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There are two groups of punters who invariably go to the races, or their TAB agencies, with the percentages piled high against them. They are the backers of favourites and longshots. No matter wh...
There are many problems associated with beating the trifecta. Punters probably don’t realise the task they are taking on when they tackle this bet. Question 1: Can you predict the 1-2-3 finishin...
Greyhound racing is probably the best system under which a punter in Australia can risk - or rather, invest - his hard earned dough. To my way of thinking there is nothing so good as a standout "...
You would like to back a winner every two selections? That’s a 50 per cent win strike. Some dream! But maybe it’s not so crazy. After all, picking two horses a race and making a ‘book’ by savin...
PPM reader Kerrin Brown has been enjoying success as a “lay” operator on Betfair. In this article he relates his personal story, and how he makes money from his operation. The first time I w...
The late Don Scott once wrote that the best form of exotic betting is the trifecta. I think he was right. Don said picking a trifecta winning bet was a test of skill rather than a game of chance. ...
The shortest way home is always on or near the inside rail. Well, that's technically true, as we all know, but we also know that many times it doesn't find you the winner of a race. Especially whe...
I’ve spent years trying to beat the TAB and bookies and I’ve lost my bank more times than I can remember. There have been a few big wins; as many as a man with only three fingers could count on ...
It doesn't matter if you are an intellectual or a fifth-form dropout, a form guide can bring you together on equal footing. Because form is the great leveller in racing. Each man can make of it...
Fitness plays such an important role in horse racing, and so few punters really know much about how to assess it, that we assigned Statsman to set out in detail his own expert views on this import...
One of the oldest maxims in racing is that you cannot win by betting on every race. For many years, I have added to this my own ruling that you cannot win by betting on every type of race either. ...
Some More Thoughts on SpecialisingPerhaps distance is a major key. Is staying a great spectacle that the average punter cannot afford?If you get serious about restricting the number of races you tr...
Becoming an expert ... how many times have we read about "becoming an expert"? But there are so many areas in which we cannot become experts. We cannot be experts in delicate brain surgery, for ex...
When Brian Blackwell, the editor of PPM, asked me to write a major feature on what I had learnt in over 40 years of punting, I wondered where I would start. Additionally, his brief was tight in ...
Last month I finished the first part of a ‘double header’ by discussing the key areas of fitness and specialisation. I cannot imagine two better areas for the beginning punter to seriously consi...
In this final article into the early punting career of legendary US punter Andrew Beyer we find him, prior to the 1977 Gulfstream Park season, buried in stacks of old, yellowing copies of the Dail...
Many years ago when I started on the punting trail, I listened with amazement to Sydney form expert Clif Cary espouse his weight theories to an eager radio audience. It seemed to me that I just h...
I attended a private form forum the other week. The attendees were all punters who have made a living from the game for some years now. It’s not the first time we have all got together. Such gath...
Last year we ran a popular series of articles, in which leading international professional punters and form analysts gave' their views on racehorse selection and betting. In this new series, we pr...