A punter's perception on dog racing...
The last blog takes me to the end of my article on dog racing entitled:
Dog Racing: Unravelling The Mystique © G.Crawley 2006
A beginner’s guide.
If you wish to read all of this blog on dog racing please go into the archives beginning with
Dec 2005 and follow the blogs in date order to the present blog.
I’m not sure how this unique view of dog racing - from an ordinary punter’s perception - will be received by anybody reading this blog but I hope it will be useful; especially to beginners at dog racing. Iwould appreciate your comments - even if they are not complimentry.
My email address is : crawley1000@msn.com
I have certainly enjoyed doing it and hope to continue it in a lighter vein with some more comment when I see things in dog racing that are worth a mention and perhaps doing something on horse racing, as I have attended a great many horse race meetings and dog meetings over 40 years with my great buddy Jimmy Dickinson, from Corby, who passed away in February last year.
Jimmy’s little joke was: ‘we have been betting for 40 years and we are still not addicted’.
I miss him a lot.
Come racing!!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
'Chance favours only the prepared mind'... Louis Pasteur (1829-1895)
The future of dog racing?
Lord Lipsey, Chairman of the BGRB has given us a strategy for greyhound racing up until 2010. Everyone has been asked about their views: the stakeholders, the breeders, the promoters, the owners and the trainers. Everyone except, as far as I can see, the customers; the punters.
What do ordinary people, going to dog racing, have to say about how it will develop? What is their vision? What do they want to see happening?
I suggest that punters want to see a variety of races at their local tracks. Some tracks do try to put on hurdle races and handicap races but the vast majority seem to dole out the same fare week after week; except for the open race competitions.
By 2010 there needs to be a lot more tracks putting on hurdle and handicap races and I would like to see 8 dog races in order to make the pools better and make the races more competitive. Eight dog races would make it harder for the punters to pick winners but I think they would attract the public more; and there would be scope for different types of bets - it is a sport, yes, but it is also entertainment; and there are 8 dog races held in many countries now and I suspect that is because 6 dog races are too restrictive to form proper markets.
I believe that future stadiums will be multi- purpose enterprises. Look around any dog track and you will see that only a tiny proportion of the oval is occupied; vast stretches of valuable land all round unused. If the stadiums were used for other purposes on non-race days I believe facilities would be improved and entrance fees made cheaper for racing, allowing punters to go to more meetings.
How about covered indoor stadiums fitted out as multi-purpose for other sports? Not feasible? Nothing new seems feasible, until someone tries it…Think on the drama when the house lights go down in a heated covered stadium and the dogs chase a digital hare around the track in the glare of spotlights. A virtual hare? Fanciful? - Who knows? Your imagination can run riot; but I only raise these thoughts to try to get people thinking about what changes they would like to see within the sport. Dream on…
In conclusion to this article on dog racing where I have attempted to put other ideas on how to really look at a dog race in fine depth: I would like to see more people getting interested in what I have tried to put to newcomers and maybe some old hands at the game.
If my ‘plot the dogs graphs’ catch on how long will it be before the tracks have a graph in their greyhound programme; and perhaps someone will make an electronic hand-held one? Just punch the numbers in and, ‘Hey presto! I can assess the dogs’ performance!’ And there is the picture cell phone, which is very much at the centre of communications, that could deliver six tiny graphs through a website to your mobile phone at the track or betting shop.
At the very least, let me say that if I were a dog owner who leaves it all up to the trainer, I would be keeping my own records and graphs on how my dog was running, and what better way to do it than using my system of plotting the dogs? And it can be done using Microsoft Excel if you don’t want to do it drawing by hand.
Try it out and see how you get on; if you have made the graph correctly it can’t lie and it will add to your knowledge and hopefully you will get some pleasure out of it.
My last word on this blog is to say that I have had mixed reactions when I have shown my work to different people. I demonstrated it to young people at the dog track who were interested and enthusiastic (in fact one young guy won £40 on a trio using my cards - I would have been more pleased if it had been from using my graphs, but a win is a win…).
On the other hand I have been received with cynicism by an old hand at the game who thinks that it is too in depth and he picks four dogs quickly from a few lines of form for a ‘four- timer’ just for fun. He didn’t say how often he wins! Not many I’ll bet.
I give you these two illustrations to show that some people will embrace new ideas and others have no intention of changing their way of working; but if you have an inquiring mind I offer to you this mantra which I have written into all my betting notebooks:
‘Chance favours only the prepared mind’
Louis Pasteur (1829-1895)
I do not mind people copying my work for personal use; but not for commercial use.
Copyright G. Crawley 2006
Email: crawley1000@msn.com
Come racing!!
The future of dog racing?
