Betting Strategy: Three top tips for successful gambling on the Flat

Betting Strategy / Graham Cunningham / 10 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

It's the time of year when racing fans aren't sure if they are coming or going. The Flat season is taking time to gather momentum, while the memory of Mon Mome's 100-1 shocker in the Grand National is still fresh in the minds of jumps followers. But as those memories fade Racing UK and betmaverick.com analyst Graham Cunningham sets out three golden rules for the coming Flat campaign.

The Flat season on turf may be two weeks old, but it's generally recognised that the real action begins in earnest with the Craven Meeting at Newmarket next week.

And, as Newmarket is the birthplace of rumour and gossip where racehorses are concerned, it's as well to set down a few golden rules for the months ahead.

Number one relates to gossip. Granted, hearing whispers about unexposed horses who are supposedly making pigeons look pedestrian can be incredibly seductive.

But it can also be incredibly costly. By and large, betting on gossip is generally most attractive to those who can't be arsed to read a form book or watch a replay in order to draw their own conclusions.

And, given that those who bet on gossip also tend to have itchy trigger fingers, the chance of securing a value price via Betfair or the traditional bookies for so-called flying machines tends to be pretty slim overall.

Number two relates to specialising. Since leaving the Evening Standard on the day Sir Percy won the Derby in 2006 I have been fortunate enough - though it hardly seems fortunate some days - to study racing on a full time basis.

And I guarantee that soon after the summer season of evening racing gets under way I will feel swamped by the sheer weight of action from all points of the compass.

The only answer is to pinpoint a subsection of the bloated racing calendar in the hope of finding the edge all punters need. It could be the northern or southern circuits; it could be Grade 1 tracks; it could be sprint handicappers; or it could be two-year-olds.

The choice is up to the individual, but having one particularly strong specialist subject is sensible for those working to a tight time budget and it works a treat for some of the more successful punters I know.

And number three relates to using Betfair in the most flexible way possible. Put simply, if you can read the way a race is likely to develop before the stalls open you can be very confident about which way the in-running market will go, too.

If your are the sort of person who is drawn to habitual smooth travellers it makes perfect sense to have a bigger pre-race bet than normal with the aim of trading part or all of it back at much shorter odds in running.

And if proven grinders are your thing then it makes equal sense to hold your line or even consider going in again once the in-play brigade begin to push the horse in question out.

So there you have it - three golden rules to help make the 2009 Flat season go with a swing. I dare say I will stray from the path from time to time, but certain events make you wonder whether it might not be worth ditching logic in favour of co-incidence.

By way of explanation, I have a son called Gabriel and a spaniel called Bud.

King Gabriel clicked at 16-1 at Fontwell on Tuesday, while Hello Bud romped away with Wincanton's Somerset National at 9-1 on Thursday.

Gabriel wasn't too chuffed when told his namesake had obliged without any of his meagre inheritance riding on his back. Bud has yet to comment but seems to be taking it fairly well. Perhaps he had the sense to get on at 20 per cent longer odds on Betfair.