protecting the image of racing

Len Sham wrote: Englander correct we don't worry about them as they have never heard of ABC and only make up the pools .. so why must trainers or those in the inner circle worry about us .

elmer wrote: I believe that a large number of clanners {not all} think trainers are setting up coups on a weekly basis. Nothing is further from the truth and has been for years
How many GOOD punting stables are there?
Very few because racing is too competitive
A few years ago I was in the company of 2 trainers and 4 jockeys in Cape Town
I asked the question Who is the best trainer in CT Opinion was Bass
I then asked if best is a 10 what is and named various other trainers
I could not believe the low scores given to some I rated and high scores to some with
poor results This because of thing like he fancies everything to has no idea
But surprise they are rated a small trainer 2nd because "when he fancies 1 they usually win"
Maybe somebody should try this in DBN and JHB

elmer wrote: I believe that a large number of clanners {not all} think trainers are setting up coups on a weekly basis. Nothing is further from the truth and has been for years

Over the Air wrote: Imin I am a believer in the strength of formlines and hence am a big formgrids user.

Perhaps you could enlighten me how you found this horse in the race without knowing something. How did you have the confidence to back this horse after its Joburg debut, and being out MANY lengths on MR.

mister a wrote: this post is written for no other purpose than to share with racegoers on ABC what can be achieved with form study and form study alone, absolutely no information, in the mid 90s I got very serious about punting and my rule no 1 to 10 was "block your ears" which meant that I did not want to hear anything anyone had to say about any horse in any race, so much so that I banned any chat about any race in my circle, I chose all the horses except two, one was selected by FZ and the other by my good friend Gerard, we sat at table 13 at Bruma Tattersalls and punted with the 13 or so big bookmakers that operated from there, we used an investor who gave 30k as an upfront fee for the first tip and he had 40k on the first bet at 9/2 at Bruma and 40k on out of town, the second bet was 200k on a 11/2 shot which we got on for him at Bruma and he got 200k on out of town, the third bet was to win over a bar and a well meaning friend who had seen our tickets was an owner in the trainers yard of the horse we had backed, he phoned the trainer who advised me over the phone to cancel the bet as the horse was out for a run in a sprint far too short for him and he was aimed at a mile race in a few weeks time, I let the bet ride because I had done my homework and the horse won easily, we had no problem getting on in the early stages of the big punting, we got our bets on with all the bookmakers and only went down to place the bets after the canter down, then as time went on some of the bookmakers would not lay to us anymore, we were getting 400 to 600k on a horse and our investor was also punting these horses with out of town bookies, I waited for certainties at around 5/1, we hit about 12 times after that and won over 2 bar on some of the horses, we got to the unusual stage of having to reduce ticket amounts after horses had won in order to help the bookies to settle us, our bets were on at 5/1, 4/1 or 7/2 and by the time the bookies took back the horses were 15/10 or shorter, the 2nd last punt we had as a team was a 9/2 horse selected by my associate FZ, one bookie took a chance and layed the entire bet to us after phoning the owner a fellow bookie who confirmed "the horse could not win", the luckless bookie had to settle us with a series of PD cheques over a long time period because he had not taken back due to the inside info, around that time i was hijacked one Monday and was told orders were to take me to a township, I was lucky to get away, the following Monday one of my circle MH was shot at point blank range, he put his hand in front of his face just in time to deflect the bullet through his thumb and into his shoulder, he was also lucky, we dont know if it was punting related but I made my decision and left racing for many years, MH stayed in the game, in 2005 I put Formgrids on the internet to share the wonderful tool with racing, my success was due to an understanding of handicapping, understanding the WFA scale and my own interpretation of it and a combo of Computaform and Formgrids and off course blocking my ears.