This is a blog that will follow my progress towards winning £200K in 2012 ... and my return from retirement in 2022.
I Don't Give a Toss About Cheltenham!
Yep call me idiot or whatever but the upcoming Cheltenham meeting just doesn't get my juices flowing. I don't follow the form as such and I don't even have a clue who is running. To be honest I'm not really a fan of horse racing itself but I am a fan of trading horse races. So for me the only thing that Cheltenham means is that the flat season is coming!
01/03
+£273.18. I wasn't going anywhere today .... until the last race! The ironic thing is that I should have taken a £500+ green but I was a bit dis-organised in entering my exit trades. So although I won a nice amount I was a bit pissed-off that didn't fully exploit the opportunity.
02/03
-£41.33. This loss got on my tits! It put a tiny dent in yesterday's profit but if I had cashed-in on the £500+ yesterday then it would have been a miniscule dent ...
03/03
+£49.45. A pants day but at least it covered yesterday's losses ...
04/03
+£160.45. It wasn't a bad result today, especially as I was £130+ down after a few races ... so a nice recovery indeed ...
It's no surprise that my results on Sun - Tue are usually pretty crap because the racing is limited and usually pants. Additionally my results on the ATR tracks can also be shite because of the fucking delay in pic speed and the thieving track and fast pic boys.
05/03
The racing took a back seat today as I ventured down to Leigh-on-Sea for a day out with my lovely wife. We had a few beers and a bite to eat and then shuffled along the promenade towards Southend. It was quite a tranquil evening and we had a really good day, which was about to get better, as I had 2 tickets for 'The Australian Pink Floyd' hidden in my pocket (unknown to the missus). They're a superb tribute band and it was a fucking brilliant night!
Spot the looney (that's me in the New Zealand shirt) in the front row ...
06/03
+£284.51. Today was one of those days where my general trading was pretty pants. However, I managed to get a couple of decent wins which pretty much made the day ...
07/03
-£63.13. I backed a horse that then fell in one of the early races and lost £90 and then didn't really get going for the rest of the day so the end result was a bit of a disapointment ...
08/03
+£59.44. I was a bit more involved today but as you can see the results just didn't come along so it was a case of getting back what I lost yesterday ...
09/03
10/03
11/03
12/03
We've Almost Made It!!
Yep we've almost made it through the winter and so far the weather hasn't been too bad (well at least it hasn't been down here in the south-east of the UK). March might see a bit of a frost and the cancellation of a few meetings, but then hopefully once we reach April things should start improving as we see the start of the flat season hurrah!
I've trundled through February and to be honest my application has been somewhat lacking in terms of watching the replays, updating my horse notes, training, diet, etc. In fact I've been a right lazy fucker .... AGAIN!! If I don't get my act in gear for March then I'm destined to be a LAZY FAT bum for the rest of my life!
Around about this time last year I vowed that I would be getting up at the crack of dawn each day in order to get some work done (such as watching the replays) and also savouring the beauty of spring/summer mornings. So once again I'm going to set my alarm clock for just before sunrise each day, spring out of bed at the first beep, have a cuppa, sit in the garden (when the weather permits) and then hit the gym at the opening time of 07:00.
So if I set my alarm for 06:30 that should cover me until 08/03. Time waits for no man though and I'll have to be getting my ass out of bed at 06:00 by 22/03. The clocks change on 28/03 but I'll stick to 06:00.
So what about the trading I hear you say? Well February wasn't too bad although there was plenty of potential to do a lot better. From memory things start to pick-up from March onwards (in terms of profit) so as Caan mentions over in his blog it's time to win some summertime beer money!!
20/02
-£36.60. I didn't have a good day's trading today and I kept getting hit by those annoying losses of between £20 - £50 that soon add up!
21/02
£103.07. It's always to get back into 3 figure territory, especially after a pants day like yesterday. I actually started the day with three losses in a row but then traded pretty steadily after that and just edged past £100+.
23/02
-£36.59. It's obvious to see the effect of my current lazy attitude on my recent P&L.
