2007 - A New Year

Happy New Year to all our readers. We trust everyone had an enjoyable and festive Christmas and New Year.

We were lucky enough to provide our members with two New Years Day presents, when both Publishing and West River Charley won on Monday. These winners take our statistics to 23 winners from a total of 45 selections since we commenced. Running with an average winning price of $2.61, gives our members a profit at level stakes of 33.40%. And there are plenty more winner to be found in 2007.

Do you make New Years resolutions? Although far from perfect, a New Years resolution is not something we generally contemplate. Mainly because it is very easy to make a resolution, and keep it going for a short period of time. However in the long term, old habits usually win over and things return to where they were before January 1. How many times have we sworn to give up smoking, give up chocolates, stop swearing, or give up the grog as our New Years resolution. Doesn't work, does it? Far easier to try to cut down gradually, than remove a major chunk of our life instantaneously.

The best way to make a New Years resolution work, is to make one that doesn't require a huge lifestyle change, like giving up smoking. Something small like, emptying the rubbish bin every morning. Or ringing your brother or sister once a month. Simple, small things are far easier to change and adapt to than a huge lifestyle change like giving up drinking.

And what about your punting? What really irks you about your punting that you could include in a New Years resolution. Keep stringent records of every bet? Use a staking plan instead of betting wild and woolly amounts on different bets? Don't back favourites that start shorter than even money. Seriously, how difficult would it be to apply any of those to your punting?

How about some of these.

Don't back horses first up from a spell, unless they are double figure odds. Why, because only 1 in 9 horses first up from a spell will win, so you must ensure you are getting the correct value for your money.

Don't back horses who start from a barrier outside the centre of the field. That is, if there are 12 horses in the race, don't back a horse drawn outside barrier 6. Why, because barriers are the single biggest influence on a horse race in this day and age, and the majority of winners start from inside barriers. We will explain this further in a future article.

Don't back maiden winners jumping to a Class 2 race or better. They can win, but their winning strike rate is worse than 1 in 10, so again you must ensure you get the right odds.

Don't bet in maidens, especially if there is a lot of first starters or horses first up from a spell.

Don't take more money to the pub on Saturday afternoon than you can afford to lose on the punt.


Do you have one? Is there something you do when punting, and when you do it the horse always loses? Write it down, and make it your New Years resolution not to do it in 2007. Keep a list if you like of the horses that fall into this category, and see how many actual win. Whatever it might be, keep it simple and achievable. I assure you, you will feel much better about your punting if you change something that gives you more money in your pocket.

Monitor what you do and record the results, and in 3 months time review it. Have you achieved what you set out to achieve? Was it successful? Can it be improved on?

We can all improve our punting and our results. It is just a matter of spending time to research our methods and finding the good things and bad things we do. Improve the good things, remove the bad things. And something as simple as that, could be your New Years resolution.

If you would like to become a member of our successful team, please contact us here at profselections@austarnet.com.au and we will assist you to join.

In the meantime, good luck and profitable punting to all.