A Letter From
Ireland about racing
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)
Horse
racing systems and research
