In the second article in this series, Jon Hudson looks at doubles betting, and other forms of exotic bets, using information contained in Malcolm Knowles' book The Good Betting & Racing Guide, which is being sold to raise funds for the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney.

Using Malcolm Knowles' ratings process, the punter who attacks doubles, and any other form of investment, would restrict his bets to certain 'bettable' races.

The ratings idea contains four 'do nots' and these are as follows:

  1. Do not bet in races if the field size is greater than 15 starters.
  2. Do not bet in races at distances greater than 2000m.
  3. Do not bet if the track conditions are slow or heavy.
  4. Do not bet if any runner in a race is having its first start.

The four rules are sensible and if followed 'to the letter' will do much to prevent you wasting your money on races and horses that are not worth the risk.

There are other aspects to the ratings process but I won't go into them in this article, Suffice to say that when you buy the book you will be fully informed! The idea of this article is to talk about doubles.

Using the Knowles' rating formula you will be able to rate races so that you come up with selections for the doubles. Then there's the problem of whether the doubles represent any value.

The chart on Page 29 will be most helpful in this regard because it shows you, at a glance, what the real odds are for any combination between 1/2 and 100/1 linked with second leg runners from 10/1 through to 100/1.

On the left hand side of the table, and across the top are sets of odds. These odds are the odds of your chosen runners in each leg. Simply locate the odds of your first and second leg selections in either the first column or the top row of the doubles table.

Then trace your finger to the point at which they intersect on the table. The intersection point is the 'odds chance' that these two horses have of winning the double.

For example, let's assume a first leg selection is 3/1 and the second leg pick is 10/1. The doubles odds for this combination is 43/1. You start with the 3/1 line in the left hand column, then move across until you come to the column under the 10/1 listing - you'll see 43. That's the odds.

Another example: Your first leg is 4/1 and your second leg is 25/1. That means the double's odds are 129/1.

The chart we have reproduced here is one of two contained in The Good Betting & Racing Guide. The first chart covers prices from 1/2 to 100/1 linked with horses up to 8/1.

Using these charts, you can quickly discover what sort of profits you are looking at with any number of doubles linkups. For example, you might select 2 horses in the first leg and 3 horses in the second leg. This is a total of 6 doubles.

FIRST LEG
Horse A: 2/1
Horse B: 4/1

SECOND LEG
Horse C: 10/1
Horse D: 15/1
Horse E: 20/1

Using the chart below you can easily see that the doubles will pay the following odds (approx if you are betting on the TAB):

DOUBLES' ODDS TABLE

ODDS 10/1 15/1 20/1 25/1 30/1 50/1 60/1 80/1 100/1
1/2 15 23 30 38 45 76 91 121 151
1/1 21 31 41 51 61 101 121 161 201
6/4 26 39 52 64 77 127 152 202 252
2/1 32 A7 62 77 92 152 182 242 302
5/2 37 55 73 90 108 178 213 283 353
3/1 43 63 83 103 123 203 243 323 403
4/1 54 79 104 129 154 254 304 404 504
5/1 65 95 125 155 185 305 365 485 605
6/1 76 111 146 181 216 356 426 566 706
7/1 87 127 167 207 247 407 487 647 807
8/1 98 143 188 233 278 458 548 728 908
9/1 109 159 209 259 309 509 609 809 1009
10/1 120 175 230 285 340 560 670 890 1110
15/1 175 255 335 415 495 815 975 1295 1615
20/1 230 335 440 545 650 870 1280 1700 2120
25/1 285 415 545 675 805 1325 1585 2105 2625
30/1 340 495 650 805 960 1580 1890 2510 3130
40/1 450 655 860 1065 1270 2090 2500 3320 4140
50/1 560 815 1070 1325 1580 2600 3110 4130 5150
60/1 670 975 1280 1585 1890 3110 3720 4940 6160
80/1 890 1295 1700 2105 2510 4130 4940 6560 8180
100/1 1110 1615 2120 2625 3130 5150 6160 8180 10200
DOUBLE
A with C: 32/1
A with D: 47/1
A with E: 62/1
B with C: 54/1
B with D: 79/1
B with E: 104/1

The Good Betting & Racing Guide contains other charts relating to exotic betting. These cover quinellas, exactas and trifectas.

THE GOOD BETTING AND RACING GUIDE, by Malcolm Knowles.

Click here to read Part 1.

By Jon Hudson

PRACTICAL PUNTING - DECEMBER 1994