Lord Lipsey, Chairman of the BGRB has given us a strategy for greyhound racing up until 2010. Everyone has been asked about their views: the stakeholders, the breeders, the promoters, the owners and the trainers. Everyone except, as far as I can see, the customers; the punters.
What do ordinary people, going to dog racing, have to say about how it will develop? What is their vision? What do they want to see happening?
I suggest that punters want to see a variety of races at their local tracks. Some tracks do try to put on hurdle races and handicap races but the vast majority seem to dole out the same fare week after week; except for the open race competitions.
By 2010 there needs to be a lot more tracks putting on hurdle and handicap races and I would like to see 8 dog races in order to make the pools better and make the races more competitive. Eight dog races would make it harder for the punters to pick winners but I think they would attract the public more; and there would be scope for different types of bets - it is a sport, yes, but it is also entertainment; and there are 8 dog races held in many countries now and I suspect that is because 6 dog races are too restrictive to form proper markets.
I believe that future stadiums will be multi- purpose enterprises. Look around any dog track and you will see that only a tiny proportion of the oval is occupied; vast stretches of valuable land all round unused. If the stadiums were used for other purposes on non-race days I believe facilities would be improved and entrance fees made cheaper for racing, allowing punters to go to more meetings.
How about covered indoor stadiums fitted out as multi-purpose for other sports? Not feasible? Nothing new seems feasible, until someone tries it…Think on the drama when the house lights go down in a heated covered stadium and the dogs chase a digital hare around the track in the glare of spotlights. A virtual hare? Fanciful? - Who knows? Your imagination can run riot; but I only raise these thoughts to try to get people thinking about what changes they would like to see within the sport. Dream on…
In conclusion to this article on dog racing where I have attempted to put other ideas on how to really look at a dog race in fine depth: I would like to see more people getting interested in what I have tried to put to newcomers and maybe some old hands at the game.
If my ‘plot the dogs graphs’ catch on how long will it be before the tracks have a graph in their greyhound programme; and perhaps someone will make an electronic hand-held one? Just punch the numbers in and, ‘Hey presto! I can assess the dogs’ performance!’ And there is the picture cell phone, which is very much at the centre of communications, that could deliver six tiny graphs through a website to your mobile phone at the track or betting shop.
At the very least, let me say that if I were a dog owner who leaves it all up to the trainer, I would be keeping my own records and graphs on how my dog was running, and what better way to do it than using my system of plotting the dogs? And it can be done using Microsoft Excel if you don’t want to do it drawing by hand.
Try it out and see how you get on; if you have made the graph correctly it can’t lie and it will add to your knowledge and hopefully you will get some pleasure out of it.
My last word on this blog is to say that I have had mixed reactions when I have shown my work to different people. I demonstrated it to young people at the dog track who were interested and enthusiastic (in fact one young guy won £40 on a trio using my cards - I would have been more pleased if it had been from using my graphs, but a win is a win…).
On the other hand I have been received with cynicism by an old hand at the game who thinks that it is too in depth and he picks four dogs quickly from a few lines of form for a ‘four- timer’ just for fun. He didn’t say how often he wins! Not many I’ll bet.
I give you these two illustrations to show that some people will embrace new ideas and others have no intention of changing their way of working; but if you have an inquiring mind I offer to you this mantra which I have written into all my betting notebooks:
‘Chance favours only the prepared mind’
Louis Pasteur (1829-1895)
I do not mind people copying my work for personal use; but not for commercial use.
Copyright G. Crawley 2006
Email: crawley1000@msn.com
Come racing!!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Driven by numbers...
Random Numbers.
What about the punter who can’t be bothered with the above? You know what I mean: the person who only wants a night out at the dogs where he or she can have a good drink and bet a few dogs using any way possible to choose the numbers.
I often do not have time to study form because we have booked a meal in the racetrack restaurant and find it difficult to eat and drink and bet dogs all at he same time; so we end up picking random numbers.
We all do this on occasions; don’t we? The problem with that is, often I can’t make up my mind which number to choose! So I started to take a dice with me but it was a nuisance as it always ended up under the table. One of my friends then brought an electronic dice that flashed a number up in red neon light; which was an improvement as it didn’t end up on the floor. But it wasn't the answer...
It was ok for single dog bets but betting forecasts and trios meant you needed more goes on the dice; we wanted something simpler.
Therefore I made some cards on my computer. Six single cards, with a yellow back, if you wanted to bet singles; 15 cards, with a blue back, with two numbers on each card (having all of the combinations of the six dogs) for betting forecasts and reversed forecasts; 20 silver backed cards, having three numbers on each for betting combination forecasts or combination trios.
We would decide what type of bet we wanted and shuffled the appropriate pack; picked one card; made a bet via the attendant on our table and carried on with our evening meal. Problem solved!
Now this will sound like heresy to students of form… Picking dogs by numbers ? Numbers!.. So?..
