Trainer

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...

When a Practical Punting reader asked which form factors matter most, he listed twelve — and The Optimist turned the answer into a two-part masterclass. In Part 1, Gordon covers the first three: da...

How time flies. Remember this time last year we were debating the staying chances of Weekend Hussler? There were no chances, as we now know: he didn’t stay. I understand that he’s gearing up for a...

How time flies. Remember this time last year we were debating the staying chances of Weekend Hussler? There were no chances, as we now know: he didn’t stay. I understand that he’s gearing up for a...

Many punters rely to a great extent on the 'vital statistics' of racing to guide them into their choice of horse for any particular race. In other words, they are swayed by history into trying to ...

As this is the third part of our series on Vital Signs, you might have to go back and have a glance through the first 18 of our 25 vital signs. Anyway, let’s get on with it because we’ve only got ...

This is the third and final part in our series on the world's greatest staking plans. The approach featured is aimed at those bettors who want to back three horses per race on a race-by-race basis...