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Not wanting to join the Mug Punter Club?

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

IF YOU’RE a mug punter you probably don’t realise it. So I thought I’d investigate exactly what turns normal people into mugs.

Well, in my view, a mug is the type of punter who goes into the betting shop minutes before the first race with his pockets stuffed with notes and leaves several hours later with his pockets full of worthless betting slips. Or the guy who ventures into the casino and starts with a decent stack of chips and departs some time later with nothing to show for his efforts.

In both scenarios the mug has no preconceived battle plan; no idea how he’s going to use his money; no clue how he is going to go about his business. It’s a bit like a general embarking on a campaign without any tactics. His troops would almost certainly be wiped out. I’m convinced no punter has an earthly chance of winning betting from race to race or on each spin of the roulette wheel.

Why do you think the bookies hardly allow punters to breathe before rolling out the next race – whether it be real or virtual, dogs or horses? That’s why most of them are keen to pay out on both results when there’s been a stewards’ enquiry. It means any winnings are returned to punters quickly so that cash can be recycled as swiftly as possible.

Turnover is a god as far as bookmakers are concerned. The more they take, the more money they make is their business mantra. My own theory is that successful punters don’t actually ‘beat the book’, their winnings come straight out of the pockets of the vast majority of losing punters. The bookmaker almost always wins. That’s why any sensible punter needs a strategy, to study the form.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s betting on short-priced favourites or big outsiders. Or whether you only play the Placepot, the Jackpot or the Scoop6. Whichever way you cut your cake, you must stick to your principles. If it works for you, stay with it, even in the face of criticism from colleagues or fellow punters. And don’t be down if you suffer some setbacks. If your particular method has worked over the years it will work again, rest assured.

Regular readers will know that I’m keen to back form horses for a place on the exchanges and I’m often told, ‘Anyone can pick odds-on favourites to get into the frame’. But can they? I sift through every day’s racing, crossing out the majority of races which I file in the ‘too difficult’ tray. And then I sift some more. I ignore plenty of odds-on and short-priced favourites, which don’t meet my fairly strict criteria. It might look easy but it takes a lot of work and a lot of knowledge of the form book. Simply finding an odds-on shot and backing it to make the first two or three simply won’t work.

Like anything in life you only get out what you put in. Even if a strongly fancied runner appears to have no conceivable dangers I will still go back and check the form of every runner opposing it. Yes, it takes time, but it becomes a ruthless process of elimination.

I’d rather eliminate the opposition than my betting bank!

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Viva Las Vegas

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

IT’S a long way to Tipperary, but it’s even further to Las Vegas although I suppose it’s really a case of where you’re setting out from. Well, getting from the financial capital of the world, London, to the casino capital of the world, Las Vegas, is a fair old haul by anyone’s standards – and that’s where, finances permitting, I’m heading for a family wedding next month.

I can already feel a frisson of excitement as I think ahead to the city that never sleeps, where, allegedly, there are no clocks, although how the average Las Vegan gets to work on time beats me! Except for online casinos, more than anywhere else on the planet you can play 24/7 in Vegas casinos, where reality really is suspended from the moment you touch down at Las Vegas airport until your plane hits the runway on the way home.

Yes, it is a long way to go, but for the true gambler it’s a must-see, must-visit , must-play Oasis with acres of green baize, a kaleidoscope of lights from the slots, jingles of spinning balls on roulette wheels, gathering crowds around busy blackjack tables. A potent and truly intoxicating elixir Vegas is basically a great big tribute to Mammon, but it never tries to be anything else. Vegas does exactly what is says on the tin – no more and no less. It’s not cheap to get there and it certainly isn’t cheap to stay there – unless, of course, you’re a high roller or a serial loser. Those guys – and gals – are welcomed with open arms by the management at the bigger casinos. But if you’re being ‘comped’, it’s for one reason only – you’re giving them more than they’re giving you!

However, the ordinary punter can pay for his trip with some decent hands of poker or a good night on the roulette tables.

There are even sports books – luxury betting shops to you and me – for those like myself who can’t go a day or so without betting on the ponies. As I say it’s worth a once-in-a-lifetime visit; there really is nowhere else like it on the planet. But if you ain’t got the cash for the air fare and the hotel accommodation, then you can always head for the nearest US online casino – what you save in airline and hotel costs can give you the stake to chase that life-changing big win you’ve always been seeking. Good punting whether you’re at home or abroad! Come on February, Viva Las Vegas here I come.

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Is the Jump Season just all about the Cheltenham Festival now?

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

IS IT just me or is the monolithic Cheltenham Festival casting such a giant shadow that the rest of the jumps season is in danger of shivering to death, worse still, becoming as dull as an empty casino in Las Vegas?

