A
Letter From Ireland
Every now
and then we get a wonderful letter from people about
the site from overseas. You know overseas? Anywhere
that isn't Australia and everywhere that Australians
are going at the moment because our dollar is valued
at such a high exchange rate compared to what is has
been for decades.
It's also
the reason why domestic tourism is struggling, but hey,
that's another story entirely.
I
thought I would publish this letter and responses in
full, because I know from the web site statistics, that
a lot of folk from "over there" visit the
site quite regularly and they probably all have the
same questions about racing in Australia so this may
be of assistance to them. Here's the letter from the
delightfully named Michael
McIntyre in Ireland (with a name like Michael McIntyre
he just HAS to be from Ireland) with my responses in
green added in:
Good
night Peter
Greetings from a cold and windy Dublin Ireland –
I happened on your site the other night and I have found
it to be compulsive reading - just finished all the
articles on the home page and I must compliment you
on your writing style and the ease and accuracy with
which you articulated all the trials and tribulations
which I suffered over the past 20 years – in many
cases we are of like mind.
Forgive
my impertinence – but unlike you I still fall
into the abyss of indiscipline – I am working
on it and your articles have already motivated me to
get up and do something – look at me now e-mailing
you – and while I meticulously record all my bets,
I have now started writing down my system(s) and restructuring
my staking plans.
All
this seems to coincide with a good run that I’m
having at the moment.
(Funny how when you do the
extra bit of work / research - call it what you may
- the results seem to be better. Wonder why?)
A
few questions for you if I may -
1) Are your statistics related to flat racing only?
No - jumps racing does enter the equation rarely - not
very often though
2) Do you differentiate between turf and dirt ( all-weather
)?
There are just a few dirt
tracks in Australia – the vast majority are turf
(95%) so I don’t differentiate between surfaces
as in the long run I don’t think there would be
much difference in results based upon what I have observed.
3) Is there jumps racing in Australia?
Yes, but flat racing is the predominant side of racing
in Australia – there are jumps races in Victoria
and South Australia but the other states have all let
the jumps racing drop in favour of flat racing.
Makes the nanny-stater anti
cruelty demonstrators wet their pants when they see
horses jumping so like many other social democracies
in the world the majority let the noisy minority have
their way for "political reasons" - much to
my chagrin. Like
many western democracies our anointed rulers are a generally
weak pack of bastards.
I do differ with you on one point viz. odds-on backing
- I’ve been around the houses a number of times
and I keep coming back to this method – especially
now that betfair is available to us all.
Consider your own maxim – the 1% of bank factor
– by backing what appears to be my best odds-
on selection for the day ’ to place ‘ has
been giving me a very high % strike rate with very few
outs -
any outs are recovered by a staking plan similar to
your Cascade method and redeemed in 7/10 bets.
Good points!
Of course backing one selection only a day is very very
very boring ( and this is where the indiscipline sets
in ) but it is also very profitable ---- if I can rid
myself of the indiscipline that is!
Even for me, boring and conservative,
the one bet days drive me crazy. have to keep thinking
"long term, long term"
Another few questions for you - do you number or date
your articles?
Good point about dating the
articles – I do on the bottom of some but not
all – I must get in to the habit of doing that
on all of them.
How does one know when a new article appears ? Does
the article appear first on this site or elsewhere ?
I only publish on this site
and I kinda just add them as I write them when I think
I may have something worthwhile to add to the "argument"
Thank you most sincerely for the enjoyment your articles
have given me – someday I might get a chance to
buy you a pint of Guinness with an Irish to chase it
down - I am off now to read the section ‘ even
more articles ‘.
A pint of Guinness would be
wonderful – I am off tonight for a dinner gathering
– I’ll have one for you!
Best Regards
Michael McIntyre
January
2012 (see I remembered)
