UK Horse Racing Tips

I started reading Patrick Veitch’s Enemy Number One: The Secrets Of The UK’s Most Feared Professional Punter, published by the Racing Post in 2009.

It’s a good read. In fact, I’m halfway through it. A mix of professional punting, scared for his life and even selling racing tips. I say racing tips in the way of being paid to give racing tips. This was an interesting read from Mr. Veitch who detailed that while studying Mathematics at Trinity University at Cambridge he was paid to give racing tips, which paid well. He teamed up with a few people along the way and had advertisements in The Sporting Life and Racing Post, at one time under the name of The Professional. By all accounts it was a good money spinner until other tipsters – let’s call them the good, bad and ugly – starting to saturate the market and it wasn’t viable from there on.

After his initial tipster escapades, Veitch was approached by The Winning Line, founded in 1992 by Stephen Winstanley, a costly subscription service, which detailed the tips via recorded telephone messages. For this he sign a contract and was paid £100,000 per annum and bonuses on performance. It was a lucrative deal but something that didn’t sit very well with ‘Baby Faced Assassin’ who would rather have time for himself and do his own thing. He made a healthy profit for the company, which obviously kept the punters happy.

I found it interesting from reading Dave Nevison’s A Bloody Good Winner: Life as a Professional Gambler, published by Highdown in 2007, that he too had been paid £100,000 for his tips by The Winning Line in 2000. On balance, it would seem that both appreciated the earning potential of the contract but for both tipsters it was a short-lived experience.

I think Veitch worked with The Winning Line around 1995 and Nevison in 2000. I wonder if there were any other high-profile professions who were involved. It would be intriguing to know the other faces and how they went. I would love to read a book published about The Winning Line as it would be fascinating to hear the thoughts of both partner’s Stephen Winstanley and Nick Stewart.

If the horse racing tipster of today are making money at the same level it must be a very lucrative deal. As Veitch detailed, The Winning Line was very successful in his duration and within minutes of tips being given the prices shortened. This has been the case with other services and the market adjusts for those who are well informed. In fact, many imply have their tips were passed on by other tipsters as their own which was even accepted by some publications and turned a blind eye to.

It would seem that both Veitch and Nevison made hay while the sun shined but the implications of working in the world of giving racing tips hindered their enjoyment of simply being professional gamblers.

A fascinating read.

After studying gambling to a very high level I have learned a lot over the years. It’s a long road. There is no easy answer to anything worthwhile and expertise is about finding answers to questions, just ask any of the best Horse tipsters. In ways, every answer is important but until you learn enough there is no way of knowing the importance of yes, no or maybe. In those early years, there are far too many maybes. And that is the same for creating bad habits.

To be a good gambler on a skill-based sport you need a vast knowledge. This will only come from a passion for your subject matter, an inquisitive nature, wanting to learn, and digging to learn more. It isn’t something which can be rushed.

That’s the difficulty of learning a subject where there is no book, no guide, no degree or doctorate.

No nothing.

Each scrap of knowledge is hard earned. Often with the loss of a bet and your hard-earned cash.

Very few people want to give their knowledge away because they get little to nothing in return. In fact, it is most likely detrimental to them.

So the knowledge you have gained never come easy. Far from it. You will have to go the extra mile, perhaps a million miles. You may never get there. But you won’t know that until it is too late.

There are many crucial things you need to learn. The process and method you employ is as important – if not more – than the selection itself. For example, if you bet on the same horse but fail to follow the best approach it may result you winning little to nothing. Get it correct, and you will make a killing.

So where does the bad habit come to haunt you?

When you do not stick to your guidelines, rules, method and process it’s a problem.

These statements may seem very open-ended and vague but they won’t when you get to the level of competence. Don’t push too hard, go above and beyond your best process and method because that is classed as a bad habit.

But what is the consequence of a bad habit?

Let’s consider this definition: Bad habits typically provide temporary pleasure or relief but often have negative consequences in the long term.

