Having the courage of your convictions is a vital trait for gamblers. A meek and timid player can never summon up sufficient confidence to bet heavily enough and make a life changing score. Mabel Read is a model example of a fearless plunger, who made sure that she got amply rewarded when her selections
Moving horses around the country to maximise their career requires sharp judgement. Admittedly, it’s sometimes just a desperate last roll of the dice when an infirm battler is banished to a weaker centre to get patched up and try fluke a final win, and we’re all familiar with upper-class horses trekking to KZN for
Kerry Packer, the Australian media tycoon who died in 2005, left an entertaining legacy of gambling tales as one of the highest rolling “whales”” during the 80’s and 90’s. His father, Sir Frank launched his business empire on the back of some extraordinarily successful forays to the races in Tasmania and Sydney, and though
Ante post betting holds a special intrigue. With the Summer Cup taking place tomorrow, punters who gazed into their crystal balls months ago, may be holding tickets that now represent exceptionally generous value. Betting any horse race requires the difficult skill of forecasting. Trying to do so well in advance without knowing whether your
In a recent column, the notion of trading volumes being a useful predictor of results was covered. Yet again, it proved a most helpful aid in the quest for finding winners. On the 13th, 14th 15th, 17th and 18th November the highest traded horse of the day on Interbet came home smoking. Ladder Man
Outside of formal education, there are varying ways in which people get to learn things and acquire skills. Scotland and Liverpool’s Bill Shankly, one of the original “school of hard knocks” soccer managers said, “I didn’t have any education, so I had to use my brains.” Often knowledge in a specific field is passed
Betting is a deeply personal activity, and everyone has different ways of going about it. There are form students who try gather as much comprehensive info about each horse as possible, then synthesise that mass of data before making their selections. Other bettors use more mechanical methods and wager automatically based on their preferred
It’s been a torrid week for many punters. Thagar Moodley is one of the Interbet traders who so diligently supplies me with material for this Hits and Misses column. Referring to the thwarted coup on Uncle Charlie (40/1 – 4/1) he said, ”I have not seen a horse backed in for so much for
Finding long-shot winners is most gratifying and one of the best ways to suddenly push the betting ledger into the black. Difficult as they may be to pull off, there are a few examples of inspired long-shot plays that connected during the past week. How Does it Taste (33/1 – 12/1) did the business
Sometimes the betting market is easy to read with horses either shortening drastically or blowing like gales and drifting out. Occasionally though, punters have to interpret mixed signals as in the strange case of Shezashiningstar at Turffontein on the 27th September. The Oratorio filly was backed ante-post from 10’s into 5’s then drifted right