I traded fuck all races, lost £30+ and ended the day by saying 'oh so what losing £30+ isn't too bad' while shoving another piece of chocolate cake in my mouth. What a fucking nob!
24/02
+£94.30. I only actually traded in 4 races today which must be some kind of record. I spent most of the doing making cups of tea, doing the housework, eating and lazing around!
25/02
+£20.02. Despite the fact that we had 3 RUK meetings today once again I made a poor effort and the only thing that is growing at the moment is my stomach! In fact is was feeling SO lazy that I hit the sack for a snooze after the 16:55 @ Bangor!
26/02
+£213.00. A steady, if un-eventful, day of trading that was greatly improved by the nice place market win in the 16:25 @ Ludlow.
27/02
+£118.62. I was plodding along today and then threw away the best part of £50 @ Dundalk but then managed to retrive it later on in the place market.
28/02
+£68.06. I started OK today but then my effort petered out and it ended up being a poor result for a Saturday ...
Back on the Notes, Gym & Diet
Yep I'm having another attempt at getting my fat, lazy ass in gear. Getting to the gym is no problem as I like to train but I really need to knuckle down and stay on a strict diet at least until the end of February.
I've started updating my notes for all of the runners each day and I've also started watching the replays that I record. These replays hold the key as it's easy to spot any particular selections that you want to make a relevant note for so that you can act accordingly the next time that it runs.
29/01
-£106.91. A great start to my daily updates! An early loss of £110+ followed by an £80+ loss later on pretty much put a damper on the day and I was flirting with a £200+ loss until I nicked back a few pennies late on.
30/01
+£165.49. The totally opposite from yesterday and I looked like going past the £200 mark but a couple of small losses late on halted my progress.
31/01
+£164.56. The good thing about updating my blog a few days after the event is that usually you forget winning days like today. When I did my P&L I thought that I'd typed yesterdays date again as the totals were similar, so a nice surprise.
01/02
+£172.80. And to be honest I didn't realise that I'd won this much today .... and the power of the horse notes seems to have kicked-in quite nicely!
02/02
+£97.62. Only the two meetings today due to the frost and wet weather so was happy with just under £100 ...
03/02
-£2.94. Once again we only had the two AW meetings today and I struggled to get going ...
04/02
+£20.37. Another lean day where we only had the two meetings. My initial thoughts on Chelmsford is that a) the BF live pics are a fucking mile behind live and b) it's fucking impossible to win anything there! To my eyes it plays a lot like the evening meetings at Wolverhampton where pretty much fuck-all happens until the last 2 furlongs and then the fast pic merchants jump in and rape the market.
05/02
+£123.50. One of those strange days where a handful of £20 wins soon put me past the +£100 mark. I even managed to take some cash from the thieving fast pic merchants at Chelmsford in the evening so that put a smile on my face!
06/02
+£137.80. I had a muddling start today but then picked-up a bit later in the afternoon so it was an OK'ish sort of day. However, my stakes are still relatively low and there is still SO much potential to be had!
07/02
+£472.64. An almost perfect Saturday where nearly everything fell nicely into place and I felt invincible. This was achieved on small'ish stakes so the possibility of +£1K days, especially during the summer months, still exists.
08/02
+£29.56. Another mediocre Sunday in early February...
09/02
+£54.05. I literally spent the day winning a couple of quid here and there ... so not quite as good as Saturday's result!
10/02
+£304.95. 23 trades and no losers makes Dave a happy man! Another excellent day where everything just seeemed to fall nicely into place. Once again my stakes were fairly minimal which gives me big hopes of plenty of £1k+ days in the future?
On the back of the above result I took the opportunity to book a day out for me and the missus in March (at a swanky restaurant) and I'm really loking forward to it!
11/02
-£172.55. Kaboom! It seemed that everything that I touched today turned to a right proper bag of shite! My biggest win was £11.02!! It was the complete opposite of yesterday, even though I felt that I had traded in exactly the same manner. Weird eh?
Think that I might have to cancel the swanky restaurant (see above) and book a table for two at my local McDonalds!