A bad habit may be your foolish attempt to make easy money. The worse thing may be if this works but is in actual fact a bad decision. In fact, long term this is an action which will cost you money. Instead of moving forward, you have slipped back a notch or lost track completely. A seemingly innocent act could be the creation of a bad habit.

The only way this will be resolved is by correction.

The best answer to that question is to make sure you don’t create bad habits. This is easier said than done but it is something you will understand more easily with time and experience, ultimately knowledge.

Being a good gambler is a journey of discovery finding answers to questions but also avoiding bad habits.

Good luck.

So you like a bet on the horses?

Nothing wrong with that you may say. A little flutter. It could be a day to remember if that 50/1 shot hoses up.

However, I do have one question: ‘Should I ask a person or a robot for a tip?’

Images come to mind of a professional gambler robot, smoking a cigar, reading the form, and spouting out: ‘I’ve got a horse!’

Perhaps I have an overactive imagination. I’m not even sure how a robot or artificial intelligent (AI) comes to making a horse racing tip selection. I guess it works like a person but much quicker and better. It has a strike rate that even Nick Mordin would respect. I’m sure if he still wrote for The Weekend publication he’d have The Robot vs Dave Nevison in a battle to the death.

My money would be on Dave ‘The Human’ Nevison.

You have only to watch the news or read the tabloids to appreciate the world has changed with the advancement of AI. Hollywood script writers are fearful of being put out of work, artists fear their work will be duplicated in the style of Banksy. While Eric Winner Racing Tips are wondering which robot will put him out of business.

But why is AI so good at tipping horses?

Here are a few bullet points to make any homo sapien horse racing tipster squirm:

• AI can analyse vast amounts of data and identify patterns humans may miss.

• Within seconds it assess information about horses, trainers, jockeys and variables you cannot even imagine.

• For example, it may identify horses that have won at certain prices, weather conditions or information that isn’t freely available to human counterparts.

• AI can process data in real time allowing it to change its prediction for changing conditions like going description or betting patterns.

• It makes judgements without emotions, which is a problem for most human gamblers when struggling for form or over confident.

• In a world of increasing data it may be able to tap into aspects such as horse diet, training routines, or even horse temperament.

• This has already been detailed with the Horse Racing Prediction System (HRPS) developed at the University of Hertfordshire which combines machine learning with statistical models to analyse data on horses.

• Another example is Betmix AI system.

It is important to remember that although IA systems have proclaimed impressive results they are not infallible. Even the most advanced systems cannot account for all the variables which make a winning tip. Gambling should be be approached with caution and responsible betting should be followed.

The next time you are thinking of placing a bet, your biggest decision may be to consider who do you want to blame for your next loser!

The Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle run over 2 miles at Kempton Park in late February. Open to horses aged four years and upwards who, at the start of the current season, have yet to win a race over hurdles, the race was inaugurated, as a Listed event, in 1988 before being promoted to Grade 2 status three years later.

Nicky Henderson, who saddled the inaugural winner, Over The Counter (1988), was also responsible for Flown (1992), Kimanicky (1996), Premier Generation (1999), Shatabdi (2007), Forgotten Voice (2013), Days of Heaven (2015) and River Wylde (2017) and is the leading trainer in the history of the race. Interestingly, Hampshire trainer Chris Gordon has won two of the last three renewals, courtesy of Highway One O Two (2020) and Aucunrisque (2022).

Aside from Flown, who won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on his next start, notable winners of the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle include Granville Again (1991), who won the Champion Hurdle two years later, having fallen at the second-last flight when holding every chance in 1992, and Sire De Grugy (2011), who won the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2014.

Just one of the last ten renewals of the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle has attracted more than nine runners but, despite mainly single-figure fields, just three favourites, two of which were odds-on, have won in that period. That said, all ten winners featured in the first three in the betting, so the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle is clearly not a race for rank outsiders either. Recent trends suggest that likely winners are five or six years old, are officially rated at least 130 and have winning form within the last six weeks or so. Previous experience of Kempton and winning form in Graded races, of any description, are less important.