It’s a number driven society… The lottery; virtual dog racing; virtual horse racing; 49’s; roulette; and some people bet the same numbers in every dog race; it is all entertainment; isn’t it?
Anyway the cards work quite well and sometimes add to the fun of dog racing; especially if someone has picked a card, used for selecting a forecast or trio, and it has come up with a big payout.
It is illuminating to use cards because it brings home to you just how difficult it is to get a forecast or a trio up. Take the reversed forecast for instance: if I pick one card with two numbers on it and it comes up, there are 14 cards that lost! There’s your odds: 14/1 against.
If I choose one card having three numbers from the pack of twenty combination forecast and trio cards and it wins an ‘all ways’ forecast or an ‘all ways’ trio there are 16 cards that have lost! (Sixteen because two of the six dog numbers are on at least four of the combination cards).
I often see people putting on straight trio’s; and I shudder! I think of the odds on getting a straight trio up. It’s 16/1 on getting a combination trio up; so what are the odds of getting 3 numbers up in the correct order! It must be enormous.
I can only see one instance where it is feasible to put on a straight trio and that is when someone is convinced after reading through the form, and not wanting to lose 5 bets on a combination trio, decides to maximise the bet because they cannot see the race turning out any other way… Brave punter. Go for it!
Besides the cards I have made for greyhound betting (they are handy for Virtual Greyhound Racing, too) I have made cards for Virtual Horse Racing (it’s only numbers against numbers; isn’t it? And the dogs and horses never fall or bump into each other!
There are 20 cards in the Virtual Horse racing pack plus a couple of cards with ‘Favourite’ on them and one card with ‘2nd Favourite’ on it. Well, you have to balance it up with the computer that is picking the winners and it is programmed to bring up ‘Favourite’ or ‘2nd Favourite’ on occasions!
Note: If there were to be a large demand for these cards I’d get them manufactured for sale.
Come racing!!
Random Numbers.
What about the punter who can’t be bothered with the above? You know what I mean: the person who only wants a night out at the dogs where he or she can have a good drink and bet a few dogs using any way possible to choose the numbers.
I often do not have time to study form because we have booked a meal in the racetrack restaurant and find it difficult to eat and drink and bet dogs all at he same time; so we end up picking random numbers.
We all do this on occasions; don’t we? The problem with that is, often I can’t make up my mind which number to choose! So I started to take a dice with me but it was a nuisance as it always ended up under the table. One of my friends then brought an electronic dice that flashed a number up in red neon light; which was an improvement as it didn’t end up on the floor. But it wasn't the answer...
It was ok for single dog bets but betting forecasts and trios meant you needed more goes on the dice; we wanted something simpler.
Therefore I made some cards on my computer. Six single cards, with a yellow back, if you wanted to bet singles; 15 cards, with a blue back, with two numbers on each card (having all of the combinations of the six dogs) for betting forecasts and reversed forecasts; 20 silver backed cards, having three numbers on each for betting combination forecasts or combination trios.
We would decide what type of bet we wanted and shuffled the appropriate pack; picked one card; made a bet via the attendant on our table and carried on with our evening meal. Problem solved!
Now this will sound like heresy to students of form… Picking dogs by numbers ? Numbers!.. So?..
It’s a number driven society… The lottery; virtual dog racing; virtual horse racing; 49’s; roulette; and some people bet the same numbers in every dog race; it is all entertainment; isn’t it?
Anyway the cards work quite well and sometimes add to the fun of dog racing; especially if someone has picked a card, used for selecting a forecast or trio, and it has come up with a big payout.
It is illuminating to use cards because it brings home to you just how difficult it is to get a forecast or a trio up. Take the reversed forecast for instance: if I pick one card with two numbers on it and it comes up, there are 14 cards that lost! There’s your odds: 14/1 against.
If I choose one card having three numbers from the pack of twenty combination forecast and trio cards and it wins an ‘all ways’ forecast or an ‘all ways’ trio there are 16 cards that have lost! (Sixteen because two of the six dog numbers are on at least four of the combination cards).
I often see people putting on straight trio’s; and I shudder! I think of the odds on getting a straight trio up. It’s 16/1 on getting a combination trio up; so what are the odds of getting 3 numbers up in the correct order! It must be enormous.
I can only see one instance where it is feasible to put on a straight trio and that is when someone is convinced after reading through the form, and not wanting to lose 5 bets on a combination trio, decides to maximise the bet because they cannot see the race turning out any other way… Brave punter. Go for it!
Besides the cards I have made for greyhound betting (they are handy for Virtual Greyhound Racing, too) I have made cards for Virtual Horse Racing (it’s only numbers against numbers; isn’t it? And the dogs and horses never fall or bump into each other!
