that's where it all went pear-shaped. In the fourth. My second banker, Wotchalike, with AP McCoy onboard, abjectly failed to justify my faith in its bankability. It failed to place and knocked me out of the running for the dividend. C'est la vie, folks.

But I'd had a run for my money - and considering I know Jack Sprat about the summer jumps - and the decision to even attend Uttoxeter was taken at the very last minute in the pub - that's a better result than I had any right to expect.

My point is this: when you do bet for fun (and we all do from time to time) you don't have to do your brains. A Placepot is a cheap way of having a financial interest in a series of races - with the potential of tasty a dividend payout to boot.

Word to the wise: Keep the Tote product line in mind. The bets can be fun bets with the opportunity of big wins for small stakes. You can check out details about the Tote range of pool bets and how they work at the following link:

http://www.totebetting.net/totepool.php

Until next time, be lucky.