The influence of inside info/graft

I have been punting for 40 years plus, and whilst many things have changed, the ways of finding a winner on the track has not. In essence there are only a few methods that can be used to find that exclusive winner. In no order of importance they are as follows:

1. Form : - the obvious way. Utilising the information at our disposal we make a decision on what we believe will win. Included in this would be jockey engagements or strikes as they are known, and equipment changes like allies and blinkers.

2. Betting moves :- when a horse is strongly supported it clearly indicates the stable confidence in the horse and will always play a role in your play. Certain stables have more credibility than others imvho and moves by these stables carry more weight for me. I must say that these days where 5k on a 1st timer and 10k on a raced horse can affect the odds, make this method a lot less accurate than in the times when a bookmaker was a bookmaker and not an accountant analysing "risk".

3. Favourite combinations :- a lot of people back Jocks regardless of the form of the horse that they ride. Some follow training yards in the same manner. Smaller players play number combinations like telephone numbers. Pot luck.

4. Horses well being :- the big hitters back in the day would never back a horse before studying it in the ring and observing it go down. The horse would need to look the part and stride out before the money was put down. These days we rarely see the full canter down and the tracks are ghost towns. There are also not many bookmakers standing on course. This method may have died out or is practiced by very few.

5. Inside info/graft - We all have them. Mates with horses or mates who have mates with horses or mates who have mates who have mates who have horses. Then we also have mates who are tight with either trainers or jocks or mates who have mates who are tight with trainer or jocks, you get the picture . Somehow these guys always get to hear the whispers and will phone you to tell you about the latest " kan nie verloor nie" bomb. In my years of punting I am a big big loser. This method has cost me the most. Listening to these whispers has proven time and time again to be inaccurate and unprofitable. Yet we ignore what the form book says and plunge in.

My observation after 40 years of enjoying my punts is to study form, make your selections and stick to them regardless of the whispers. At the very least you will only have yourself to blame should you land up being a loser :lol:

Feel free to add any other methods I have not included or been aware of

Well said OTA.....i punt 90% form study of my own and 10% info. If info was alwYs a surefire i won't be posting here but chilling out in phuket with the millions won :evil:

Agree 100%, I did use Formgrids a lot, however at the moment use Computaform and Tellytrack.com (replays).

I must say I chuckle when I read some of the posts/predictions on ABC, obviously people do look at form differently and the results are not too positive.

Punt on tips etc & you'll go out the game.

I have found over the years if i fancy something strong eg i will put 100 on to win, if a trainer or jock tells you, the bet becomes 200

....OTA I second you in your observations.....and have been trying to convey a similar message.....
being on the inside is not as cracked up as it seems.... as people think that they are being left out of the picture FOMO.....but more things go wrong with the so called graft..... and in many cases it was not entirely accurate because some of it was manufactured by some cunning guess artists to get some fool to have something on for them......find a handful of marks and feed them each a story and one will arrive and the other 4 will fall into the also ran..... :blink: .....being on the inside also gives one blinkers and you land up not being able to see any threats or take notice of others trying to upset the move one is trying to pull.... :S

If inside info was so amazing then why do trainer's (even the very best) need owners? Man is greedy by nature so why not buy and train all your own horses if its so easy to set one up...

Imo the post by Over the Air is a very accurate summation - although I am a small punter, in years gone by I was 'friends' with a guy whose dada was a bookie ..... got to hear many, many 'whispers' about 'can't lose' etc - very few arrived

So although my 'predictions' are not a whole lot more successful, at least they are mine and if they lose, I can only blame myself; for me the problem comes in when I fancy a horse or two (like on Saturday) just to find it drifting like a barge in the betting - the times that these do in fact come out to win, are few and far between - but when they do it gives me such a nice 'damn but I am hot' feeling that I forget about all the other times when they fail

.....when my father was an unregistered assistant trainer while trainer granddad was on a sabbatical....he won 3 legs of a Turffontien JP.....the whole family and connections were one leg out.....a docile filly that I often rode to track....upset at bigger odds than the other 2 that were fancied also at big prices.....however my maternal grandmother not listening to the so called graft included the un-fancied filly and caught the R64K JP for just R6.....and then split the windfall 50/50 with some old lady friend my gran agreed to go halvies with on their little punts for the day.....my maternal grandfather a huge punter in his day lost his mind....and cut poor Nanna off the house keeping allowance..... :S

Just go with what you like, because if you cant pick a winner after 20 years of betting on your own thoughts then you might as well pack it in.

Imo racing is not crooked enough , it should be so simple but mans greed always gets in the way ie trying to beat the punted horse , really irritating :sick:

with graft.....you will soon learn who you must listen to and who you need to go and double check for yourself

Craig Pienaar wrote: Imo racing is not crooked enough , it should be so simple but mans greed always gets in the way ie trying to beat the punted horse , really irritating :sick:

.....what are you saying....all should stop trying to give better efforts so that the oner can be landed.....surely you jest .... as that is the epitome of crooked..... :ohmy: