13 November 2006 - SUNDAY: Bringing everyone up to speed since last week

Its been a couple days since my last post as I've been away from home. So this is a catch-up session:

Three of my four back-to-win selections scored for me today, and I managed 2.5 points profit to advised stakes. This brought the profit from backing horses for the week to a highly satisfactory total just short of 12 points.

I also recommended laying two well-fancied horses to lose, and this what they duly did. Wichita Lineman was stepping up in distance, and that is only exaggerated by the stiff track at Cheltenham. He was also racing in a higher class than he has won before, so at a very skinny 11/10 I did not need much persuading to lay the bet. A further 4 points profit from laying these two horses to my advised stakes.

So, over the past week I have made a profit of 19 points. Both my lay bets and my back-to-win selections have returned equally good results, and we are right back on track after last week's small loss of 4 points.

Profits over past seven days -- Lay Bets: 7.5pts, Back-to-Win Selections: 11.5 points

Saturday 11-11-2006

Three short-priced favourites put forward today -- but they all won so no-one should be complaining, especially when we got some cracking value on Betfair.

Roll Along was eventually sent off at 1/4 odds-on at Uttoxeter, but I managed to grab some 1/2 which was freely available during the morning. That's double the starting price!

I also advised taking the 9/4 about Star De Mohaison you could have taken for a while. This was a much-touted horse during the day, and he was eventually returned at 6/4

Making a profit from racing is not just about picking winners -- its also important that you get a satisfactory return on your investment when you do get winners.

I also came out with a profit on my lay bets to advised stakes. The first two selections did not go my way, but I scored a nice touch when laying the 'talking horse' of the day Vodka Bleu in the Paddy Power. Vodka Bleu's best form has been on Good ground, and there is no worse a place to put your abilities to the test, on more trying ground, than at Cheltenham. The horse had also been off the track for almost two years, so I felt he had too much to do first time out.

So, at the end of the afternoon my account had moved forward almost 5 points.

Friday 10-11-2006

Two winners today. A little frustrating as I also had two come in second, anyone of which would have turned a day when I broke even, into a nicely profitable afternoon. Never mind, no damage done and we live to fight another day.

A much better story to report with my only lay bet of the day. Key Time was nearly two-to-one odds-on to win the maiden hurdle at Newcastle. Whenever I see odds-on prices in a race where no horse has won a race in it's life, I am likely to lay the favourite to lose. One of the oldest and truest maxims in racing is, "never expect a horse to do something he has never done before". Therefore, I generally see a price about any maiden horse below even money as a red rag to a bull!

Max Redd has been making a living from horse racing for over ten years. He runs the Redd Racing betting advisory service and you can try his service FREE at www.ReddRacing.co.uk