Who wants to be a Millionaire?..

Today's racing certainly has that pre-Cheltenham feel to it with hardly a decent race to be found and good class horses thin on the ground. It's not surprising with the Festival just around the corner and I for one will be keeping my powder dry and steering clear of any temptation today.

I'm off to the cinema with the missus to see what all the fuss is about with Slumdog Millionaire so there'll be no watching the racing for me (though a visit to the casino isn't out of the question.)

Apparently the film's about a young boy who wins the jackpot on the Indian version of Who Want's to Be A Millionaire. Which reminds me of the time a few years ago when they took the hit TV Quiz show on the road and Torquay staged it for the Summer with Eamonn Holmes in the Chris Tarrant role.

For the price of the ticket all the audience members could participate in the Fastest Finger First round with the winner getting to go on stage. Amazingly out of 4 winning contestants on the night both Matt and I won that round and had the chance to play the game exactly as you see it on the telly.

I won't tell you how Matt got on ( oh ok I will, 1000pts) but I got all the way to 32,000 points before missing out on a decidedly tough 64k question which even Judith Keppel would have struggled with.
It's a shame it wasn't 32,000 in £'s but I got vouchers to spend in the Littlewoods catalogue and managed to get a pretty decent telly amongst a lot of other things.

It was a great, fun night out and was topped off with Eamonn Holmes calling me 'the star of the show.'

Difficult to argue with that one.....

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BETTING MACHINE

After such a good run there was only one way it was going to end and yesterday the inevitable happened when a losing cycle stopped the BM in its tracks. Despite picking 4 winners including one at 13/2 it still lost a fair chunk of its previous profits when 6 consecutive losers appeared on the scene.

Yesterdays results,

1 1.35 N Silk Hall 13/2 98p won +£6.38

Total £1282.10

1 1.45 L Wray Castle 10/1 £1.93 lost -£1.93
2 2.00 D Gold Award 11/10 £13.41 won +£12.83

Total £1294.93

1 2.10 N Michele Le Bon 11/10 £5.89 lost -£5.89
2 2.20 F You Know Bridie 15/8 £10.04 lost -£15.93
3 2.30 D Noticeable 5/4 £28.21 won +£19.33

Total £1314.26

1 2.50 L Northern Desert 7/2 £1.88 lost -£1.88
2 3.05 D Ottage De Brion 9/4 £6.68 lost -£8.56
3 3.30 F Know The Law 5/6 £33.89 lost -£42.45
4 3.40 D Bathwick Guest 6/1 £11.41 lost -£53.86
5 4.00 F Black Beauty 3/1 £28.74 lost -£82.60
6 4.20 N Distant Thunder 7/4 £69.21 lost -£151.81

Total £1162.45

1 4.35 F Cunning Clarets 5/4 £4.66 won +£5.82

Total £1168.27

1 5.15 L Transact 4/1 £1.46 lost -£1.46

Total C/F £1166.81

It's a real shame as the BM had done so well to claim back it's earlier losses and register a healthy profit.
It's the last day of this particular system trial today and then I'll be back on Monday with the Verdict.

Today's runners

1.35 N Definetly
1.45 K Hohlethelonely
2.25 D Fassaroe
3.05 K William Bonney
3.20 K Bouggler
3.35 K More Likely
3.35 K Oracle Des Mottes
4.10 K Alfie Flitts
4.35 D Nom De Guerre
4.45 K The Reverend
4.55 N Global Warming
5.05 K Artists Moon

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BONUS BALL BET

Matt Williams Back Page Bet (Racing Post) & Pricewise Headline Tip (Racing Post) are both in the 3.10 Newbury

The Package & Hold'em 3.10 Newbury £5 win each

Newsboy's Nap (Daily Mirror)

Definity 1.35 Newbury £5 win

Value Scope (Daily Mirror). How has this man still got a job? He also tips in the 3.10 Newbury so I'll go for a horse myself.

Dishdasha 3.45 Newbury £5 win


And a special Bonus, Bonus Ball Bet. Lottery number perm on the 7 most popular numbers

6-7-11-15-23-30-33

Our best chance today of winning that million?

If you haven't entered yet it's just a number (1-49) to

quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk before 7.30pm tonight.

The Prizepool is currently at a healthy £34.75. All winners will share the cash.

----------

Cheltenham Festival Guide

All of the Tuesday and Friday races have now been updated and they include all the race analysis. All members can download the updates by going to

http://www.festivaltrends.co.uk/amember/member.php

If you haven't got the guide yet there's still plenty of time before Cheltenham. You can get the up-to-date version from here

http://www.festivaltrends.co.uk/

Included in the price is FREE exclusive use of the members area with updates, downloads and the latest betting news and selections. No contract, No membership fees and Nothing else to pay.
So far it seems that everyone is enjoying the read and now all that's left to do is get some winners!

Good luck,
Gavin.

P.S. Another Racing Post freebie arrived this morning which now gives us at least 2 prizes for Cheltenham.

It's obviously Friday....

Cheltenham Festival

Having spent yesterday ploughing through the handicap entries and weights my eyes have gone funny and I keep seeing strings of numbers everywhere.

I did however manage to dig out three that caught my eye before it went bad.

We have an obvious one, a not so obvious one and an unobvious one.
I think it will be pretty obvious which one is which though if you can't spot the obvious one from the not so obvious one or the unobvious one I'll obviously be more than happy to help you out.

