Take a look at a recent picture of my garden and have a guess what sort of company I ran before I become an in-running player?
Yep, you guessed it .... I was a landscape gardener! Unfortunately my garden has always resembled a pikey's dumping ground. If you have a good rummage about out there you can find old radiators, scaffolding poles, a tyre, old bins full of various bits of crap, an old plastic shed and mountains of paving and paving blocks. God knows what's lurking down the far end, it looks like a scene from 'The Day of the Trffids'. Now that I'm working from home I've decided to get my arse in gear, polish the trowel, and get cracking out there. I've been spending a few hours each getting rid of some of the crap and I've already started block paving the passageway out into the garden, and if I may say so myself it's looking OK. I'll stick up a few pictures as I progress.
November 17
I'm still getting up to speed in terms of playing from home and mixing the in-running with the pre-race trading. It's OK playing from home, so I just need to get my game and stakes back up to a slightly higher level and also cut out the 1 or 2 silly mistakes that I've made this month. I reckon I've lost close to £300 by fucking up (backed a horse in 4th when I thought it was in 3rd close home and over the weekend managed to let the mouse slip onto a different selection just before I pressed the fucker!).
Not much happened today ...
However, the fantastic guys at Gruss have added an optional custom column to the Grid Interface that displays the first line contained in each selection's notes folder. I'll be using this to display my AW (all weather) abbreviated horse notes (and maybe the odd jumps horse notes here and there), and I'm sure that this will greatly help me in my IR trading. However, the biggest problem in compiling these notes is the time it takes, along with making sure that I only store relevant information. I did keep paper based notes back in Jan/Feb, but these just became too time consuming to maintain and update. So now I've devised a simpler and more effective way in which to store and present my notes. I've decided that for each horse I will abbreviate it's ideal trip, class and running style. My abbreviations will be as follows:
Pace
S = slow
A = average
G = good
F = fast
Position
L = leads
P = prominent
M = mid div
HU = held up
B = behind
Finishing Style
F = faded
STAV = stayed on averagely
ST = stayed on
FW = finished well
SAL = stays averagely late in the race
Other Notes
SA = slow away
MB = missed break
G = green
K = keen
O = outpaced
GW = goes well
J = jumps well
X = jumps poorly
So my notes will describe each horses ideal pace and position in a race along with it's usual running style and class limitations. So a typical example would be something like AMKSTAV7C5. This means that this horse runs best when the pace is an average one, it's positioned midfield, has been keeen in the past yet stays over a distance of 7F in class 5 races. Another example might be FOBFW7C4. This means the selection prefers a fast pace, will usually be outpaced and behind, but tends to finish well over 7F in class 4. In this example if the race was run at a slow pace then I would be a layer of this horse.
November 19
Continued compiling my horse notes today and realised, what I already knew, that they will be a super potent weapon that will potentially destroy even the keenest of track players. Although I had quite a few notes at the start of the year I now realise that maybe I didn't use them very effectively. They do take some time to compile but they should come into their own, especially when the AW really kicks into action.
Had a hopeless day in-running but feel like I'm about to get the pre-race trading by the bollox, something which I'm quite excited about!
November 20
Southwell, Folkestone and Fakenham .... oh what joy!
November 21
Bag of shite racing today but nicked a few quid.
November 22
Only 2 meetings today becase of the windy/rainy weather ... oh dear!
November 23
Bored shitless today. The place market has officially imploded ... think I might have to take the mighty step into the big bad win market!
November 24
Somebody out there must win on a Saturday? I always struggle, and today was no different. Concentrated mostly on the pre-race markets today so didn't do much IR apart from Lingfield and Wolves in the evening.
November 25
I fucking hate Sunday's ... especially when you're faced with trying to play Navan in the fucking fog! Did pretty much fuck-all until the penultimate race. I had layed McCoy for small money, but jumping the last he looked bang on for a place. The cameraman duly focused on the front 2 up towards the line, and I thought to myself, when he pans back then if McCoy is clear in 3rd I'll back him and nick a few quid back. The cameraman duly pans back, and there's McCoy plodding on for a guaranteed 3rd place, so I back him, then the horse takes 2 more strides, stumbles, and McCoy goes over his head! So onto the last race, and I should have smashed that mouse like a mad fucker. A bumper where the first 4 place, and I see Nina Carberry cantering all over them turning into the straight, and the commentator hasn't even mentioned her. So I back her for small at just over evens instead of smashing the living daylights out of her, and then back her a little bit more as she moves into second place. Nicked a few quid back but should have been a few hundred really. I really do need to grow some big fuckoff bollox and start smashing into these opportunities instead of playing safe all the time.
By the way, did I mention that the place market is now officially totally wankered? Well it is ... so I'm off to the win market. Last man out please turn off the light off ...
November 26
Fucking pants.
November 27
One fucking poxxy bag of shite meeting today .... so played the dogs instead.
November 28
Fucking hopeless.
November 29
Had a real frustrating day today. I think I'm right on the edge of making this pre-race game pay but I just keep making novicey mistakes. Just give me a few more days and the P&L should read a bit differently!
