Nick Downs 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...

Men punters talk about betting they will invariably end up mentioning the 'big double' they landed during their punting lifetimes. Everyone has one or two of them - the big windfall return, or ret...

Men punters talk about betting they will invariably end up mentioning the 'big double' they landed during their punting lifetimes. Everyone has one or two of them - the big windfall return, or ret...

Men punters talk about betting they will invariably end up mentioning the 'big double' they landed during their punting lifetimes. Everyone has one or two of them - the big windfall return, or ret...

The search for an angle that Twill turn the tide! We're all after it in racing, and especially those of us who like to dig deep into the form book. The problem with 'angles' is that they tend to b...

Following  Big Memory ’s eye-catching 10th in Saturday’s $3 million Caulfield Cup, he’s now heading to the Melbourne Cup. Trainer Tony McEvoy said on Monday morning the French-bred stayer would...

In previous articles in this series, I've looked at how to streamline an approach to form and selection, and last month I provided a Ratings Guide for the various classes of races. We can use t...