[mowgli77]

I’m Phil, 30 years old and been gambling/backing horses since about 19yrs old. I was walking past my local bookies when my uncle was on his way in and said he’d had a bet on four horses. He asked me if I wanted to buy into his bet and go half stakes. I gave him £5 and got about £120 in return as all his horses won and thought easy money. Started going in the bookies regularly and used to do all my betting there till a few years ago. It’s very tempting to back in every race when you are in there and the £100 you just won has soon gone on a load of donkeys you had no intention of backing.


I would normally say I prefer the flat racing but I really enjoyed last jumps season and watching the racing at the weekend from Aintree made me realise that there were probably more exciting finishes than in the whole of the flat season, those last hurdles and jumps add something to the sport. I prefer to stick to the better class races, there is less fiddling and more incentive on the horses winning than losing. As most people already know I like to select a number of horses that I will follow through the season and they have to show a genuine attitude or some level of ability.


If a horse I fancy is beaten fair and square by a better horse it’s fine but if it has not run to form I like to find out why, whether it be race tactics, ground, trip, injury or being just poor on the day. This has paid off for me numerous times, mainly at Cheltenham when I suddenly hit winner after winner last year and took the bankers thread into profit with my usual suspects like My Way De Solzen, Voy Por Ustedes and Inglis Drever. I also really fancied Chief Dan George at Cheltenham and it didn’t perform. I gave it another chance at Aintree soon after and tipped it up on here at 33-1 and it won, also being matched in running for one lucky punter at about 300-1.


Boscobel and Silkwood were others I put in the PL notebook from our trip to Wolverhampton races. I don’t personally like AW racing very much but those two horses have paid me back big time after their Royal Ascot successes. I think everyone should have a notebook, either paper notebook or virtual notebook as you are then testing your ability to pick future winners or future stars.


I wanted to prove myself in the ATR forum and gradually got noticed after putting up plenty of reasoning with my selections. I don’t know why anyone would back a horse without it, if you are willing to put your money on it then know why you are backing it. Would you a buy a car from Auto Trader if the advert read "Ford Focus - £3,000" but had no other details?


Always like to hear other people’s opinions and have only used Betfair recently. I have started to do more place betting now too. If I fancy a horse ew but I’m not too confident on it winning I might put more on the place part of the bet and back win/place on betfair instead of ew with a bookies. I used to use bet365 mainly but their early odds are often poor.

One of my best selections on here was 3 horses against the fav in a sprint (my least successful type of race) and they came in in the correct order at 20-1, 20-1 and 50-1 with the winner being my nap that day.


I try get to the local courses like Pontefract, York, Doncaster, Wetherby, Ripon etc and also try get to the Punters Lounge meetings but I’m definitely leaving the Mrs at home next time as she picked 5 winners and I couldn’t pick my nose at the last one. I like this thread because it gives some background to a user name. I’ve met people off punters lounge too and it is weird because suddenly a user name is a real person in front of you and you feel like you already know them. If you haven’t been to any PL race meetings yet you should try get to one, just don’t ask me for any winners.


Finally, for the jumps season I’d say keep an eye on Star De Mohaison. I really like this horse and if Nicholls has it fit and ready to go it will win some big races this season. The other would be Katchit, saw it last season at Wetherby, followed it and was really impressed. Bowles is the man for the trends and I’m sure he will pick out following Ferdy Murphy’s horses at Cheltenham, the man can’t be ignored. 33-1 and 50-1 winners for a trainer who does really well there. One horse I won’t touch is Detroit City, for me it looked like it was fed up of racing; it was lacklustre and uninterested and will be one to swerve in my opinion.


Don’t forget to get an entry in the PL 10 to follow for the jumps season too, the more the merrier.