• Hi Guest Just in case you were not aware I wanted to highlight that you can now get a free 7 day trial of Horseracebase here.
    We have a lot of members who are existing users of Horseracebase so help is always available if needed, as well as dedicated section of the fourm here.
    Best Wishes
    AR

Confessions of an Impulsive(Compulsive?) Gambler.

Sigster

Sigster

Gelding
I have a few days away from perusing the our second forumesque home and when i come back i find out we`ve been evicted, found a new home and are effectively moving out. I darent go on holiday anywhere in case i come home and find out you boys have all legged it with the family silver............. :D

On the bright side, thanks to Scruff and the usual (Mod) suspects we may at last have found our new(forever) home. To take the positives out of it, it does at least have allow us to apply any lessons learnt and i already getting the feeling the layout and the "tightness" of the place will be better. Already feels easier to navigate around or maybe thats just me.

Having had a relatively quiet (betting)time over the last few weeks due to the demands of work, but im ready to hit the ground running again in the new year full of renewed vigour(turkey and Peroni). The only downside being a £400 bill for sorting the boiler out which im having to fund from by betting bank. :x

Just makes me more determined to get things going again. Bring it on. :D
 
Havent really been around the horse racing scene much lately. Working in retail, and being a manager at that means my hours and the nights i work are nothing short of ridiculous at this time of year. The Mrs works in hairdressing, so the schools closing down for two or three weeks are the last thing i need! On top of a 70 hour week(on nights) i end up staying up to look after my daughter and surviving on a handful of hours sleep. Ergo horse racing is really not at the top of my list of priorities. Come the new year i have a few days holiday booked(next week) and it seems a good time to review how my horse racing betting is going.

To back to win or to back to lose is the conundrum. For the most part anything i look at is backing to win. Its much simpler, both from a monetary point of view but also from a mental point of view. A while back i experimented with two or three laying systems. The highs and lows of it were ridiculous particularly on days where there were eight or ten horses to lay, and while it was a tremendous feeling getting them all beat, especially if there were a couple of odds on shots, the lows were equally as bad if there were two or three winners at the high end of the odds scale. I stepped away after a run of bad results in order to protect my bank, but left the systems running with pretty mixed results.

The best of my laying systems is based on fillys on the all weather running in mixed gender races. There are several other rules but that was the starting point.
Results for the last three months of the year:

Month.....Wins....Runs...S/R%.....£1Win
Oct.........91......114.....80.......-19.07
Nov.........84.......93.....90.......+41.56
Dec.........71.......76.....93.......+45.38


Perspective for the year
2012......580......675.....86.......+141.29 3.8%ROI

From a backing point of view. Bit of a mixed bag. As always, trialling quite a few systems while attempting to back the best with hard cash.
Even those with traditionally the best results have suffered with the weather playing a leading role this year in wreaking havoc. And i suspect i am not the only systemite to suffer. Have to say while i am trialling some systems on here i wouldnt feel overly confident in posting any system up here as "succesful" after the last year. Even one of my best which has ROI of at least 60% between 2009 and 2011 has only returned 11% this year. That said this was the first year i stretched away from the All Weather and into the turf season, with relatively little success. Got a few fresh ideas for this year which have risen out of the ashes from last years failures. As always, honesty and perspective are the key to self analysis. After sorting out the finances for the next year my starting point is probably going to be a relatively small amount. Probably between 3 and 5 hundred. Onwards and upwards for 2013! Wishing you all the very best for the coming year and may you all get the rewards your efforts deserve!
 
So the new bank account is open, funds are in, all personal data at the bookies is changed and brought up to date. Hardly a bet to mention this year. Typical. More importantly no "im watching so i might as well have a bet". Betfair account brought up to date and funded. Looking at going back to basics and sticking to my historically proven laying system. Minimal funding so if it goes, it goes. If it builds, well, happy days.

Doing a bit of forum promotion on facebook with Ark although, as always Ark retains ultimate control, as it should be. Hopefully bring in a bit of new blood. As with all forums the expectation is for a lot of "sleepers" and "takers" but then thats what the Inner Sanctum is for. Hopefully bring in some people with fresh ideas, alternate points of view, and maybe different sporting knowledge. Any ideas welcome.
 
Sigster said:
Doing a bit of forum promotion on facebook with Ark although, as always Ark retains ultimate control, as it should be.
Click to expand...

