It’s no secret that I love the races. I always enjoy a small flutter on the big festivals and races, even if I am unable to watch. I did this for Cheltenham festival this year and I had a small bet on every one of the 28 races. Now while this may seem as a bit excessive when I am sat at my desk at work rather than watching the races, I love having a reason to follow the action and for me, a small bet is perfect for this.
Over the years I have developed a bit of a knack for picking a good horse at the races. In the past I have written a quick guide to how to choose a winner at the races with some of my top tips for breaking even, such as utilising the each way bet! But after reflecting on my success this Cheltenham festival, I thought that next time round I could do a bit more for you all.
My Process for choosing a horse
My process for picking a horse to bet on isn’t as simple as the steps in my original post of how to pick a winner. For me, that is just the first step. For each race I create a list of horses I like, based on the form, comments from pundits and tips. From this list I then select 3 horses for each race by comparing them and looking at the odds. I usually do this a day or two before the race.
Usually, I tend to put my bets on the morning of the race. I will then go back to my 3 horses for each race and will once again look at their details and the odds. I will then choose the most likely winners to put a bet on. Sometimes this is one of the three, more often two and very rarely all three, if it is a particularly big field of runners.
My Festival Strike Rate
This is the process I used for the Cheltenham Festival and I like to keep track of how all of my 3 selections in each race get on, even if I don’t place a bet on them. For this years festival I picked 72 horses over 24 races. Of these horses; 10 won, 26 finished top 4, 28 completed the race and 8 were pulled up/fell/unseated their jockey. Obviously each race has different each way terms, but 1/7 of the horses I picked were winners and about half were each way winners! Which is a pretty good strike rate!
EquiPepper Tips for the future
While I don’t claim to be an expert, I am really starting to develop an eye for a winner. So I was thinking that for the next big festival, I will start sharing my selected 3 horses in each race in advance. I’m not sure how I will be sharing this with you just yet. But I thought it might be a good idea and I already get the odd person asking me for tips!
In the meantime, if you are interested an upcoming race in particular and would like my tips, I am more than happy to give them to you! Although unfortunately I cannot guarantee you a win! Is this something you would like to see in the run up to big race meetings?
