Hi everyone,

Just found this site and after reading a few pages of threads, it looks like a good place to throw around ideas.

I’ve recently hit the big 60 and retired and putting more time into my racing systems that I started working on when I was 18 years old (some could rightly say “I must be a little slow.”)

Ten years ago I got really serious and brought out all the form guides and results (from up in the roof cavity) dating back to the 1974. The little lady wasn't happy so we made a deal that involved scrapping the papers from 1974 to 1994. We then had a huge bon fire on our 2 hectare block on the Mid North Coast. Most of these were papers wereslightly damaged by cockroach poo and had faded yellow, so that made it a bit easier to part with them. Actually the yellow was partly the old Sun newspaper guide that came out on Fridays many years ago, and were coloured yellow. At the end of the day I figured if I could get a system to show a profit from 1995 to 2013 I was probably on the right track.

Why do I have such a passion for discovering a winning racing system? Good question. I had my first bet in the Weethalle pub, which was near my Dad’s farm, when I had just turned18. The local parish priest was the SP bookie, believe it or not, so I reckoned it must have had Gods blessing. He put all the winnings back into church maintenance so it was a good fundraiser.

It was only three years after decimal currency so I had my first bet with a couple of brand new twenty cents each way… and it won and a punter was born. If my memory serves me right it was a horse called ‘Kiss Me Kate’. Within a week I developed my first basic system, and started dreaming of moving off ‘the battlers’ farm and becoming a millionaire.

This novice and very basic system involved backing the 2^nd and/or 3^rd ‘most favoured’ selection from all the tipsters in Fridays ‘Sun’. Gradually I moved on to eliminating the tips that didn’t have the right form, weight etc, etc, etc. Don’t laugh I was only 18!!

I actually bought a couple of systems back in the late 80s to see if anyone else was thinking similarly. This was encouraging as most were not even up to the one I developed in half an hour when I was a kid!

From there I spent hundreds of hours pouring through years and years of racing form and results. The frustrating thing with systems is you can have remarkable success for up to 2 years and then have a just as remarkable fail for a year or so, that wipes you out. Unfortunately this means if you want to test a system for three or more years it can take hundreds of hours.

I recently added some changes to my most advanced system I developed three or four years ago and consequently spent the first few months of this year going back to see if the changes added or subtracted from the profit. Fortunately it was a good change and my winning percentage has increased.

Being retired I am now a small punter, ($10 each way or $20win) and bet with IAS bet, because they are the fastest at paying out after races, have best tote and best fluctuations. As most would realise, on some occasions best fluctuations can pay huge amounts over best tote. On other occasions (normally in larger fields and in open betting races) best tote sometimes out performs best fluctuations. In particular with horses starting around 7/1 or longer.

Naturally I won’t share my hard earned secrets (even with my wife) but I will give a heads up to anyone who asks, with basic suggestions such as - what tracks I use for my system bets , the maximum starters, grades of races that yield best results, Saturday only races etc etc.

Forgot to mention I went to New Zealand in 1988 and bought a 2 year old racehorse for $15000. She had started once and ran 6th in a maiden. My friends and I flew her back to Auz and over a few years she won 3 races along with many placings. The first win was at a TAB meeting at Gunnedah where she started at 6/1 in a maiden and won by 6 lengths. I have to say when she passed the winning post it was perhaps the most exciting feeling my friends and I have ever enjoyed. The birth of my two kids was beaten in a photo!!

Good luck to everyone

Dave