There are 20 cards in the Virtual Horse racing pack plus a couple of cards with ‘Favourite’ on them and one card with ‘2nd Favourite’ on it. Well, you have to balance it up with the computer that is picking the winners and it is programmed to bring up ‘Favourite’ or ‘2nd Favourite’ on occasions!
Note: If there were to be a large demand for these cards I’d get them manufactured for sale.
Come racing!!
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Baffling inconsistent greyhound times...
The Chart for 500mtr+???
Incredibly it can be 58 and 59! A good example being Caloona Striker’s track record at Brighton over 695m in 40.73. Dividing the record 40.73 by the metres covered 659 brings up a number as follows:- 0.05860 making it a 58 category dog!
Even the 740m won by greyhound Form of Magic in 43.59 becomes 0.05890. A 58 dog!
As a guide to use over long distances I suggest that: you start at 60 as long distance record class. Then work downwards to 65 as slow. Average would be 63 and 64; with 61 and 62 as very quick /and quick.
You will have gathered from this section on greyhound times that the subject of transferring times across different distances (which we attempt to do in our head every time we go dog racing) is complicated. If you can ‘suss’ it out you win; I have been fairly successful on some occasions. Notably, when I bet Roxholme Girl to win the St Leger at the ante post price of 6/1.
Why there are such curious and illogical times over a range of distances that come up between tracks (besides surfaces and banks on bends) leaves me searching for an explanation with such thoughts such as: ‘surely a dog running over 740 metres at 0.05860 sec/metre can’t be travelling at the same speed as a dog running over say 235m or 474m’? Can it?? Maybe the explanation is that the track measurements are not what they are listed as; or the timing devices are not as good as they could be. It has got me baffled.
I have experimented on graphs with ‘pace numbers’ in order to cut across different distances in an attempt to rationalise a multitude of times such as 59/00; 60/00; down to 64/00 with varying degree of success. However it is not sufficiently good yet and something for the future for me to work on.
Try using a calculator on a few random times to see what you come up with; if it does nothing else it will get you thinking about pace and how quickly a greyhound can cover a single metre of ground.
Before I leave this subject, I was interested to read recently that some people were requesting that the speed of the hare should be displayed by a central clock on the track. I am not sure if I could support that; but it did intrigue me to think that punters were thinking in terms of ‘pace,’ and that can’t be bad!
Come racing!!
The Chart for 500mtr+???
Incredibly it can be 58 and 59! A good example being Caloona Striker’s track record at Brighton over 695m in 40.73. Dividing the record 40.73 by the metres covered 659 brings up a number as follows:- 0.05860 making it a 58 category dog!
Even the 740m won by greyhound Form of Magic in 43.59 becomes 0.05890. A 58 dog!
As a guide to use over long distances I suggest that: you start at 60 as long distance record class. Then work downwards to 65 as slow. Average would be 63 and 64; with 61 and 62 as very quick /and quick.
You will have gathered from this section on greyhound times that the subject of transferring times across different distances (which we attempt to do in our head every time we go dog racing) is complicated. If you can ‘suss’ it out you win; I have been fairly successful on some occasions. Notably, when I bet Roxholme Girl to win the St Leger at the ante post price of 6/1.
Why there are such curious and illogical times over a range of distances that come up between tracks (besides surfaces and banks on bends) leaves me searching for an explanation with such thoughts such as: ‘surely a dog running over 740 metres at 0.05860 sec/metre can’t be travelling at the same speed as a dog running over say 235m or 474m’? Can it?? Maybe the explanation is that the track measurements are not what they are listed as; or the timing devices are not as good as they could be. It has got me baffled.
I have experimented on graphs with ‘pace numbers’ in order to cut across different distances in an attempt to rationalise a multitude of times such as 59/00; 60/00; down to 64/00 with varying degree of success. However it is not sufficiently good yet and something for the future for me to work on.
Try using a calculator on a few random times to see what you come up with; if it does nothing else it will get you thinking about pace and how quickly a greyhound can cover a single metre of ground.
Before I leave this subject, I was interested to read recently that some people were requesting that the speed of the hare should be displayed by a central clock on the track. I am not sure if I could support that; but it did intrigue me to think that punters were thinking in terms of ‘pace,’ and that can’t be bad!
Come racing!!
Friday, April 14, 2006
Good times bad times...
Greyhound Times
I’m a small stakes punter, not an expert; and I feel that is an advantage as I can approach this project in a very unconditioned way; I’m a punter writing for punters. Apart from knowing one trainer I have no access to the dog racing world so what I have learned I have had to glean a little knowledge from him; bless him! The sum of that knowledge is that: 0.08 sec is the figure used to calculate a length that a dog has finished in front of another. It is 0.06 sec in Ireland because they race over yards instead of metres. (It seems strange expressing the approximate length of a greyhound - 1.2metres- in speed terms of second /metre, but that is how it is cleverly done).
