I picked up both books, and plan on reviewing more as time allows, but my intention or ultimate goal was to educate myself. I am still working through Puntology and have to say that I like it. It does have a bent more towards British racing but much of it is very relevent no matter where on the planet you live or what sort of racing you fancy. The ultimate goal is to become a professional gambler at the end of a year’s time and the funny thing is that the author, Michael Wilding, knows human behavior pretty well and includes a simple betting system in the beginning of the lessons since I think he figures that you’re going to want to get up and running as quickly as possible. From there he helps you to refine or create your own betting system tailored around your own interests. What I found was that, for myself, I wanted a system that was a little more granular or detailed…I wanted more in depth knowledge of some of the statistics that many of us use in handicapping a race or even remove some of the key elements of the beginners Puntology betting system that weren’t relevent to racing here in the US…that is why I picked up some books to supplement my education, so to speak.

I was actually surprised to find that the Beyer figures that so many speed handicappers live and die by that are posted in the Daily Racing Form aren’t as accurate as they might seem! It definately is a large endeavour to create your own charts but it made sense after reading these books…and what better way to create a signifcant edge than to be able to have super accurate speed figures that nobody else is privy to… (other than those that might also wish to create their own charts, which is highly unlikely in this day and age of a public that demands immediate gratification!)

The long and the short of it is, Puntology is great and it will give you a wonderful education and make you a Grade I punter within a year’s time…there is no question about that…but why not do some “extra credit” stuff to ensure that you have a signifcant edge over the rest of the punters out there and ensure that you are solidly a part of the 2-5% of punters who make money and are successful instead of hoping and praying that you aren’t a part of the remainder that fill the pockets of the upper eschelon?

I hope to post some of my handicapping so you can see how things progress with me as I strive to become a Professional Gambler this year. I will tell you that I’m not a horrible handicapper but I think we will all agree that each of us could use some improvement…I mean, given enough time and a couple of pints I’ve always been able to tune out those around me voicing their opinion of the next race and asking me what I was going to do….and on a winning night I usually don’t have trouble in passing on a race that doesn’t seem quite right to me…and if things turn really bad I don’t have a problem with saying “Sorry…I’m done for the night”

My problem has always been achieving that delicate balance of having my wits about me while being relaxed enough to see the whole picture when I look at the racing form. On these occassions I can usually pick two or three trifectas with two of them being winners….but when I overhandicap and try too hard (or drink too much lager, on the other end of the spectrum!) I wind up trying to find a good bet…and that always winds up biting me in the arse!

I am enjoying this process of working through Michael Wilding’s Puntology…and if you’re game I’d welcome anyone who wants to work through it with me. We can either communicate through email or create a group of some sort….a “study group,” so to speak! I was thinking of asking Michael if he would be interested in starting up a message board of some sort on his site that could be accessed by those of us who are reading his lessons. The only problem that I can think of is that it is human nature to want to read ahead and rush things which I think might hurt more than it would help.

Let me know what you think and in the meantime check out Puntology and think seriously about getting your education in punting.

This fact can be seen in Calvin Borel’s winning record on Rachel Alexandra…..he is unbeaten on her, and hopefully he will remain that way come Saturday at the Preakness! LOL

The fact is that winning jockeys get the best horses. This may go against your thinking or beliefs but it is the best horses that have the money behind them in the form of ownership and these are the mounts that the best jockeys want since that’s where the money is in the form of percentage of winnings. Nothing can be more heartbreaking than having a great horse and placing it in the hands of a jockey that doesn’t know how to get the best out of that horse….perhaps a jockey that can’t hold a horse back at the begining of a race and thus the horse is spent come the end of the race. Yes, there are always exceptions to the rule and there are a lot of young, new jockeys out there with pure talent….as well as some older, “experienced” jocks that just lack real talent…that intuitiveness where they become one with the horse. But as a general rule, older, more experienced jockeys get the better horses and thus have a better winning percentage.

This fact is why as a part of my own betting system I do take into consideration a jockey’s win percentage. I don’t treat this as a flat number but I do actually take that percentage and weigh it against all the other jockeys in the running.

There are many variables to take into consideration and a jockey’s winning percentage is just one of them. You may ask, “what betting system do you use?” and I’ll tell you that I use MY betting system. It may look a lot like many of the other ones out there but this one is mine. I am constantly modifying and tweeking and and changing things a little bit as things change in an attempt to get a better handle on exactly what all these variables mean in my handicapping…but not too much. How did I come up with this system? I read a lot and take the advice of others who have gone before me and been successful like Michael Wilding of Puntology fame.

To find out more about this “education in punting”….this “PHD in betting on horse racing”….this “Masters Degree in Gambling” go to http://www.horsebettingsystems.info/recommends/puntology/