Author: Max Redd http://www.reddracing.co.uk
In a previous article I jokingly suggested I had put all my assets – my savings, the deeds to the farm, my kids’ Trust fund, and the proceeds from selling one of my kidneys – on a horse at Newbury. I showed this was potentially financial suicide, and an extreme example of bad money management.
I wrote that more often than not a losing punter will find himself saddled with a bunch of bad betting habits. It is these bad habits that have gotten him, and his betting bank, to where his is now – the Poor House.
To arrive at a change in fortune, and to start making consistent profits, the losing punter has to be prepared to make changes to the way in which he bets. In the previous article we talked about the cornerstone supporting my own personal betting strategy, and that is finding value in every bet you make.
You will only ever make a profit from betting if you consistently back horses at prices too high when compared to their actual chance of winning. This is exactly how bookmakers have made their money for generations – they consistently lay horses at prices too low compared to the actual chance of the horse winning. When punters continue to take these low prices day-in and day-out, it will only ever be the bookmakers who come out with a profit in the long run.
The second ‘bad habit’ I want to examine is the subject of inappropriate staking. What do I mean by staking that is not appropriate? Well, what I am driving at is placing bets that are generally too large in proportion to the size of your betting bank.
Before I expand upon this, the concept of a betting bank is a side-issue in itself. You categorically MUST have a sum of money put aside for the sole purpose of betting. It scares me rigid when I hear of people simply ‘dipping’ into their current account to place a bet using their debit card.
If you do not have a separate account for your betting activities, you cannot keep records, and you will not be able to answer that simple question, “Am I making a profit, or a loss?”
It goes without saying, that betting involves a degree of risk, and you should never bet with money you cannot afford to lose.
Getting back to inappropriate staking, the idea of lumping all your money on one horse is an extreme example of over-staking. Of course, on the one occasion this strategy may pay off. We had friends round a few nights ago to play one of those Race Night DVDs. I was comfortably in front by studying the form before each race, and placing considered bets at what I considered to be value prices. As you might imagine, I had a suitably smug expression on my face as we came to the last race, and our friends were complaining I enjoyed a ‘professional advantage’.
My wife then decided to put every penny she had left on an 8/1 chance. The race turned out to be the ‘lucky last’ for my wife, and she walked away with the whole bank!
But seriously, continue with these tactics, and it will not be long before you lose everything.
Personally, I would never consider starting any betting campaign with a bankroll of less than 100 points. In other words, I will divide my bank by 100 to arrive at my unit stake. You can see that I will only ever be putting 1% of my bank at risk when I place a bet.
This is a very generalised approach, and you might argue that a little more consideration should be given to a punter’s typical strike rate. True, if someone has a strike rate of 50% then it is statistically highly unlikely that he will suffer a run of 100 losers to go bust. So, in this case you might be justified in operating a smaller bank. Bear in mind that when flipping a coin, it is by no means unusual to see 6 or 7 ‘heads’ in succession, and losing runs in double figures do occur.
Erring on the side of caution, you could foresee two such losing runs occurring twice in close succession. In which case, I hope you can see that even when considering a system which such a high strike rate, having a bank of well over 20 points now seems very sensible.
With my own Redd Racing betting service, we enjoy what I would consider to be quite a healthy strike rate. However, we have experienced a negative swing of some 60 points during one particular month a couple years back. The account recovered to make a profit by the end of the month, but it underlined the importance of having a bankroll large enough to absorb the losing runs that EVERYBODY has to endure from time to time.
Indeed, it would probably be better advice if I suggested members of my service had a bankroll of 150 or even 200 points in reserve.
Yet I often receive emails asking me whether it is OK to deposit £100 with Betfair and start with unit stakes of £10.
Betting with stakes too high in proportion to your bank normally comes out of a desire to make money quickly. I think we are all guilty of getting overly greedy sometimes, and unwilling to think a little more long-term. People are inclined to set themselves unrealistic profit targets, given the size of their betting bankroll. Having a bank of £100 and expecting to be able to make £100 per month is not realistic. Get-rich-quick does not exist.
Akin to the Tortoise and Hare story, let me give you an example of where what might initially seem like a very moderate return, actually gives surprising results over time.
If you started with £100 in your betting bank, and increased this bank by just one-half of one per cent every day, after just 6 months your account would have a balance of £244 due to the compounding effect. You could more than double your investment in 6 months with this seemingly small daily profit return. Take that to your bank or building society and see if they can come anywhere near such a deal!
Hopefully this demonstrates how ‘slowly but surely’ wins the race.
To summarize, my advice would be to set your unit stakes at one per cent, or even one half of one per cent, of your total betting bank. By striking only value bets, and when the odds are in your favour, your betting bank will grow. As your bank grows, so you can naturally increase the size of your unit stake to make more profit – but your bets will still be in proportion to your bank.
In the next part of this Sensible Money Management series, I will look at more bad habits that suck money from the accounts of losing punters.
About the author: Max Redd has been making a living betting on horse racing for over 10 years. He runs the Redd Racing betting advisory service which offers members a FREE trial and a 60-day money-back profit guarantee. Find out more at http://www.reddracing.co.uk
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Help answer the question about horse racing
Horse Racing?I have recently watched the movie "Pharlap" which was based ona true story. After finishing watching it, I realised that horse racing can be really cruel to the horses. I saw how hard they pushed the horse, made him sick, and how the crowd would 'poison' or hurt him if he lost or in fact even won a race. Does anyone agree with me? That horse racing is cruel?