12/02
+£50.87. Today's racing started at 14:00 and by 15:00 I was around £140 DOWN! The main bulk of ths was done in a long distance slog in the heavy at Thurles. With about one mile to go I spotted this thing plodding along in about fifth place, being flogged to death by the jockey and jumping like a hairy goat. At this point some raving maniac placed a big BACK bet at around 2.0 in the place market. Now in this sort of scenario you have two options:
1) trust your eyes and judgement (it's plodding along, making no progress, has jumped poorly and is being flogged to death with absolutely no response) .... or ...
2) realise that some crafty fucker knows that this horse usually stays about 10 miles and knows that it will easily catch the ones in front as they reach the final two furlongs
Well I chose option one ..... WRONG! As predicted by the wiley backers this thing plugged on and I think that it actually finished a close second
At this point I realised that I had practically done my nice profit from 10/02 and was about to start eroding my nice winnings from 07/02. Now although I get pissed off (I suppose we all do when we have a run of losers) I never really go on tilt, so I just carried on, had a few small wins and then had a £50+ later at Thurles and then finished the day with a nice win at Chelmsford (which I'm finding quite hard atm).
It's strange as I actually thought that I was about £50 down on the day, so it was nice to do my P&L this morning and find that I'd actually won £50, which was a good result after being over £100+ down early doors.
13/02
+£170.23. It was an up and down kind of day today but it was made a lot better by the nice result in the 16:25 @ Lingfield.
14/02
+£74.30. A quite un-inspiring Saturday where I didn't make any progress until nicking a few quid here and there on the last few races.
Ventured down to the local boozer in the evening to have a few pints with the missus and watch a band and had a good time!
15/02
+£42.82. Another day where nothing really happened and I had to settle for a mediocre profit for the day ...
16/02
+£142.66. A good steady day of 23 trades and no losses!
17/02
+£176.99. I wasn't going anywhere fast today and looked as though I was going to post a loss, but then had a nice result in the 16:25 which turned the tables quite nicely!
The way that I normally trade always throws-up the possibility of a nice sized win every now and then and it's nice when one pops up, especially when you are behind and seemingly struggling on the day.
18/02
-£43.19. It's always a bummer when you have a losing day, especially after a couple of nice days as you can often feel that you are on a roll and profits usually rise in-line with your confidence.
I did have the chance of taking an easy £150 green in one race but I held on as I thought that this could have easily moved into and beyond the £1K+ region, but alas it didn't happen, although it will one day soon!! So watch this space ...
At least it's only a small one phnurr phnurr ...
19/02
-£73.49. I probably could have scraped a tiny profit today but I made a balls-up in one of the later races. I was trading for £50 a click and had a book showing around £60+ green for all runners so all was good. However, I stuck a few lay bets in at around the 1.2 mark just to balance my green on one of the runners but forgot to put my stake down to £10 per click (which I usually do mid-race to filter out my positions) and managed to turn my £60+ green into a red .... doh what a wanker!!
20/02
21/02
22/02
Week 4 - Bollox to Weekly Updates
I think that I much prefer doing daily updates as otherwise I forget to do it!
22/01 - 28/01
Week 4 = +£458.41. Felt like a pretty bland week so it was good to get £100+ today (28/01) otherwise I think I would have cried!
I'm going to get back on my horse notes again starting Feb as the more you know .... the more you win!
Week 3 - The Usual Rain & Frost
This time of year is always fucking useless for trading as a lot of meetings fall victim of the weather, leaving the mongrels to feast upon the scraps. The days where we just have two ATR meetings are a waste of time, so roll on the Summer.
15/01 - 20/01
In fact it's been SO exciting that I completely forgot to update my blog! I think that I did OK on Saturday but then lost on both Sunday and Monday, so this week's total is going to be tiny.
Made a small profit today and could have greened for £100+ in one race but let it ride as I thought that I was set to get much more .... and ended-up with much less!
21/01
Week 3 = +£279.15. Had a strange and ultimately frustrating day today. I had a string of trades (+£57, -£67, +£82, -£44) that took me one step forward only to be followed almost immediately by one step backwards. I was like 'I've fucking done it again doh!' as I waved my arms frantically in the air even though it was just me in the house.