It actually fits very well with a calculation I often make; and I have used it to good effect. Let’s give you an example: I was at Peterborough races when Roxholme Girl ran - that good dog that went on to win the dog St Leger. The race was over 605 metres and she won in a good time of 37.49 sec. I used my calculator and punched in 37.49 secs and divided it by 605 metres this gave me a figure of 0.06168 metres/sec which I knew from charts I had made in advance that this was, ‘in my classification’ a 61/68 dog; and therefore worth betting again. Explanation: the /68 is the next two decimal places.
‘Why did I classify it as 61/68?’ It is not the usual way to refer to a dog’s speed!
The answer is that I had been dividing greyhound times in seconds by the length of the race in metres which gave me a reading of seconds/metre and I had built up a scale which I referred to, so that I could determine the quality of the run against other speeds (or pace) on the scale. This is how Roxholme Girl’s speed worked out to be 61/68:- 37.49sec divided by 605m = 0.06168 sec/m.
For convenience, so that I could simplify it to make a graph I dropped the first two numerals 0.0 off the front of the number making it 61.68 (it still represented 0.06168). You might say, ‘Why don’t you do what everyone else does and remember dog’s times and measure them against the track records as a guide?
The answer to that is: I was looking for a ‘universal’ way of comparing dogs time over various distances so that I had a comparison in Open Races where there is often a multitude of different track distances and times. The scale I came up with has a betting ‘Health Warning’ attached to it; because of the question of stamina and the various designs of tracks and the surfaces on them. So the scale can be useful to make a ‘sort of judgement’ but it can’t be considered as accurate in a way that I would like it to be because it would need some ‘weighting’ factors channelled into it.
But I try… and I find it useful.
This is the chart for dogs running over 200mtrs to 500mtrs (and in some cases - as you will see – more than those distances).
0.056 > 56 - record class
0.057 > 57 – record class
0.058 > 58 - record class
0.059 > 59 - cracking time
0.060 > 60 – very quick
0.061 > 61 - good time
0.062 > 62 - average to good
0.063 > 63 - average
0.064 > 64 - average to slow
0.065 > 65 – slow
Example of ‘class’on the above scale: Larkhill Joe held a European record of 27.95 for 480m at Monmore which = 27.95sec / 480m = 0.05822.A category 58 dog.
The actual race was run in 27.95 sec over 525 yards which = 27.95 /525= 0.05323sec /yd. ( because a yard is 3 inches shorter than a metre). Making it a category 53 dog over a distance in yards.
As races are run in Ireland, and in other countries, in yards it should be noted that a different scale would apply starting in the low 50s.
Come racing!!
Greyhound Times
I’m a small stakes punter, not an expert; and I feel that is an advantage as I can approach this project in a very unconditioned way; I’m a punter writing for punters. Apart from knowing one trainer I have no access to the dog racing world so what I have learned I have had to glean a little knowledge from him; bless him! The sum of that knowledge is that: 0.08 sec is the figure used to calculate a length that a dog has finished in front of another. It is 0.06 sec in Ireland because they race over yards instead of metres. (It seems strange expressing the approximate length of a greyhound - 1.2metres- in speed terms of second /metre, but that is how it is cleverly done).
It actually fits very well with a calculation I often make; and I have used it to good effect. Let’s give you an example: I was at Peterborough races when Roxholme Girl ran - that good dog that went on to win the dog St Leger. The race was over 605 metres and she won in a good time of 37.49 sec. I used my calculator and punched in 37.49 secs and divided it by 605 metres this gave me a figure of 0.06168 metres/sec which I knew from charts I had made in advance that this was, ‘in my classification’ a 61/68 dog; and therefore worth betting again. Explanation: the /68 is the next two decimal places.
‘Why did I classify it as 61/68?’ It is not the usual way to refer to a dog’s speed!
The answer is that I had been dividing greyhound times in seconds by the length of the race in metres which gave me a reading of seconds/metre and I had built up a scale which I referred to, so that I could determine the quality of the run against other speeds (or pace) on the scale. This is how Roxholme Girl’s speed worked out to be 61/68:- 37.49sec divided by 605m = 0.06168 sec/m.
For convenience, so that I could simplify it to make a graph I dropped the first two numerals 0.0 off the front of the number making it 61.68 (it still represented 0.06168). You might say, ‘Why don’t you do what everyone else does and remember dog’s times and measure them against the track records as a guide?
The answer to that is: I was looking for a ‘universal’ way of comparing dogs time over various distances so that I had a comparison in Open Races where there is often a multitude of different track distances and times. The scale I came up with has a betting ‘Health Warning’ attached to it; because of the question of stamina and the various designs of tracks and the surfaces on them. So the scale can be useful to make a ‘sort of judgement’ but it can’t be considered as accurate in a way that I would like it to be because it would need some ‘weighting’ factors channelled into it.
