What advice would you give to new punters

Record every single bet you make and record them by race type as well, you need to identify where you are making/loosing money. Have a consistent staking plan, I review mine every 3 months and adjust it my current bank.

One of the most annoying and plain wrong thing I hear from other punters is this notion of 'playing with the bookies money' cos they have had a winner, nonesense, its your money, you earned it, dont give it back carelessly, and to this end I tend to place all my bets for the day in the morning - you neither end up chasing or playing up winnings.
 
Truncheon said:
1.Bet small
2.Try and stick to the big races
3.Always back the best jockeys but never back them E.W, they stop riding when they know they can't win
4.Back in form trainers

I can't think of any others, the OP's question was for beginners not old croakers like us who've been betting at least 30 years:D
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Yes, Ruby could be a sod not chasing a place.

My advice would be not to take short cuts. If you want to follow your pastime seriously, study the form properly, and don’t eliminate a horse because another trainer has a better recent record.

Never be frightened to back 2 or 3 horses in a big flat handicap - even 4 horses! I think I’ve found my niche over the last couple of years.

If you do get attached to the AW, just do it for fun stakes. Class 6 races are “difficult to predict”, and are open to manipulation.
 
Euronymous said:
Agree with reet and grassie re watch as much racing as possible and try and find someone to mentor you. Failing that there are some cracking books (old now) that may help - Alan Potts, Nick Mordin, Stewart Simpson I would recommend. Try and work out where (down the line) your strengths are and specialise. Don't spend £50 a month on the RP "ultimate" membership.
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I'd add Kevin Blake's 'IT CAN BE DONE' to that list as the majority of his bets that season are based on race-reading, which is an acquired art that will carry the novice punter a long way in understanding what makes racing tick.
 
I met 2 Tipsters in all my years in racing and there's tipsters and tipsters . Alex Duncan (Gary Owen) who I had many a G and T with at Kelso racing who couldn't pick his own nose.
The paper he worked for had a tipping service they called the Klondyke 3. He told me Klondyke never existed but it was a rotary system where 3 girls in the office would pick a horse each every day

The other was Marten Julian. He actually owned horses like Cloudwalker and he was never a desk tipster.

First time I ever laid eyes on him was as I walked into Cartmel The day Gay Future won.

There he was long hair a white coat sitting on the grass studying the racecard and looked more like Jesus than the racing correspodent for the Sunday Times.

He would travel round the country and either be racing or visiting trainers at their yards...One of the best judges I ever met.
 
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I remember buying one of the first of Marten Julian's 'Dark Horses' booklets. I can't remember what it cost, £3 maybe? (This would have been a long time ago* so think £30 at today's levels.)

My eldest brother was a fan and I liked his research. He had clearly been visiting stables but he was also keen on looking through the beaten horses in the big-field maidens at the better tracks from August onwards.

After shelling out for the book and reading through it, I decided to risk 50p ew on the first selection to run. It was a horse called Buss. If memory serves, it was a Hern-Mercer 3yo maiden and it won at 33/1, having drifted from about 12/1 in the morning.

*According to the RP search facility, there is only one 'Buss' listed, born 1970 so it would have been a 3yo in 1973, so I would have been 17 in the early months of that Flat season. There is no form record for the horse so it's maybe too early. Either that or I've got the name of the horse wrong.
 
A horse has to be capable of winning - that’s where relative form comes in - and ready to win - where race reading and trainer/gallop watcher info comes in (if you can get it). I believe being ready to rock is key.
 
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Join a forum and learn from people.

Have some pre determined rules in place as to what kind of races you like to bet in and vice versa.

Look at as much racing and play around with databases like ATRs which is the best for me in terms of functionality.
 
Another one is follow a stable. The original pricewise, Mark Coton, wrote a book years ago called 100 hints for Better Betting and he gave that out. He was a big Dick Hearn man and was involved on the ground floor when the Nashwan hype started.

I've never followed a flat stable but was a Nick Williams man until he split from Jane and I have to say outside of Cheltenham where I do ok I do struggle on the jumps and will make changes for next season and one of those is looking for a new stable to. I'm thinking Jamie Snowden at the moment but I'm open to suggestions. I want someone who does well with chasers as I don't want to be handicap hurdle heavy with my bets.
 
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Ronnie Postethwaite AKA Ronnie Foster (Bookmaker) who pulled of more than few big coups when his wife Charrlotte was the trainer :0)
once told me back over the jumps lay them on the flat.

It's not bad advice when you compare novice hurdlers to 2 year old maiden which has a nasty habit of the least expected horses to come up trumps.

Laying short priced favs in these maiden and 2 year old races early seaaon can be very rewarding if you have the balls
 
Euronymous said:
Another one is follow a stable. The original pricewise, Mark Coton, wrote a book years ago called 100 hints for Better Betting and he gave that out. He was a big Dick Hearn man and was involved on the ground floor when the Nashwan hype started.

I've never followed a flat stable but was a Nick Williams man until he split from Jane and I have to say outside of Cheltenham where I do ok I do struggle on the jumps and will make changes for next season and one of those is looking for a new stable to. I'm thinking Jamie Snowden at the moment but I'm open to suggestions. I want someone who does well with chasers as I don't want to be handicap hurdle heavy with my bets.
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You could do worse than going with Harry Derham. He’s had a cracking first year and will probably attract a good few more into his stable. I like him because he seems pretty honest in his comments and doesn’t overblow his horses. Likely to find it harder going next season and it’s to be hoped the internet brigade don’t get to him and lead him to retreat to bland comments.
 
barjon said:
You could do worse than going with Harry Derham. He’s had a cracking first year and will probably attract a good few more into his stable. I like him because he seems pretty honest in his comments and doesn’t overblow his horses. Likely to find it harder going next season and it’s to be hoped the internet brigade don’t get to him and lead him to retreat to bland comments.
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Learned his trade as assistant to PN (his uncle),so no surprise he tells it as it is.
 
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Euronymous said:
Another one is follow a stable. The original pricewise, Mark Coton, wrote a book years ago called 100 hints for Better Betting and he gave that out. He was a big Dick Hearn man and was involved on the ground floor when the Nashwan hype started.

I've never followed a flat stable but was a Nick Williams man until he split from Jane and I have to say outside of Cheltenham where I do ok I do struggle on the jumps and will make changes for next season and one of those is looking for a new stable to. I'm thinking Jamie Snowden at the moment but I'm open to suggestions. I want someone who does well with chasers as I don't want to be handicap hurdle heavy with my bets.
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Not telling you anything new, but...

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SBS, good shout. I wonder how old is he now, seems to have been at it years.

I'm gonna look into Harry Derham. I notice he's + money if you back him blindly.
 
Definitely going with Derham. He's come up loads today for some reason - Bar mentioning him, form study for Sure Touch at Taunton tomorrow, the purchase of Imagine. All this after him not being on my radar since Queen's Gamble last run. Looked into it with a guy on Twitter I respect. Nice one Barjon.
 
I expect he’ll tail off a bit as the handicapper gets to grips with some of the winners he’s been piling in, but I reckon he’s good and he’ll have plenty of new blood coming through.

Be interesting to see how he fares with Brentford Hope in the Betfair on Saturday. The big talking horse who never came off on the flat and he never came off in three runs over hurdles before he joined Derham either, but since then he’s gone 11613. If he can get him in the frame it’ll a good piece of training.
 
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Derham is an excellent shout.

These are some percentages, especially the bumpers:

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