Making The Best Out Of Free Resources – Part Three

For the next article in this series I am going to highlight the potentially profitable method of compiling a list of “horses to follow”. Not only can this be very satisfying when “spotting” a future star in the making, especially when they go on to win one of the BIG races later in the season, but you can often profit from horses that win at big prices or go on to run up a string of victories.

Now if you are anything like me, when you have put your hard earned cash on your selection, the race starts and your eyes are totally focused on how your horse is running, and most of the other action and events can pass you by.

Well out there are a number of “specialists” who will not only watch every single race, but they will also review the recordings of a race over and over again to try and spot horses that have the potential to run well in their future races.

The good news for us is that we can actually get hold of some of this painstaking research for free! Even better news is that we can also arrange for a free reminder when one of our “list” horses is due to run, so we do not find that we are kicking ourselves when we look at yesterdays results and see that we missed a 10/1 winner!

There are a number of resources which can be used to help compile your own list of horses to follow, my personal favourites are:-

http://www.attheraces.com I highlighted At the Races in my previous article. They have several excellent areas such as “Talking Horses”, “Stable Tours” and “Northern Spotlight”; together with a weekly video show in which Hugh Taylor picks out his eye catchers from the previous seven days. A good example of the depth of information available on this site is the write up they did on an up and coming new Trainer, Martin Keithley, on the 23rd October.

They concluded the Stable Tour article by highlighting 8 horses to follow under certain conditions, several are still to run, but of those that have already been out since have provided Winners @5/1, 15/8, 12/1, 100/30 and 11/8, showing an excellent profit.

http://www.peternaughton.co.uk/ Peter is a regular presenter on Racing UK and writes a weekly column for Race Form, compilers of the official form book. As a result he has built up a number of significant contacts within the racing industry and uses this information to offer a premium priced tipping service.

Now I am not advocating that anyone join this service, but rather that they make use of the free “Notebook” section on his web site. Peters uses this as a kind of carrot by mixing in the results of his premium service amongst the daily free updates.

This free notebook has provided numerous winners including recent ones such as Just Jimmy 5/1, Ronaldo Des Mottes 5/1 (backed in from 15/2), and a very close second in the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow with Silver By Nature at 14/1 who was beaten by a fast diminishing 3/4L after a gruelling 3m 5 ½ F.

Now having compiled your list of horses to follow, and after reviewing the above sources of information, you may want to trim the list down by doing your own further checks on the form, or maybe by specialising in say Chasers over the jumps or maybe handicappers on the flat. We all have our own favourites and preferences. I really enjoy the spectacle of National Hunt races and the fact that the horses stay in training season after season rather than being retired to stud following a light flat racing campaign.

Once you have settled on your choices, and having made your initial list, a clever way of never missing one of your chosen runners is to utilise another free resource on http://www.gg.com. Once you have signed up for their free service and logged into the site, go to “Other Services” from the menu on the right hand side. From the drop down menu that appears, select GG-Alert, then “Add Horse”.

Simply type in each horses name in turn from your list and click on the “Add Alert” button. If you would like to attach some additional information mentioned in the notebook such as race type or going preferences then click on the “Advanced Options” button and type in the “Additional Information” box.

Every time a horse on your list is due to run you will receive an email the previous evening detailing the race time and any extra notes that you have added. Once you become familiar with the workings you will easily be able to add and remove horses from your list. I usually give a horse 2 or 3 chances to fulfil the notebook potential before removing it if the subsequent races do not back up the original reasons for adding it to my list.

With so much poor quality racing everyday the method of compiling your own list of horses to follow can be both satisfying and financially rewarding. Enjoy!