But I try… and I find it useful.
This is the chart for dogs running over 200mtrs to 500mtrs (and in some cases - as you will see – more than those distances).
0.056 > 56 - record class
0.057 > 57 – record class
0.058 > 58 - record class
0.059 > 59 - cracking time
0.060 > 60 – very quick
0.061 > 61 - good time
0.062 > 62 - average to good
0.063 > 63 - average
0.064 > 64 - average to slow
0.065 > 65 – slow
Example of ‘class’on the above scale: Larkhill Joe held a European record of 27.95 for 480m at Monmore which = 27.95sec / 480m = 0.05822.A category 58 dog.
The actual race was run in 27.95 sec over 525 yards which = 27.95 /525= 0.05323sec /yd. ( because a yard is 3 inches shorter than a metre). Making it a category 53 dog over a distance in yards.
As races are run in Ireland, and in other countries, in yards it should be noted that a different scale would apply starting in the low 50s.
Come racing!!
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Let's deal with other websites...
The race card service on the Racing Post website is a valuable asset for race fans who want to punt at home on TV dog meetings; or wish to prepare before going to a crowded bookmakers shop or the local greyhound track. Although, I must say, that a number of tracks have withdrawn permission from the Racing Post to post race data on its website. How is that for meanness? The bookies must love those tracks.
Ah! but in recent weeks there have been changes… brought about because of evening greyhound racing on Sky channel 854 sponsored by William Hill bookmakers with a link to the William Hill website at http://williamhill.co.uk
If you go to this site you can access the race cards with all the necessary data for the two meetings covered by channel 854 plus there is an interesting feature where six animated greyhounds leave their traps and head for the winning post to show the best times; you can also access, with the help of the cartoon dogs, the fastest starting dogs.
There is also a live radio commentary on many of the dog races throughout the day. So well done the William Hill organization!
There is no need to stop at U.K. websites as there is a good website in the USA at http://www.rosnet2000.com which has links to Australia and other countries. At Rosnet you can access race cards with absolutely loads of information from many tracks plus video playback of previous races and also live pictures of races. There is, of course, links to betting sites where you can bet in dollars or euros.
There is another good website run by the British Greyhound Racing Board (BGRB) called http://www.thedogs.com/ where you can check the dog results from all the meetings and get some good information about dog racing in general. The tracks are shown on a map and there is a link that takes you to each track where you can access the type of races run there and, more importantly, access the track records of the various races; which is a very good starting point to start from when trying to judge the quality of dogs. It is good to know the track records at your local stadium as a guide to betting; I keep them in my notebook and take a view of races, especially open races with the times in mind.
Come racing.!!
The race card service on the Racing Post website is a valuable asset for race fans who want to punt at home on TV dog meetings; or wish to prepare before going to a crowded bookmakers shop or the local greyhound track. Although, I must say, that a number of tracks have withdrawn permission from the Racing Post to post race data on its website. How is that for meanness? The bookies must love those tracks.
Ah! but in recent weeks there have been changes… brought about because of evening greyhound racing on Sky channel 854 sponsored by William Hill bookmakers with a link to the William Hill website at http://williamhill.co.uk
If you go to this site you can access the race cards with all the necessary data for the two meetings covered by channel 854 plus there is an interesting feature where six animated greyhounds leave their traps and head for the winning post to show the best times; you can also access, with the help of the cartoon dogs, the fastest starting dogs.
There is also a live radio commentary on many of the dog races throughout the day. So well done the William Hill organization!
There is no need to stop at U.K. websites as there is a good website in the USA at http://www.rosnet2000.com which has links to Australia and other countries. At Rosnet you can access race cards with absolutely loads of information from many tracks plus video playback of previous races and also live pictures of races. There is, of course, links to betting sites where you can bet in dollars or euros.
There is another good website run by the British Greyhound Racing Board (BGRB) called http://www.thedogs.com/ where you can check the dog results from all the meetings and get some good information about dog racing in general. The tracks are shown on a map and there is a link that takes you to each track where you can access the type of races run there and, more importantly, access the track records of the various races; which is a very good starting point to start from when trying to judge the quality of dogs. It is good to know the track records at your local stadium as a guide to betting; I keep them in my notebook and take a view of races, especially open races with the times in mind.
Come racing.!!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
It is essential to read the form...
To return to the subject, at the beginning of this article, that of punters reading form…Every day people bet on dogs on BAGS meetings and they bet on Sky 854 race meetings and I see them choosing dogs from the spread sheet in shops with one pathetic line of form or two flimsy lines of form. After considering what we have looked at in minute detail, in the process of making a graph, examining the peaks and troughs, and the other properties needed in race reading, I ask myself: ‘How can they be risking their money on dogs with so little information?’ The bookies must be loving it; because it is hard enough picking winners even with the full form at your fingertips.