So that was a shite week, even counting for the fact that it's the middle of Winter.
Bollox ....
Week 2 - Fuck Me Its Warming Up Nicely Already!
Talking about the weather as opposed to the racing! I actually had my garden door open this morning and ventured out into the jungle to do a cursory bit of sweeping!
Anyway I didn't really get stuck into either the pre-race malarkey (just too boring) or the race replays as I couldn't get my poxxy Sky box to record 415.
08/01
So boring today that I can't even remember what the fuck happened! Nicked a few quid by plodding along ....
09/01
Fared a bit better today and the smallish wins soon built up to a moderate amount.
10/01
Saturday today and much like most of this week I haven't really been properly prepared or motivated. I'm just kind of going through the motions and in the back of my head I think that I'm just hanging on for the flat which is only a few weeks away.
So once again I nibbled away and made it into 3 figure territory but I'm much like the Hoegh Osaka, just floating along on life's ever changing current.
God it's only 16:41 and fuck do I fancy a beer ...
11/01
I kept on having problems with the BF live video today so that kind of dampened my enthusiasm and I ended up winning about £20 on the day.
A New Year's Eve Guinness in The Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate
12/01
I stayed up way too late last night and felt knackered today! The wet weather is starting to take it's toll on the racing and we only had 2 ATR meetings today so it was always going to be slim pickings. Wolverhampton was strangely OK, which is a stark contrast to the evening meetings. I dropped my stakes and didn't therefore make the most of 1 or 2 opportunities. It can be frustrating on days like today as if you drop a bollock then you know that it's probably going to take a couple of days to claw back any losses.
Racing finished early and I decided to hit the sack for an early evening snooze. I was having a nice nap until some dozy cunt kept ringing my phone and over and fucking over again. It has a fucking answer phone ... so leave a fucking message you fucking dozy cunt and stop ringing my fucking phone 20 fucking times because I'm fucking knackered and now you've woke me up and I've got the raving fucking arsehole you fucking stupid cretin. STOP RINGING MY FUCKING PHONE YOU THICK PRICK!!
13/01
Today was ...
.... PANTS!
14/01
Week 2 = +£433.67. Another pretty mediocre week where a few meetings were cancelled. However that's to be expected at this time of the year and January to March are probably the hardest months to make any decent money judging by my efforts in previous years.
It would be nice if I could gradually increase my weekly profits over the next few weeks but I see that we are in for a cold snap so a lot depends on the amount of racing that we have up until Spring and the start of the flat season.
Week 1 - Pre-Race Trading Again?
I've recently found time to have a small dabble on the pre-race markets on those days were we maybe only have 3 meetings. I have only been playing for £5 a click (in order to watch the BF live video) but over the last few weeks I've had that feeling that I have a slightly better understanding behind some of the market moves.
Now I have tried this pre-race malarkey on a few occasions previously and have seen quite a bit of material from Jack, Caan and mugsblog, but like anything else in life it takes a lot of time, patience and effort to even approach a stage where you can consistently make cash. I have always found that dabbling in the pre-race markets is OK in the winter months when there can be long enough gaps between races, but in the summer it's impossible to do both pre-race and in-running as there is just not enough time, and to be honest it's much better just concentrating on one or another.
One of the reasons why I remain intrigued by the pre-race market is that I'd much rather trade on Betdaq and pay 5% commission instead of donating 50% of my winnings each week to Betfair. Currently the IR market on Betdaq in non-existant but the pre-race market looks like a viable alternative maybe?
So I'm thinking that I might fire-up Camtasia and see if I can capture some of my pre-race efforts over the next few weeks and we'll see how I go?
03/01
I had one of those days today (Saturday) where I seemed to be taking small steps forward up the ladder only to find myself land on a snake and end up back at the bottom. I persevered and then managed to string a few half decent trades together and I think that I just made it into 3 figure territory.
04/01
A pretty miserable and cold Sunday with only 3 ATR meeetings. I spent most the the afternoon nicking a few quid and then giving it back before ending the day ever so slightly in the green zone.
