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!!