False starts all round

Afternoon All

Things didn't go quite to plan on any front so far in 2012 so the start of all this has been pushed back to February.

Budget wise - just a few too many bills + a desire to do the trip I was meant to do to Canberra at Christmas on Australia Day weekend (well it is for me!!!)instead means a delay there.

Greyhounds wise - I found a problem in one of my ratings spreadsheets that was too hard to go back and fix in the results so I've tidied things up and started a fresh trial. Lots of work to do to get it right but I am encouraged by the results so far so will push on.

I did manage to find the first 4 out 6 legs of a $330k Big 6 a couple of weeks back - it didn't work out but it was a bit of a thrill still having a live ticket coming into the 5th leg. Even the supplementary dividend paid $25k or so - I ran an unlucky 2nd in leg 5 as well. Not too worry though, the exotics will always be frustrating but if I cab hit one like that one day, it could be a life changer even with the little percentages I normally play.

So there's the update for now - everything one hold for now. I'll touch base again soon

All the best

p.s. Best wishes go out to a mate of mine who is currently in hospital - Adrian, hope you're up and about again real soon

Happy New Year - Welcome to 2012 :)

Hey All,

Yes, I'm still about :)

2011 in summary, a year like so many others especially in terms of the punt. Made the traditional mistakes of betting on too many races and chasing loses. In terms of the bigger picture - same old same old - a lack of focus and meaning but hey - I've got a roof over my head, clothes on back, food to eat, am relatively healthy, have a decent job and most importantly great family and friends so not much to complain about really.

The things that can make things better are things I control - well should control - and simplest of those is budgeting - money management. So as a result, I'm giving up the punt.....

Just joking LOL

I probably should but after this long trying to find a way to beat the game, and all the lessons I've learned along the way, why stop now :)

That doesn't mean not changing though, I need to change and I have a few new things I'll be trying this year as a result.

The first is money management - this is not only in terms of the punt but overall, new budget goes into place as of today that will hopefully make everything run a bit smoother. This new budget has a set allocation for the punt, so it's taken into account as well - although if I'm winning the cash flow will be into the budget rather than out of it - that's the hope anyway!!!

In terms of betting - a few new things to try this year.

The first is getting my account structure right - I will open a TAB account in Victoria to go with the one I have in NSW - the idea behind this is that I can have more accurate figures of where I'm at. Sure I could keep the records myself. and probably should (and will to a degree), but this is an easier way. The bigger driver here is losing the cash bet side of things, bets will be through the accounts or not at all. Well almost, the exception here is social betting with friends, i.e. at the pub or races which will come out of my day to day budget rather than my punting budget. I know this sounds a bit weird but it makes sense in my head - so the $20 I throw into a quaddie with mates at the races, that we never seem to hit, is not part of my more "professional" punting.

The next is a bit bigger focus on the greyhounds. After meeting around 1/2 a dozen professional greyhound punters now, I can see the sense in what they do. Now I'm not talking becoming one of them, these guys are full time and know things inside out. I just want to skirt around the edges and apply some things I've picked up to see if I can turn a profit. Part of this is some work I've done on adapting my earlier racing ratings to the dogs - I'm still in paper trial mode but early figures are promising - watch this space.

In the meantime, Monday and Thursday nights will become Doggy Nights :)

I'll be looking to make a profit playing on Betfair - laying some and backing some, to see if I can make money. I'm pretty confident I can IF I focus and only bet when the outcome looks relatively obvious - e.g. a slow starting railer drawn the 8 box that's under the odds and worth a lay.

Saturdays will still be my horses day - they are the ones I really enjoy and want to stay involved with. Once again a small change in focus on what I was doing in the past - I do like the idea of sticking to Sydney and Melbourne racing in the main, but always being alert for opportunities in the other states and at lesser meetings. Betting here will be pretty diverse with win and lay bets on Betfair, exotics in most races and an attempt to see if I can turn a profit on quaddies and Big 6's. It won't be easy but I'm looking forward to the challenge :)

So there it is, a plan of attack for 2012 - well at least the start of it - I've set myself a 3 month time frame to see how things are going - if everything is on target at the end of March. I'll continue on - if not, it will be time for a tweak - either way, I'll be adding footy to the betting mix around that time.

New Years Day is always a good day to start afresh, with a clean slate and see if things can change - so that's what I'll do - wish me luck :)

I'll leave you with something that's driving part of this change, the quote from a shopping center billboard - believe it or not

"Life is not a dress rehearsal"

Spot on, I'd suggest

Thanks for looking in, I'll try and do at least a weekly update again so you can see how I'm traveling

All the best

2 weddings and a funeral

Hey All,

Still about, things as per usual haven't gone quite to plan so naturally the easiest way to fix that is to change the plan :)

It's been a busy old start to the year, moved to the new place, went to Armidale to see off Kerry RIP old fella and then a couple of weddings to top things off - Gibbo and Erin and Liz and A2 now happily married, thanks for the invites guys - most enjoyable events

I was plugging away looking at the one bet per race in Sydney and Melbourne and when I wound things up last month I was well in front in Melbourne, well behind in Sydney and behind a little overall. I could possibly make it pay in the longer term but it would be a struggle. I did notice one thing though, when I was isolating the one horse to bet on, more often then not I was looking at the right horses overall i.e. even if I got the race wrong the horses I'd left in late in consideration were getting up, as well as the ones I didn't like missing out.