About Author
Max Redd has been making a living betting on horse racing for over 10 years. He runs the Redd Racing betting advisory service which offers members a FREE trial and a 60-day money-back profit guarantee. Find out more at http://www.reddracing.co.uk
About the Author:
About the author: Max Redd has been making a living betting on horse racing for over 10 years. He runs the Redd Racing betting advisory service which offers members a FREE trial and a 60-day money-back profit guarantee. Find out more at http://www.reddracing.co.uk
Nice work, you did pretty good.
You’re really good man. You’ve got excellent talent.
Most owners actually don't make money racing.
Only about 70% of all Thoroughbreds ever get to the races, and only about 55% of all Thoroughbreds ever win a race. It costs about $25,000, give or take a few thousand, to keep a horse in training for a year; more for the major racing centers like New York or Southern California, less for tracks away from the major population centers. roughly 10-15% of all Thoroughbreds earn enough money during the course of a year to cover their training expenses.
Some owners can recover the residual value of their horse at the end of its racing career by selling, but most racehorses– particular male racehorses– have residual value that is low or even zero at the end of their racing careers.
Basically, most people who are in racing are in it for the excitement, the fun, the competition; and the hope that maybe they'll be the one to strike it rich with a horse like Mine That Bird– or one of his relatives. It's the hope of getting that one special horse, plus the love of racing in general, that keeps people going.
Brilliant Willy, Just Brilliant =D
As I always say, there's a village missing it's idiot somewhere and they can usually find them trolling on here. They think that if they repeatedly ask the same question and rave their PETA misinformation, that someone might actually end up agreeing with them. Let's hope not!
I think this gives a good explanation of the definition of the various track conditions:
http://www.ultimatecapper.com/track-conditions.htm
That said, it's important to note that because there is no standard for track composition in terms of sand, silt, clay, loam, organic matter, and every track is different, each track plays differently. To cite one example, the track at Aqueduct has a high sand content because the dates run at Aqueduct are typically the wettest times of the year. So the track superintendent finds it beneficial to have a lot of sand in the track to assure fast drainage. The result is that when there has been a lot of rain, the main track at Aqueduct can be like a wet beach– it packs down and gets harder. You may get faster times on such a track than when the surface is rated "fast".
Churchill Downs historically has had a high clay content in the track surface, with the result that the track can be very cuppy at best of times ("cuppy" means that when a horse strides on it, the hoofprint forms a "cup" on the surface of the track; it has depth, and it holds its shape rather than immediately crumbling) and can be really sticky and tiring when it gets wet.
A lot depends, too, on how the track superintendent deals with rainfall. At Santa Anita and Hollywood Park in the pre-synthetic days, the superintendents had enough time in most cases to get out the heavy roller equipment and "seal" the track before rain came. Basically when they seal the track, they're rolling and compacting the surface so that instead of water penetrating and making the track muddy down deep, the water just runs off the surface and drains away. Of course, the problem with this is that even when they opened the track surface in preparation for the day's racing, there was some compaction and the track would tend to get harder. During some of our rare wet winters, the track superintendent would sometimes have to close the track to exercise in order to do deep harrowing and conditioning of the subsurface and base after the track had been repeatedly sealed.
With synthetic surfaces, I think everyone, including the people who manufacture and install them, is still on a learning curve of what has to be done to keep the track consistant and safe in all kinds of weather.
From a handicapping standpoint, the important thing to remember is that each track is unique, and that you have to become familiar with what the weather conditions do to the the individual track surface.
i don't like the gambling, the horse race is alright, mainly only good in the Kentucky Derby when you are really rooting for a horse to get the triple crown
Hi,
A jockey has a very dangerous job, but a very important one. He must guide the horse in the correct way as to know how his horse runs, and performs during a race. It is his responsibility to get his horse in the correct position, and know how to guide him through traffic going at very high speeds while the rest of the field is fighting to do the same. Jockey error has played a huge roll in injuries to other jockey's and horses. The horse does the running, but it is up to the jockey to know how fast the horse runs, and when to ask the horse for his best without compromising. So the roll of a jockey is very important. Without a jockey it would be like racing a car with no driver. Hope this explains it to you.
You can go to the site for the Daily Racing Form at it should answer your questions also at any track the program will have instructions inside the cover explaining how to read the form and also how to make all wagers including the exotics.
http://www.xpressbet.com
You have to sign up, but it's completely free. There's no fees for watching or betting. And they have like 60 tracks you can watch. It's a great service.
Several tracks have their own broadcasts on their website, but xpressbet is great because you can get all the tracks in one place and place a bet if you'd like.
You need to go to a reputable trainer and tell him you're interested in buying a horse. Tell him how much you've got to spend and he'll do the rest. He might have a horse in his yard that's already for sale or he might go out and buy one for you.
Don't go buying horses over the internet!
The flat trainer Richard Hannon has had some good successes with cheaply bought horses in the past. He trains in Wiltshire.
http://richardhannonracing.tv/
Don't forget you'll have to contribute towards the horse's training expenses every week so the more people involved the cheaper it will be.
amazing! Willy teach me how to paint like you!
:O
:O
:O
how is this not a real photo?
Very nice!!
Perfect.
hm i couldn’t tell the difference between photograph and painting comparing the final resault.
This is sick
Its people like you, that pissin' an moanin', that ruin the world…………………..
woww that’s really relax and beatiful soung .good picture of jhony depp !