Every race in the ever-lengthening lead-up to the festival seems to be a ‘trial’ for the ‘real’ racing at Prestbury Park.

Last year champion jumps trainer Paul Nicholls described the Game Spirit Chase as “my favourite trial for the Champion Chase”; talking about the Aon Chase at the same time, he called it “my favourite stepping-stone to the Gold Cup” and discussing the 3m novice chase, he opined: “I’ve always considered this race an ideal trial for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase”.

As m’learned friend might say, ‘My case rests’.

In my day, admittedly some time ago, the Game Spirit Chase was a top-class race in its own right and I can remember setting off for Newbury on many occasions looking forward to a fascinating contest.

Nowadays valuable and well-supported races like the Game Spirit and the Aon are being relegated to minor slots, in the pageant that is the ever-burgeoning Cheltenham FestivalI can’t believe that loyal sponsors are taking all that kindly to providing the nibbles before the main course.

I’m not knocking Cheltenham which is a marvellous celebration of all that is so wonderful about the great jumping game, I’m just worried that the festival’s gravitational pull, as it were, is exerting an unhealthy influence on the rest of the jumping season, which provides so much interest and excitement on an almost daily basis.

If the trend continues – and there seems no stopping it at the moment – there is, I feel, a danger that by the time we reach 2pm on Tuesday March 10 when the tapes go up for the first race on the first day, we’ll be over the top, weighed down by hype and hyperbole.

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All Weather Racing

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

I’VE decided I’m spending the rest of the winter on the sand. No, I’m not jetting off to some almost uninhabited Caribbean island to sit on the beach and drink rum all day until the sun sets.

The sand I’ve got in mind is much closer to home – at Britain’s all-weather tracks, Great Leighs, Kempton, Lingfield, Southwell and Wolverhampton.

These hardy perennials keep the Flat going over the winter months when most punters have turned their backs on racing on the level to follow the jumpers.

First, I must assure you I’m not a Flat snob, who won’t entertain watching horses jumping hurdles or fences. I love the jumps game and all its characters, especially the fact that the horses go on much longer than their Flat counterparts. The best three-year-olds often don’t race again on the Flat after their Classic season, being whisked off to stud.

Of course, there is no stud value in a six-year-old gelding who has just won the Champion Hurdle so he has to carry on racing to justify his existence. But all gamblers have to be hard-headed in their approach to making a profit.

What works for one, doesn’t work for another. A friend of mine has made almost £100,000 in the last 12 months betting in handicaps. Personally, I rarely even look at a handicap. After all, it’s the handicapper’s job to ensure that all horses in a handicap have an equal chance. Now, to me as a punter, that’s simply not fair!

I try to keep things simple when I’m punting, concentrating on two- and three-year-old maidens. In my view, the two-year-olds have picked up few, if any, bad habits, unlike older horses who have got wise to the game and don’t always give it their best shot.

Of course, two-year-olds become three-year-olds on January 1 2009 – whenever they were actually born – and it’s these horses I’ll be hoping to provide me with some rich pickings on the all-weather in the coming months.

One thing about the all-weather is that all the tracks – apart from Southwell, which I will come to later – race on the same surface, Polytrack. All-weather racing was very much the poor relation of Flat turf racing in its early days and there are still some people who look down their noses at it as if it is some form of unregulated flapping.

Its brief flirtation with the dreaded concept of banded races for horses rated below a certain level didn’t help with cards full of equine dross run once or twice a week. But all-weather racing has, by and large, been accepted by the top trainers, surely the best barometer. Many good horses have had their first runs on artificial surfaces and there is even a Polytrack gallop at Flat racing’s headquarters in Newmarket.

Of the four Polytracks, my most successful venues are Lingfield and Wolverhampton, but the jury is still out as far as Kempton is concerned and Great Leighs is a little too new to have established a definite pattern just yet.

It’s at Southwell, which races on Fibresand, where I have had most success from a punting perspective. The surface here is much slower and deeper than Polytrack with horses who have gone well on soft or even heavy ground on the turf doing particularly well at the Nottinghamshire track. The surface sets it apart from the other all-weather venues and that’s an aspect that potential punters must take very seriously.

Only the other day, the three-year-old Irish Pearl ran at Great Leighs having sauntered up in its two previous races at Southwell. But it couldn’t translate its Fibresand form to Polytrack and never really looked like completing the hat-trick, finishing a disappointing fourth despite being a well-backed third favourite at 7-2.

