“Can you recommend a book for betting on horses?” is a question often cited by those who wish to improve their selection methods and take their first tentative steps.

It’s an obvious approach.

If we want to learn something new we:

(1) Get someone knowledgeable or suitably qualified to teach us.

Or

(2) Read a book on the subject written by someone knowledgeable or qualified.

For the moment let’s indulge our imagination on (2) and try to define the content of said book.

First and foremost in simple terms, the pages within the book would outline a proven approach that highlighted possible contenders or the winner of each race.

Now, many would consider such a book fictitious, a myth like the Holy Grail or something peddled by snake oil salesmen.

But, what if we said you can write this book yourself aided by one of the many features in Proform?

The book will be yours to keep and update as required, it will be hidden from the inquisitive eyes of the public and the only copy of the book will be yours!

 

The information edge.

Horse Racing is all about opinions; and for those seeking a historical account of every horse that has ran in a race, the official formbook can be our first port of call.

However, most of the information written in the formbook is very concise due to space limitations if sourced from a newspaper, and public for all to see.

And we all know what the underlying problem is with all public information; it has already been factored into market prices and therefore no value at all.

Compounding the problem with the official formbook are the contents written by various race readers which:

• Place emphasis on different aspects of the race; there is no consistency.
• Contain conclusions based subjective decisions i.e. if a horse was hampered, would it have won?
• Have varying opinions about the influence of each race factor such as going, weight, draw etc.

One important issue that we should always remember is that betting on horses is a competition between punters.

If you want to win long term you need the most up to date, accurate and unique information to maintain your edge.

Now the question is … … … How can we obtain the best information?

One answer is to create the information ourselves using our own race notes. 

 

Keep watching after the race

Many punters take considerable efforts to sharpen their pre-race reading skills.

They will follow a race closely and try to predict how each horse will run. Once the race is over they will start thinking about the next race.

The "shrewd" or "smart" punters will at some stage after the meeting has finished, review the race replays and capture in their own words how each horse ran, any eye-catching performances and any significant observations for instance if a horse looked like a stayer, in the race replay did the horse “stay on” and hence benefit from a longer trip in a future race.

In summary, captured in your notes are any bits of information you deem significant. In time you will evolve a note taking style that meets your needs.

Normally there won’t be more than a few or more runners at any meeting worthy of note and you can capture this information on paper or using features within Proform to file your own notes electronically.

For example here are the pre and post-race notes written by pro punter Andy Gibson for Old Guard, this year’s winner of the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham.

 

The mythical notebook

If you want to lean how races are won and lost, with a little effort, there is nothing better than your own notes.

If you watch a race countless times to ensure you miss nothing, in time you will learn the skills which will enable you to develop viable explanations for the patterns that horses show in their past performances.

You will know the quirks that make horses run the way they do and you will be able to predict their performances far more accurately that you can using the form book alone and far far better than those that are reliant on public sources of information.

For those who haven’t got much spare time  or if you are simply betting for a hobby, then you can receive horse notes from professional gambler and racing analyst, Andy Gibson whose focus is the better class races throughout the jumps season.

You can learn more about his notes and his other services here. 

You can read part 2 here