Many punters don’t have the time to do the form properly so they rely far too heavily on radio and TV spruikers.

But these people are journalists rather than expert form analysts and serious punters don’t guess, rely on hunches or place any emphasis whatsoever in the opinions of media personaliti es.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when commentators express their opinion as fact it’s not doing the punters any favours.

There are countless examples of this every raceday, but here is just one example from TVN on Wednesday:

“Michael Kent – Gee he’s got a great strike-rate in these midweekers here at Betfair Park”.

But does he? Is there an edge for punters to back Mick Kent’s horses at Sandown on a Wednesday?

Let’s look at the stats for these runners over the last 4 years:
163 starters
19 wins (12% strike-rate)
25% loss on turnover (level stakes)
30% loss on turnover (proportionate stakes)

Despite the assertion of the TVN commentator there is nothing to be gained here with poor strike-rate and loss on turnover figures.

In fact Kent’s overall performance for the last 4 years (across across all tracks and days of the week) is much better than his Betfair Park midweek record:
1462 starters
220 wins (15% s/r)
14% loss on turnover (level stakes)
13% loss on turnover (proportionate stakes)

Commentators have a lot of air time to fill and are not nearly as well researched as serious form analysts and professional punters. So rather than putting too much blame on them I just want to issue a note of caution to punters that they should do their own work on any race they are looking to bet on.

Good punting

David Duffield

Horse Racing Tips

Doing the form: dont believe everything you hear is a post from: Championpicks - Horse Racing Tips

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