Another thing to bear in mind is that two-year-olds do get jaded just like humans and I make a point of not giving a two-year-old too many chances. Horses that keep getting beaten, even by small margins, usually do so for a reason – they are not completely genuine.

As in all walks of life there are expectations, but generally once a juvenile has had four or five runs I think you should almost certainly leave him or her alone as far as betting is concerned.

Remember, you don’t have to bet in every race. Yes, bookmakers have to price up every race, but we can give any race we don’t fancy a miss. It’s a bit like a batsman building a big innings. He doesn’t have to hit every ball, just the bad ones or the ones he is confident he can hit with little or no risk.

It’s the same with racing. Pick those races you feel most confident about – and then steam in.

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Just who is ‘Sterling Brookes’?

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

A question we’ve been asked many times this past month here at Oggs has been ‘Who is Sterling Brookes?’. Well shall we reveal all about one of our favourite columnists? We asked Sterling for some words and here’s his reply. Enjoy.

STERLING BROOKES is a freelance racing journalist and punter, who has been fascinated by the ‘Sport of Kings’ since his father had a five bob win double on the first two favourites at Manchester racecourse many years ago.

He goes racing at least once a week and feels it is essential to see the horses close up and personal as well as being able to sample the atmosphere and feel the excitement of the racecourse.

When not at the races, he watches on ATR or RUK and feels we are blessed to have two dedicated racing channels.

Brookes bets very selectively , mainly in maiden races on the Flat and novice events over hurdles and fences and is especially keen on all-weather racing.

He ran a syndicate which owned a two-year-old winner and has owned several successful greyhounds.

Manchester-born, he now lives in London with his wife and four children and is a keen follower of Manchester City and Lancashire cricket club.

End.

So there you have it from Sterling Brookes’ mouth and not the horse’s. Check back or even better,  subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog to keep up to date with Brookes, JC and Simmo’s various enjoyable and topical views and news on gambling and gaming. Coming soon the 2008 Oggs Online Casino Awards nominees….

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The thrill of the chase… not for me it isn’t!

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

In the heat of the summer, some dogs chase their tails. They rarely catch them. In summer and in winter, spring and autumn, some men chase women. They rarely catch them.

In all seasons, I chase my losses. I rarely staunch them.

There, I’ve said it. I’ve admitted it. It’s a problem I’ve  had all my punting life and I am no nearer to a solution now than I was when placed  my first bet all those years ago.

Maybe admitting the problem will be a step on the road to salvation, a bit like a therapy session, although I doubt it.

I can’t seem to be able to stop myself.

I bet quite conservatively, often betting on the place markets on the exchanges where I think you can find some terrific value.

I like to go for horses with good, progressive form in two-year-old or three-year-old and upwards maidens, usually picking my selections from those in the first two in the betting.

With such an approach you don’t back too many losers nor will you be paying a visit to the nearest Ferrari showroom to book a test drive.

In fact, it’s not unusual, as Tom Jones once sang, to have sequences running into double figures in terms of successful punting days.

However, when that loss does come, as it eventually does, I seem to lose all sense of logic, often punting away all those days’ profits in a single afternoon, which may often stretch into the evening action on At The Races, sometimes betting on American horses I have never heard of, ridden by jockeys I have never heard of, racing on tracks I have never heard of.

I don’t think there is any easy answer as to why I go from being one of the most careful punters on the planet to one of the stupidest often within the space of a few hours, but if there is a ‘cure’ out there I’d like to hear about it.

I’ve tried the Betfair forum without any success, now it’s time for Oggs.com bloggers to give me their views. 

Guys, I need help and quickly!

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Ah, My First Time…

Friday, September 5th, 2008

I CAN’T remember my first bet, but it was probably a winner. Isn’t everybody’s?

My father was a small-time punter – he was only about 5ft 5in – and I suppose that’s how I first got interested in the horses. That was back in the 60s in Manchester when Man City had a decent team and no Arab backers.

I used to frequent a local betting shop in Cheetham Hill where the clientele was mixed to say the least. I always remember the smell of sweat and the floor covered in discarded betting slips in the tiny shop.

There was, of course, no commentary in those days and you just had to wait for the result to appear. Then came the infamous Extel commentaries where favourite always got a run for their money and punters even used to criticise the way their horse had been ridden even though they hadn’t seen it!

Betting shops – or turf accountants as they were often called to give them a thin veneer of respectability – never held much attraction for me. I would much rather go to the races and sample the unique atmosphere. Haydock Park, down the East Lancashire Road, Liverpool and Chester were fairly frequent points of call before I moved to London and eventually married.

But wherever I’ve been I’ve tried various – usually unsuccessful – ways to beat the bookies (more…)

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