So that's probably the way to go into the future - stick with the Saturday focus on the horses but look at playing the exotics around the horses I like and hope to jag some decent results, more thinking to be done but that looks the way to go. Adding to that some lays of dodgy favourites and it should be a profitable way to move forward.

Footy season has started - The Raiders are struggling the Swans doing well - hopefully they'll both have strong seasons. There is money to be made on the footy, I have no doubt, just not sure what the best way to do it is

As to my horses, I've got 2 runners tomorrow - Etoile Vitesse in Canberra and Pingus at Bendigo, both have good chances of notching up another win.

So that's basically it, just wanted to touch base to let you know I'm still about

Hope everyone is well

Cheers

Australia Day 2011

Morning All,

Happy Australia Day, a day that makes you think how lucky we are to be Aussies - the best country in the world? I'll have to check out some others to be sure but we'd have to be hard to beat :)

Didn't end up betting on Monday night, went out for dinner and a few drinks instead. Today's action is at Caulfield and Warwick Farm - there's three 2yo races which will make things a little tricky but I'm hoping I'll have my first winning day for the flat stakes trial AND hopefully the exotics.

My best are

Melbourne Race 1 - 1 Cristallo
Melbourne Race 8 - 8 Espirit De Bullet

Sydney Race 6 - 1 Strike One
Sydney Race 8 - 4 Breeze Up

Not sure what will happen with Saturday yet as I'll be traveling up to Armidale for Kerry's send off so possibly won't get to bet.

Good luck to anyone punting today

RIP - Kerry

Morning All,

Apologies once again for the non update of results, yesterday was thrown totally out of whack by the terrible news that a mate from university died in a car crash on Saturday.

Kerry was a real character - I'm pretty sure he started at UNE in 1984, I got there in 96 and left in 99, he was still there well after that - he was an institution at the institution. Originally, and I guess always a Kiwi, Kerry was a bistro regular and more often then not ended up running pool comps and the like - we played plenty of games, shared plenty of drinks and lots of laughs. He was only 55, so taken from us way too early - RIP Kerry

Back to business, once again just patchy results - I will now looking at doing a more comprehensive review at the end of the month. In summary, I dropped another 5 units on the weekend after only managing to find 3 winners. Sounds terrible doesn't it? It's not all that bad though, with 6 second place getters - most of which would have seen me finish in front if they had won - and a few other races which were won by horses that were in my top couple I'm confident of turning it around shortly. Overall flat stakes is losing 9 units after 3 meetings - Wednesday is the next day of betting, subject to when I go north to see Kerry off.

The exotics were as frustrating as flat stakes - I ended up missing putting on the Sydney quaddie, would've lost anyway, so doubled up on that Big 6 that missed. In Melbourne I only missed on 1 leg of both the quaddie and Big 6 with Grand Duels winning the 6th - I had the 2nd and 3rd horses. The quaddie paid $2791 and Big 6 $16815 so hitting either would've gave me a nice profit on the day. Overall though, 3 weeks of wipeouts for the exotics and -12 units.

The greyhounds will get another run tonight, currently sitting on -14 units

Oops, look at the time I better get ready for work, have a great day all

Has it been that long

Morning All,

Up early with a few hours overtime at work before going to the races so need to rush - sorry I didn't post results, I thought I had - I'll get it all caught up tomorrow.

In summary - I returned a 4 unit loss on the flat stakes trial, wiped out on the exotics again and dropped 5 units on Monday night - no bets Thursday

Todays best are

Melbourne Race 2 - 4 Winged Charm
Melbourne Race 4 - 8 Cabeza

Sydney Race 2 - 1 Intencion
Sydney Race 7 - 7 Outstandingly

I have a small interest in Pingus in race 3 - she needs to improve 7 or 8 lengths i'd suggest, is 100 to 1 and needs everything to go her way BUT the gear change should definitely help - fingers crossed

Good luck to anyone having a bet

Cheers

Saturday number 2 is almost here

Evening All,

Have spend the last few hours studying the form for tomorrow and hopefully I've found all 16 winners - well actually just enough to make a profit will do :)

I'm doing overtime at work to get some extra cash so will be taking Betfair SP prices and hoping they stand up ok. The advantage for anyone reading is you get my tips so here they are

Melbourne - rated on a slow track

Race 1 - 1
Race 2 - 5
Race 3 - 4
Race 4 - 4
Race 5 - 3
Race 6 - 10
Race 7 - 6
Race 8 - 6

Sydney - rated on a slow track

Race 1 - 6
Race 2 - 1
Race 3 - 3
Race 4 - 6
Race 5 - 4
Race 6 - 9
Race 7 - 6
Race 8 - 3

A good days racing.

Greyhounds during the week were nowhere near as controlled as they should've been and I even had a few harness and overseas gallops bets. So some work to do but I still managed 3 units profit on Monday and 4 on Thursday so the damage is back to minus 9 units overall.

Finally, before I get some sleep, my thoughts and best wishes to all those effected by the floods in Queensland etc - awful awful stuff

Cheers

p.s. apologies for not posting more detailed results, it's been a big week with move and all