On Sky TV Channel 854 (an enjoyable show) there must be thousands of bets wagered with such a small amount of form; although to be fair, if you know about it, you can go on to http://www.channel854.com where you can access the form of the dogs running that evening and you can also link with http://www.williamhill.co.uk/ and http://www.williamhillradio.com/ where you can access form and hear commentary and view videos of dog racing.
To give you further information: if you go on the internet on to the Racing Post website (http://www.racingpost.com/) you can get the full form on many of the race meetings. Which is fine; I applaud the Racing Post for that; and you can get much more by double clicking on a dog’s name on the race card which will then bring up the dog’s lifetime form. If you haven’t already done this you will be surprised to find out how many races a dog has run! It is useful information for serious punting.
Come racing!!
To return to the subject, at the beginning of this article, that of punters reading form…Every day people bet on dogs on BAGS meetings and they bet on Sky 854 race meetings and I see them choosing dogs from the spread sheet in shops with one pathetic line of form or two flimsy lines of form. After considering what we have looked at in minute detail, in the process of making a graph, examining the peaks and troughs, and the other properties needed in race reading, I ask myself: ‘How can they be risking their money on dogs with so little information?’ The bookies must be loving it; because it is hard enough picking winners even with the full form at your fingertips.
On Sky TV Channel 854 (an enjoyable show) there must be thousands of bets wagered with such a small amount of form; although to be fair, if you know about it, you can go on to http://www.channel854.com where you can access the form of the dogs running that evening and you can also link with http://www.williamhill.co.uk/ and http://www.williamhillradio.com/ where you can access form and hear commentary and view videos of dog racing.
To give you further information: if you go on the internet on to the Racing Post website (http://www.racingpost.com/) you can get the full form on many of the race meetings. Which is fine; I applaud the Racing Post for that; and you can get much more by double clicking on a dog’s name on the race card which will then bring up the dog’s lifetime form. If you haven’t already done this you will be surprised to find out how many races a dog has run! It is useful information for serious punting.
Come racing!!
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The style of running is a factor...
Something else to think about that is important in dog racing be it in a handicap race or a normal race is the style of running that dogs favour. In the programme the dogs are marked with R, M or W ( Rail,Middle,Wide).
Often you will get a dog that runs better from trap number 1 or 2 referred to as a ‘railer’ (where it can hug the running rail).
Trap number 5 or 6 is more suitable for a ‘wide’ runner; which is a dog that favours the outside running rail; nearest to the hare.
A middle runner favours trap 3 or 4.
Finally for this section I must emphasis, before I move on, that a completed graph is an excellent way of weighing up a race but don’t expect that: that alone will guarantee a winner; it will not. It is only a picture of past events; and you need to study the explanation in the race card, the race abbreviations, and look at how the dogs ran in their previous races before making a choice. If you don’t pick the winner: ‘DON’T BLAME THE GRAPH’.
The graph is just a tool to make you more informed. The more you study a graph the more you can see in it, and I am sure that with practice you will be able, at least, to eliminate a couple of dogs that you are pretty sure won’t win. That should give you some advantage; but there are often shocks in store in dog racing! Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all you have to do is choose the dog with the best time*or the highest peak; those things alone won't work.
My cousin describes dog racing as: ‘Dog Dice’- and he may have a point; (although I’m trying to change that!) But :- beware!
Come racing!!
Something else to think about that is important in dog racing be it in a handicap race or a normal race is the style of running that dogs favour. In the programme the dogs are marked with R, M or W ( Rail,Middle,Wide).
Often you will get a dog that runs better from trap number 1 or 2 referred to as a ‘railer’ (where it can hug the running rail).
Trap number 5 or 6 is more suitable for a ‘wide’ runner; which is a dog that favours the outside running rail; nearest to the hare.
A middle runner favours trap 3 or 4.
Finally for this section I must emphasis, before I move on, that a completed graph is an excellent way of weighing up a race but don’t expect that: that alone will guarantee a winner; it will not. It is only a picture of past events; and you need to study the explanation in the race card, the race abbreviations, and look at how the dogs ran in their previous races before making a choice. If you don’t pick the winner: ‘DON’T BLAME THE GRAPH’.
The graph is just a tool to make you more informed. The more you study a graph the more you can see in it, and I am sure that with practice you will be able, at least, to eliminate a couple of dogs that you are pretty sure won’t win. That should give you some advantage; but there are often shocks in store in dog racing! Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all you have to do is choose the dog with the best time*or the highest peak; those things alone won't work.
My cousin describes dog racing as: ‘Dog Dice’- and he may have a point; (although I’m trying to change that!) But :- beware!
Come racing!!
Monday, April 03, 2006
Now let's talk about handicap races, where the traps are set at intervals...
