Surprise Selection Horse

The 6-Point Divisor Plan is an Australian horse racing staking plan from 1989, and the thing that keeps it survivable is not the arithmetic — it is the safety brake. You run into four losers in a r...

Weight ratings or speed ratings? Philip Roy tested both on Australian horse racing form, three months at the Sydney tracks, and one of them finished a long way in front. Writing in Practical Puntin...

In Australian horse racing, 99 per cent of punters fail to make money over a 12-month period — and exotic betting is where they lose fastest. Don Scott, a professional punter who spent the sixties ...

There is no short cut in Australian horse racing, and Don Scott is the proof: he worked 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, at form study. Practical Punting's Brian Blackwell interviewed him i...

In Australian horse racing, most punters bet with bookmakers all their lives without ever learning how a bookie makes his book, and it is hard to beat a man at a job you cannot describe. Statsman, ...

In Australian horse racing, backing three horses in a race dramatically shortens the odds you are really betting — the board price is not your price. Philip Roy answered a reader who wanted to d...

What a whirlwind fortnight for the Target Betting experiment. What I thought would take a bit longer, that is, a really bad run, descended upon us like a swarm of locusts. After a completely disast...

What a whirlwind fortnight for the Target Betting experiment. What I thought would take a bit longer, that is, a really bad run, descended upon us like a swarm of locusts. After a completely disast...

The CF Orr Stakes over 1400m is the usual starting point for the serious Group 1 contenders for the Autumn races in Melbourne and Sydney however it is often a headache race for punters due to the u...

Exacta and quinella special. Exacta betting has become popular among New South Wales punters in recent times. As time goes by, other States will be introducing this form of betting. An exacta, ...

Win-strike rates are fun, believe it or not. How many times have you seen a statement something like this one? "The horse must have a winstrike rate of 25 per cent, a minimum of five starts and m...

Over the years I've met a lot of great characters on racetracks. Not so many in recent years, though. Much of the colour seems to have drained from racing in that respect. But go back 10, 15, 20 y...