Quickly Identify Horses that Have A Good Chance Of Winning Using One Piece Of Overlooked Information

Here’s a quick and simple system for people who have little time to spare. It takes only a couple of minute to find the daily selection. The information needed can be found on the Racing Post website.

As all serious punters will know, Racing Post is packed with valuable information. For this system, however, the feature I’m most interested in is called Travellers Check. This reveals which horses are travelling furthest to get to a race meeting. The system works by considering why a trainer would go such a long way to a meeting, especially if he (or she) takes only a single horse. The assumption must be that they think the expense and hassle of such a long journey will be justified by the money they could make.

The race need not offer big prize money either. Where the prize is just a few hundred pounds, the trainer is probably planning to place a large bet on his own horse (perfectly legal in horse racing). These are often ‘coup’ horses, whose performance up till then has been unspectacular, but which have been specially groomed for the race in question. Trainers often prefer races with low prize money for this purpose, as the competition will be weaker, and the races generally attract little public attention.

Using the System

To find your selection, on the day’s Racing Post find the Travellers Check box for each meeting. Now look for the horse which is travelling furthest. Look for horses coming over 250 miles to get to a meeting.

Next, check how many horses the trainer is taking to the meeting (this information is also available from Racing Post, in the section headed Today’s Trainers). If a trainer is bringing two or more horses, ignore them. The likelihood is that one or other horse could perform above expectations, but there is no easy way of knowing which it will be.

For the Travellers System, you need to find trainers taking just a single horse. If there is more than one qualifying horse that day, choose the one running for the least prize money. After that, there is just one more consideration .

Starting Price

Not all ‘coup’ horses are laid out to win . A trainer can make very good money by backing his horse each way if the odds are good enough. Also, if a horse comes second or third, it is less likely to attract unwelcome attention from people asking awkward questions about its previous poor performance.

Follow these simple guidelines, therefore:

•  If the forecast SP in Racing Post is 4-1 or less, back the horse to win .
•  If the forecast SP ranges from 9-2 to 25-1, back it each way.
•  If the forecast SP is higher still, there is no bet.