áMaking Money at the RacesIn my view, after speaking to thousands of punters over a long time and reading countless letters and (these days) emails, the reason for the whole racing thing is making money.Let's face it, maybe you loved Arkle, Galileo and Red Rum, or Kingston Town, Saintly and Octagonal, or perhaps Secretariat, Fusaichi Pegasus and Big Brown.BUT you loved them to win, and you probably loved to be on them or other champions when they did win.We remember the winners.áSo, here are thr

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Making Money at the Races

In my view, after speaking to thousands of punters over a long time and reading countless letters and (these days) emails, the reason for the whole racing thing is making money.

Let's face it, maybe you loved Arkle, Galileo and Red Rum, or Kingston Town, Saintly and Octagonal, or perhaps Secretariat, Fusaichi Pegasus and Big Brown.

BUT you loved them to win, and you probably loved to be on them or other champions when they did win.

We remember the winners.

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So, here are three ways of making money. We can deal with each one in turn.

1. Follow a system (or several, for that matter).

2. Use reliable professional selectors.

3. Go it on your own.

Frankly, Number Three has the chance of a snowball in hell for the amateur these days. Massive computers, tremendously capable professionals, and some very good systems mean that a "free lancer" is really up against it. But we'll have a look at it later, just to be fair.

1. Follow a System

A well-researched system, or several of them, can be the punter's best friend. Things do repeat. You know you've seen a horse win, then you've said to yourself "Of course it won, I remember such and such a month back doing exactly the same thing."

The best systems (in my view) also contain very sound staking plans. They too are based on the past, and on trend expectations, but the best of them can be created to accommodate the kind of winning pattern which is anticipated.

Remember that without a past record, none of this is possible.

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Systems are of two basic types:

1. Devised on past performances, with logical expectations that the trends will repeat.

2. Speculating on future performances with no demonstrated success rates behind the selections.

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Obviously, (1) is the more likely to win. The other is a hopeful "theory" with no backup.

So, if you are a systems fan, or you'd like to be, systems based on what HAS happened are usually the way to travel.

Because you want to win, as against "hope to win, maybe".

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Most good systems have a central core, a golden rule or two that sets up the initial qualifiers. For example, it may be "Consider only last start winners".

That's a well-known basis for systems, because we know that around one in five, down to one in four, last start winners will repeat the dose next start. No matter what else, a blind bet on them would produce a win strike ratio somewhere around 20 to 27%.

But of course several of these winning repeaters will go off at very short odds, and a level stake profit is unlikely. But it is a central starting point, since the systems expert knows that at least he is working with a group of initial contenders that will contain winners somewhere in the 25% range.

I'll give you an example midweek, based on this very simple starting point.