2009 Review

Another year has passed and Winning Racing Tips enters it’s 5th Calendar year in operation. Very few services stay the course in this business, so I’m proud of what I’ve achieved thus far. But enough pats on the back! Lets have a look back over what we did in 2009 and a look forward to the year ahead.

For the main each way service it was a satisfactory year, with relatively smooth growth throughout the first 3 quarters and then a massive November effectively turning what would have been an average years returns into good profit. The total was 36pts profit for the year, which is pretty close to the 40 that I aim for. This essentially means doubling the betting bank annually (40pts advised bank), although in truth I think a 30pt or even a 25pt bank would suffice. Given the low risk nature of the bets and the fact that 1pt e/w bets are few and far between whilst lower stakes bets are common.

There were only 3 losing months compared to 4 in 2008 and we avoided any “disaster months”, like March 2008 which was -13pts. Its worth noting also that we again hit the bar with a number of each way doubles, landing one of these, to decent stakes, would have made a massive difference to the year as a whole, and as long as I stay in business, its only a matter of time before we land one.

The highlight of the year for me was the performance of Zenyatta in the Breeders Cup, this was just about our biggest single win of the year. I very rarely advise bets in the big races and so to do it on this occasion, and see the bookmakers get it so wrong, was very satisfying.

Below are graphs for the each ways, bonus bets and lays for 2009 bets only.
The figures are based on £4000 bank for the each ways, £1000 bonus bet bank and £60 liability on the lays (£1000 bank). Its worth stating at this point that your stakes for the bonus bets shouldn’t be as big as for the each ways, in fact I’d recommend making the bonus bets bank a maximum of 50% what you use for the each ways.

Overall, the bonus bets did really well in 2009. Increasing the bank by almost 50% from just 152 bets with a ROI of over 17%. At this stage last year I was wondering if I should continue with these, but with performance like this I’ll stick to my guns.

The lays overall were disappointing. A loss on the season of just under 2pts isn’t a complete disaster by any means, but its a lot of toil for no profit. After a terrible run at the start of the flat season in May the system spent the rest of the season trying to nudge into profit but ultimately fell short. The months of June and July were again in profit (as in 2008) and perhaps this is a trend worth noting. Compared to the each ways the lays are by nature more volatile, there is no middle ground as we get with the placed horses, short priced laying (or backing) will ALWAYS lead to streaks of winners and losers resulting in “spiky” graph like the one above.  I still believe this system is low risk and has a chance of profit, however the troughs and peaks are hard to stomach for a lot of people and I’m most likely going to stop providing them as advices this year. Dont worry though because if you do want to follow them come April, I’ll make the system available to you and you’re welcome to find and place them.

All of the results have re-affirmed my view that its absolutely imperative that results are looked at over a 12 month period at least, anything less and you just aren’t getting the full picture. So I do hope that you are as committed as I am to following all the tips this year, sticking to a plan, and counting your profits at the end of it. I look forward seeing you here again at the end of 2010!

That concludes this review, as always, if you need any help or advice get in touch.

Paul