Last month, I introduced the 6-Up Slammer approach for cracking the doubles on the TAB. In this article, I am going to look further at the daily doubles, searching out a new way to hit some big divvies.

Now, as we all probably learned a long time ago, how you bet is as important in winning at the racetrack as is handicapping skill. Inconsistent betting patterns and over-emotional betting can prove extremely costly.

All too often the turf speculator has no predetermined betting plan or he lets the size of the odds decide his bets for him!

This method gives you a systematic approach to doubles, as well as a simple but effective staking plan. If what you want from your betting is a plan that can throw up lots of juicy doubles, with a staking plan that helps haul in big dollars, then I'm certain you'll be interested in this plan.

TWO SPECIALS SYSTEM

  1. Use a reliable morning newspaper formguide which has a panel containing the tips of some reliable experts. I am stressing here that the panel must contain the information from reliable tipsters. Too often, the panels are cluttered up with tipsters whose strike rate is very poor. It's up to you to determine which of the newspaper tipsters qualifies as a reliable one. Take time out to check their selections, especially in the main doubles races of the day, because these are the races in which you are going to be investing. If you have back copies of formguides you can easily ascertain a tipster's past performance record. If not, you'll have to be patient and start a check from now, and make it last for several weeks (around 50 to 75 races should give you a clear idea of a tipster's worth).
  2. Choose two tipsters you regard as the most reliable. This is following on from Rule 1. You have to pick the two best tipsters for each area on which you are going to operate. The choice of a good selector is vital to the success of this plan. (You can, of course, use your own selections for the system, providing you are content in your winner finding ability).
  3. Concentrate only on the second leg of each TAB double as far as your selectors are concerned. Mark down their first two selections in the second leg. If the two tipsters have chosen the same horses, you will have two horses in the second leg. If they are at complete variance you will have four horses. Sometimes you'll have three. Why do I choose the second leg for the tipsters' picks? Because the research I have done, over the last 12 months, shows that tipsters - oddly enough - do better with doubles' second legs than with the first legs!
  4. After marking down the second leg selections, you then eliminate any selection which won its last start. The main reason for this rule is that last-start winners tend to attract far too much support from the betting public, with the result that they are sent out at prices below what their true chance might be. By getting rid of these no-value runners, we are going to save ourselves a lot of money in the long-term, even though we might miss a few winners.
  5. In the first leg of the double, select the first two favourites (irrespective of their form lines). All you do with this rule is to follow the two horses listed as the favourites in the morning newspaper market. It doesn't matter what they did last start; even if they won last start, we still back them (we are going for the value in the second leg!). By using the first two favourites as our lead-in leg we are 'sticking with the strength'. My recent survey showed a high win strike rate for these horses in the first legs of daily and extra doubles.
  6. You now criss-cross the selections in each leg. Let's say you have the two favourites in the first leg to be coupled with four selections in the second leg. This is a 2 x 4 combination and it will cost you only $8 using $1 betting units. If you bet 50c units, it's a $4 bet. This is the maximum amount you will have to outlay (it assumes the two chosen selectors have gone for four different horses in the second leg, all without a win last start). Usually the criss-cross double linkup will be smaller (2 x 1, 2 x 2,2 x 3).

During a recent 26 meeting test, the double was hit 14 times.

The outlay was $132 for a return of some $433, a big profit indeed. This test shows that you will be reaping plenty of rewards if you decide to follow the doubles plan.

The beauty of it is that it's such a sweet system to operate. In Sydney, you can use the Sydney Morning Herald or Telegraph-Mirror tips' panels for midweek and weekend meetings (city). The Sportsman also runs panels, and I have found their tipsters Tony Thomas and Wayne Hickson to be effective.

In Melbourne, the Herald-Sun is the most reliable guide among the newspapers, while you can use the Sporting Globe's panel of tipsters for Tuesday and Wednesday and Saturday meetings (even provincial meetings). The Sporting Globe's Andrew Kassay is a good judge, and so is Roy Aspinall.

If you get the Truth guide, the tips of John Greensill are usually on-the-ball.

This gives you just some idea of which tipsters to look for. It's best, though, that you find the most reliable ones yourself. Perhaps you reckon you can do just as well as the blokes who are paid to tip? If so, then work the system using your own picks.

Click here to read Part 1.

By Statsman

PRACTICAL PUNTING - DECEMBER 1993