I do get emails from people asking about starting points with in their betting which, I am happy to help with.

No matter what experience you have with betting...We all need a starting point.

People do have different betting habits and look at information in a different way, for instance, some may think the weight a horse has to carry is more important than the going, or visa versa, or put distance above recent form, there is no right or wrong, it boils down to what works for YOU.

So, we are going to look at the Racing Post newspaper which can be obtained in most newsagents, and, you may see the information we need to look at pinned on the wall in a lot of bookies.

We are going to look at the Postdata Grid which is below the race cards and looks something like the one below which is a simple version.

There is other information surrounding these grids, but as a starting point, this will do for now.

This simple version provides you with decent information at a glance.

The thing you will notice in the grid are the symbols that appear, we have a...

x = negative...? = unknown or questionable... ✔ = positive... ✔✔ = strong positive... ✔✔✔ = very strong positive.

These symbols are the key to spotting any horses that really do "tick" all the right boxes.

This information could confirm a selection you already had in mind as to bet, or discard it.

How about we look at this grid and actually put a little system/method in place ?

Lets eliminate any meetings where the going is predicted to be soft or heavy, these conditions often produce very suprising results.

How about scratching out any amateur races or apprentice races as these can be a bit of a lottery.

Lets just say that the top criteria you have for the above grid is Trainer form, a horse must have at least two ticks in this box

( strong positive ) to be considered.

We have horses A...D and E.

The horse must have at least another strong positive in any other box.

We still have horses A...D and E.

All possible selections we still have remaining must NOT have no worse than one question mark in any other box, if a horse 

has one or more negative ratings it is eliminated from the process.

Only horse D qualifies, as it has no negatives, so that becomes a selection as horses A and E fail that criteria.

What if sometimes this system pinpoints two or more selections ? well...depending on your betting habits you could

go for the horse with the most ticks, back the remaining horses, or just leave the race alone.

You may add your own criteria and do a bit of experimenting, some days there wont be any selections, others a few.

You may decide to use it just for All-Weather or, for all race codes and see if any produce better results than the other.

It's worth remembering that this information in the Racing Post is being looked by the masses so, fairly short odds can be expected if you don't add your own criteria.

You may decide to just use it on a Saturday, or, just for Handicaps, sprints, hurdles, which ever takes your fancy.

Obviously, there are many, many other factore you could include

Remember, keep it simple and make it quick and easy to use.

So, use the Racing Post's "expertise" to start you off, have a go and test it out.

Well, I think that's enough to go at as far as looking for a Starting Point is concerned with this one idea, with lots more on the way in the coming weeks/months.

As always, any comments, good or bad, please feel free to email me and have a say.

Or, leave a comment and join in. 

If anyone does use any of the above, then perhaps you would like to share the idea's you have.

Happy Betting

Paul