Bloody hell I sound like some sort of gestapo control freak :lol:
Orders must be obeyed without question at all times :handgestures-thumbup:
 
"If you dont get us more members through facebook it`ll be "Mouse! Bring hither the skin diving suit with the bottom cut out, and unleash the rampant wildebeest. " "








Credit to Red Dwarf for the threat.....
 
Been taking a bit of an enforced break from perusing the forum due to health issues, nothing major but spent the last two weeks sleeping 14-16 hours a day, and managed to lose almost two stone. Got another weeks sick note at least. Havent been paying too much attention to anything in general especially horse racing but managed to pop in for 5 minutes here and there.

Some positives to take out of the situation.........i have managed to keep my system bets going with mixed results. Thank god i had 1pt on a 25/1 winner that got thrown up. Nothing worse than missing those when youre trialling a system. My caffeine intake, previously through the roof with coffee and energy drinks is now rock bottom zero. Got to better for my health.

Seems amongst other things i missed GoldenBollox turning up. Fantastically impressed that his first post was asking for a quiet life :liar: while his second and third(last) post were quite confrontational :mad: . Had quite a laugh at the members opinions of him. :clap: Cant help thinking as we get bigger we`re going to see more like him. I can see some fun ahead when people get their teeth into these chancers. My honest opinion is that fair play if you want to make a business out of these things but honesty and transparency go a long way, along with a bit of humble pie from time to time.
 
Hi mate - sorry to hear your health hasn't been too good - hope you recover soon.

Completely agree with your comments re GB btw

Dave
 
I have returned. :dreads:

Few reasons i have been away, none of which im going to go into here but feels good to be back. Got plenty of reading to do now though, catch up on all the threads that have evolved in my absence.

I trust everyone is well.
 
Having more comebacks than a boomerang.

Well as is this is my confession blog i suppose i ought to `fess up. Apart from a handful of pop in visits ive been away for the best part of seven months. "Have you?" i hear some of you ask. While others simply frown and think "And?"....

Indeed i have. Got myself some dodgy virus,spent a lot of time sleeping, lost a very impressive amount of weight in a VERY short amount of time and generally took a bit of a kicking healthwise. While it was never anything major it did give me food for thought and once i was on the mend i had a period of introspection. :violence-smack: "Speak English boy!"

Horse Racing has taken a major back seat for me. Taken a look at my lifestyle and the things that are important to me. While my social circle is smaller than an anorexics first meal of the day(hey, i work nights, its socially limiting!), ive spent more time with (immediate) family and spent some time working on myself :doh: (oooh matron!). Apart from a couple of coffees a day my caffeine intake has dropped from about as high as it could get to rock bottom. While i draw the line at "healthy eating", im eating healthily, cut out the ready meals and getting plenty of fresh fruit and home cooked meals. Even taking packed lunches to work, much to the amusement of my (5yr old) daughter. Due to muscle atrophy its taken me nearly 7 months to get back to the same weight i was before my illness, and the same amount of time to build my back muscles up to a reasonable enough level to take up cycling. Still not strong enough to do weight training so instead im stuck with bodyweight exercises like press ups.

Hard to deal with as well were the attention span problems i had. While i was ill i couldnt concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes and while im now up to full speed(for whatever its worth), it took me while to want to do anything!

In the middle of all this, while work was being a major pain in the posterior i decided it might be nice to step down from my managerial position,but after doing the sums i realised that wouldnt be possible unless i had a second income. The last month or two ive been investigating a business idea ive had. Its still very much a work in progress at the moment but its another reason i havent been around.

Maybe its because the flat season its drawing to a conclusion, or maybe its the impending arrival of the all weather season but ive been taking a bit more interest in racing of late, rather than just checking system qualifiers and results. Im pleased to see the forum is in rude health though if im honest im a bit disappointed the number of members hasnt grown a bit more. Maybe its a reflection on the need to be involved. So many people wanting something for nothing.

Their loss though, and yes it feels good to be back amongst those working towards a common goal. :romance-grouphug:
 
Sorry to hear about your 'challenges' mate.
Glad to have you back, this time tomorrow we should be on a shiny new look forum :dance:
 
So ive been following the debate on tipster reviews. Some interesting and passionate debate.