Handicap races, whilst fun to try to figure out, would not lend themselves to the same graph as above if only a few of the distances travelled were the same; if the distances are all the same then a graph would be quite illuminating. The classier dogs in traps 5 and 6 would have most of their peaks higher up in the graph (almost in another time zone). The other four graphs would usually occupy the lower sections in the graphs (lesser times).
From my observations it seems that the traps are allocated by the best time*- but not always; maybe class – with the best dog in trap 6; next best time* in trap 5 and so on down to trap 1. The spacing of the traps is important also with each trap allocated an ‘R’ figure depicting the metres start each dog has on trap 6 in scratch position.
‘R’ stands for received; so R 7, for example, means that the dog in the trap allocated this term has a 7 metre start on trap 6.
Your job is to try to determine what effect, if any, the ‘start’ the five dogs get on the ‘scratch’ runner in trap 6 will affect the outcome of the race. The hard-core punters and the trainers and the racing managers probably know of a ‘weighting’ formulae that can be used to figure out what traps might have an ‘edge’ on the 6 dog but when are these people going to reveal their secrets to us, the punters, with a decent expertly written book on the subjects raised in this article?..And that’s as much the reason I am writing this ‘blog’, as is my intention to make punters aware that so often in races they are betting blind!
Handicap races are a real intellectual challenge - a conundrum in essence; but you can get some good prices in these races.
Come racing!!
Handicap races, whilst fun to try to figure out, would not lend themselves to the same graph as above if only a few of the distances travelled were the same; if the distances are all the same then a graph would be quite illuminating. The classier dogs in traps 5 and 6 would have most of their peaks higher up in the graph (almost in another time zone). The other four graphs would usually occupy the lower sections in the graphs (lesser times).
From my observations it seems that the traps are allocated by the best time*- but not always; maybe class – with the best dog in trap 6; next best time* in trap 5 and so on down to trap 1. The spacing of the traps is important also with each trap allocated an ‘R’ figure depicting the metres start each dog has on trap 6 in scratch position.
‘R’ stands for received; so R 7, for example, means that the dog in the trap allocated this term has a 7 metre start on trap 6.
Your job is to try to determine what effect, if any, the ‘start’ the five dogs get on the ‘scratch’ runner in trap 6 will affect the outcome of the race. The hard-core punters and the trainers and the racing managers probably know of a ‘weighting’ formulae that can be used to figure out what traps might have an ‘edge’ on the 6 dog but when are these people going to reveal their secrets to us, the punters, with a decent expertly written book on the subjects raised in this article?..And that’s as much the reason I am writing this ‘blog’, as is my intention to make punters aware that so often in races they are betting blind!
Handicap races are a real intellectual challenge - a conundrum in essence; but you can get some good prices in these races.
Come racing!!
Saturday, April 01, 2006
I've been away in the USA for a while; now to continue...
Well that’s all you need on the graph. If you have a real forensic ‘bent’ I suppose you could look at the traps that a dog ran well from (it is on the race card in the column after the distance of previous races) and make up your mind about whether you think it is in its best trap. I rarely consider that aspect; but I know that the professionals in the sport place a lot of emphasis on it, as well as the weight of a dog, the breeding, the stamina, the suppression of the season of a bitch and many more things that I as a punter do not know much about. The weight of a dog is used by many serious punters to decide if a dog should be bet. They compare its weight with the kilos it weighed when it won a previous race; if it doesn’t vary too much it might be worth betting to win again. The weights sheet for the race meeting can be obtained at the Racing Manager’s Office at most tracks.
Some tracks put on hurdle races and handicap races which add to the variety of racing, which is welcomed. I have never made a graph for a hurdle race but if I were to do so I’d tackle it in the same way as the above illustrations provided that all the dogs in it had run predominately over the same distance in their last few races.
Come racing!!
Well that’s all you need on the graph. If you have a real forensic ‘bent’ I suppose you could look at the traps that a dog ran well from (it is on the race card in the column after the distance of previous races) and make up your mind about whether you think it is in its best trap. I rarely consider that aspect; but I know that the professionals in the sport place a lot of emphasis on it, as well as the weight of a dog, the breeding, the stamina, the suppression of the season of a bitch and many more things that I as a punter do not know much about. The weight of a dog is used by many serious punters to decide if a dog should be bet. They compare its weight with the kilos it weighed when it won a previous race; if it doesn’t vary too much it might be worth betting to win again. The weights sheet for the race meeting can be obtained at the Racing Manager’s Office at most tracks.
Some tracks put on hurdle races and handicap races which add to the variety of racing, which is welcomed. I have never made a graph for a hurdle race but if I were to do so I’d tackle it in the same way as the above illustrations provided that all the dogs in it had run predominately over the same distance in their last few races.
Come racing!!
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