05/01
Another day of pants weather and racing! Building any enthusiasm for days like today is hard and it's just a case of nicking a few quid here and there in order to pay the bills.
The lack of liquidiy and mass panic amongst the traders almost caught me out in one race where the market veered wildly in the wrong direction (well wrong for me) and I was staring an £80 loss in the face when in my opinion the odds should barely have changed. The whole world seemed to be bailing out of their early position and I had no option other than to sit tight and wait for normality to kick-in whereupon the price moved back in my favour long enough for me to bail out without being kicked in the bollox.
This happens quite often, traders scrambling for the exit early doors and throwing in any price you like just to salvage something from their seemingly 'doomed' trade. The strange thing is that anyone who knows their form must be filling their boots when this happens as quite often a price will move violently purely on the back of this panic 'selling' and in hindsight some of the prices being offered are ludicrously good value.
06/01
I dragged my ass out of bed this morning and hit the gym, sauna and then Asda. The remainder of the day was spent trying once again to nick a few quid on an uninspiring day of racing.
07/01
Week 1 = +£157.63. So that was my first week back this year and trading wise it was pretty shite!
Strangely enough this co-incided with an email from a trading friend who said that he had just had a relatively nice week and it felt easy .... lucky bastard!!
2015 ... Earn More, Drink More, Weigh Less and Fuck Like a Rabbit
Friday 2nd January and what a cracking day weatherwise eh? Makes me think of those long hot summer days sitting in the sun and drinking Hoegaarden.
Unfortunately the Hoegaarden ran dry in The Belgian Cafe over the New Year period so I had to resort to Guinness on our first session, Fosters on New Year's Eve night and then wade into various different bottles of white wheat beer on New Year's Day (pics to follow).
So we had a cracking time but now it's back to the grind in an atempt to win enough cash for more coastal shennanigans in the Summer!
02/01
Ffos, Ayr and Southwell followed by Wolves and Dundalk didn't exactly get the juices flowing but I nicked a few pennies here and there and following a small break it didn't feel as boring as it might have been on a 'normal' day.
Happy Xmas, New Year and all that Bollox!
Well that was a pretty quiet, expensive and yet enjoyable Xmas! Visted a couple of local boozers on Xmas eve (and there's pretty much not many left around these parts) and partook of a few sherberts but didn't go too mad and was back in bed before midnight.
I took the opportunity to cook Xmas dinner this year and it all went rather well, if somewhat delayed. A few bottles of Hoegaarden were then consumed on Xmas day and it was all pretty civilised. Unfortunately I've been like a human dustbin over the last few days and I'm starting to get that 'Big Daddy' kind of physique.
The racing kicked back into action on Boxing Day and it's always a bit of a nightmare with races clashing and non-existant liquidity in some of the wankier meetings. Unfortunately I then picked up the lurgi so I'm hoping to shift that before 31/12 as we're supposed to be off to the coast for a monster beer session.
22/12
+£52.71. Now although my daily total was nothing to write home about I did feel a lot more aggressive today so I felt relatively happy and if I continue in the same way then the increase in profits should materialise.
26/12
+£113.48 I started off very poorly today but then had a nice win in a race at Kempton which put me back in profit. The only downside was the loss in the last race of the day which is always a bit of a bummer.
27/12
+£564.68. I think that I might change the way in which I do my blog next year and maybe just do weekly updates on my P&L? I'll also try and make it more lighthearted and try not to moan so much!
After my nice win I was giving it 'whos the fucking daddy' (appropriately see above) at the top of my voice and later in the day my missus said 'I could hear you screaming from upstairs ..... so did you have nice win' .... doh!
28/12
Suffering a bit from a cold today and I'm hoping that I can shift it over the next couple of days in time for our coastal New Year celebrations.
All I need to do now is search for one of those websites that has erotic audio recordings and find one that has a script along the lines of 'give it to me big boy, harder, faster, deeper, etc'. From now on it's going to be 'just going for an early night tonight darling' as I wander off and lock myself in my bedroom with my Ipod, plastic minge, a copy of Razzle ...
... and copious amounts of lube!!
29/12
30/12
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