For the most part we`re all here because apart from the odd gem tipsters are a bunch of shysters and theres much more fun to be had along the way doing it by yourself(ooh matron) or with a bunch of like minded individuals. I suspect very few of us(not all) use or are prepared to use a tipping service in the future. Which kind of begs the question what purpose the reviews would serve. If its simply to increase our google rankings then their are other(and in my opinion more relevant) ways of making this happen. An up to date dedicated news feed would be more more useful as people search for the things trending in the news. ie yesterday getting the gerard butler story in early would have helped. Links to other sites would help, they dont have to be affiliate paid links, which would of course keep the sites impartiality. Social media is much underused and would be a better tool too. If the purpose of said reviews is to bring in newer members then consideration needs to be given as to whether we are targetting the correct people for what this forum is about. A forum lives or dies by its (ill!) informed debate. Surely we must be careful of attracting too many "takers" as i believe this forum is run by, and full of "givers". Remember the majority of us originally came from a place with a cast list of thousands where only a handful were main characters and only a few hundred had speaking roles!

There is another aspect to consider when reviewing tipsters which i think should probably be debated too, although of course i bow to others who have the final say in such matters. Imagine a scenario.....you get to hear about a tipster who has started the season well, tipping say 2yo handicappers. The forum signs up for a couple of months, things go well, money is made, and the tipster gets an official "thumbs up" from the forum..........(and you can probably guess where this is going :) ). Lo and behold the arse falls out of the 2yo handicappers tipping world, the forum looks a tit, its integrity looks questionable, and worst case scenario there are a lot of angry newbies posting all over the forum. The debate surely needs to be had about consistency of reviews in terms of length(surely anything less than a whole season really is worthless), and in that case, how many reviews will it be possible to have running at any one time?

To play devils advocate a little with my own arguement, yes the forum needs new blood. My own contribution in terms of posts has slipped and when you consider only 33 people managed(bothered) to vote(yes i was one of the few) out of 258 members it is kind of worrying.

While we are all keen to keep the impartiality of the forum maybe it does need to be run more like a business if we want it to be more succesful. Maybe the forum needs a mission statement. Maybe the forum needs set goals, and then there can be a clear idea of what needs to be done to reach those goals.

No wonder i stopped posting for a while.....a few thoughts turn into a monologue.
 
My five year old daughter constantly serves as a reminder that there are more important things in life than what we are trying to achieve within the forums four walls. At the moment everything she does is about reading and writing, at school and at home.

I got home from work the other morning and this unfolded before my eyes: My wife and daughter were both in the kitchen, Erin(daughter) looking at the stickers with her comic, and Kirsty(wife) busying herself with various jobs.
Erin :"Mummy can i stick this sticker on your arm?"
Kirsty:"Yes, but you have to read it first. What does it say?"
Erin:"V-e-r-y C-l-e-v-e-r- Very clever . (Pause). I`ll go stick it on Daddy".

I havent laughed that much since the dog sneezed when he was sniffing a bag of flour id dropped on the floor.
 
Sigster said:
An up to date dedicated news feed would be more more useful as people search for the things trending in the news. ie yesterday getting the gerard butler story in early would have helped.
Click to expand...

Any suggestions as to relevant rss feeds?
 
Not without doing a bit of research, but i guess it depends what "news" you want. If its horse racing then im sure places like the Racing Post, or possibly the BHA have something you could use. Likewise as we`re a betting forum covering all sports then presumably sky sports do something. The alternative is to hammer the "News" sub forum with new threads for topical stuff or move/create an alternative to the front of the forum for dedicated topical newsworthy stuff.
 
Its not what news I want, its what news will increase our google ranking.
You said an up to date dedicated news feed would do the job, I wondered if you had anything in mind.
We already have feeds from the BHA, wouldn't be a big deal to add in the likes of BBC sport, RP Sky etc.
 
So Christmas(call me finicky but I intensely dislike the term Xmas) has been and gone. For those of us in retail its up there as one of the most hated periods of the year(along with the new year,Easter,all bank holidays, mothers day, fathers day, valentines day and Halloween). Twelve hour nights for me personally, 2 days off in the last 13 and now another 7 before I get another break. Looking forward at the end of it all to getting some work/life balance back, along with some sleep.

I trust everybody got everything they wanted for Xmas and Santa didn't miss anybody out.

Santa brought me a knackered boiler, a cold house and no hot water for Christmas the big fat beardy grey haired git. :(
 
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