William Hill Trophy - Can't Buy Time

A perfect trends profile and one of the easiest handicap winners of the season last time out. He should get his good ground and he won't be 10/1 on the day.

County Hurdle - Belcantista

What a great run over a distance that was too far for him last time out. I fancied him for the Totesport Trophy and I fancy him for this though I would have preferred to see him placed in his last run from a trends point of view. Nevermind there's always the Imperial Cup to put that right.

Coral Cup - Piraya

An interesting entry and just a speculative choice at the moment. Martin Pipe won this race in 2002 with an almost identical type of runner named Ilnamar. He came from France with a big chase reputation but ran three poor races over fences before being brought back to hurdles to land these spoils. The Pipe jnr trained Piraya has also failed to live up to expectations since coming from France though he did run a little better last time out when 7th in the Racing Post Chase. It was his entry in this race that caught my eye more than any other and at 33/1 at the moment he may be worth a small interest. Like father, Like son.

It was also good to see in today's Racing Post that Mamlook is indeed being aimed at the Martin Pipe race at the Festival and that David Pipe has used his charity bet to back the horse in this race. This has only re-enforced my belief that this horse has been laid out for this race. Get on!

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Bonus Ball Bet

There's still time to get your number in for this months BBB. The draw is this Saturday and someone or someones(!) will be winning the prizepool.

Entries must be in by 7.30pm this Saturday.

Number 1-49 to quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk

The prizepool currently stands at £34.75 and we'll have one final go tomorrow to boost that up. The same 4 newspaper tipsters plus a perm on the most popular Lottery guesses can hopefully add a few shekels to the pot.

Come on, it could be YOU!

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The Betting Machine

What can I say? The BM had another 5 winners and just 6 losers from 11 selections meaning it won again. It really is going well at the moment and whoever is picking these horses is in top form. There have been some pretty decent priced winners this week and my only criticism at the moment is that maybe it should be doing more to exploit this winning run.

However, it is difficult to crab a product that has trialled well and is showing a healthy £275 profit.

B/F £1201.78

2 2.20 L Super Ross 2/1 £6.59 won +£12.16

Total £1213.94

1 2.30 T Special Occasion 15/2 81p lost -81p
2 2.40 S My Sweet Georgia 4/5 £16.19 lost -£17.00
3 2.50 L Supreme Duke 9/4 £15.61 won £18.13

Total £1232.07

1 3.00 T Mark The Book 7/2 £1.76 lost -£1.76
2 3.30 T Cast Cada 2/1 £7.05 won +£12.34

Total £1244.41

1 3.40 S Fasilyanne 6/1 £1.04 lost -£1.04
2 4.30 T Postmaster 7/1 £1.93 lost -£2.97
3 4.50 L Alvino 3/1 £7.21 won +£18.66

Total £1263.07

1 5.00 T Kiama 11/4 £2.30 lost -£2.30
2 5.20 L Samsons Son 13/2 £2.30 won +£12.65

Total £1275.72

£73.94 profit for the day

What an amazing turnaround.

Read the sales page here...THE BETTING MACHINE

Today's runners are;

1.35 N Silk Hall
1.45 L Wray Castle
2.00 D Gold Award
2.10 N Michel Le Bon
2.20 F You Know Bridie
2.30 D Noticeable
2.50 L Northern Desert
3.05 D Otage De Brion
3.30 F Know The Law
3.40 D Bathwick Guest
4.00 F Black Beauty
4.20 N Distant Thunder
4.35 F Cunning Clarets
5.15 L Transact

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Friday Fun



Unfortunately unlike Matt (http://www.geegeez.co.uk/) there are no women's magazines who are going to be interested in profiling me (unless Women's Weekly start running a horse-racing column) so you'll have to put up with the same old, same old.

You may have seen in the Mirror this week the British artist dubbed 'the pavement Picasso' who creates 3D drawings on roads and pavements (or sidewalks when he's in America.)

Using only chalk it's truly amazing.....

Good luck,

Gavin.

Cheltenham handicaps....

CHELTENHAM

With the publication of the weights for Cheltenham's handicap races I'll be spending today sifting through all the entries and will report back tomorrow with any horses that catch my eye.

One horse that is high on my list of Cheltenham fancies though is a Pipe runner that I've been watching very closely this season. I originally thought he was being laid out for the County Hurdle and his recent runs had suggested he may appreciate a fast run 2 mile race, something that is almost guaranteed in what used to be the final contest of the Festival.

It was very surprising to find out he wasn't in that race when they published the original entries ....

I had however made a serious schoolboy error and overlooked the new race at this years festival which now leaves me absolutely convinced that the horse has been brought along all season with this race in mind.

The race in question is of course the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap and the horse is Mamlook.

David Pipe has made no secret of the fact that he wants to win this race and with 26 of the 216 entries it seems he could have quite a few runners but it's the decent flat handicapper Mamlook that I (and it seems the bookmakers) think is the main Pipe hope for this contest. He also holds an entry for the Coral Cup but I'm sure this is the race they have their eye on.

His last run was particularly eye-catching and had all the hallmarks of a horse ready to run a big race next time.
Moving very nicely he cruised into contention three out and stayed pressing the leaders until the final 150 yards where he faded into fourth. This was a very good Class 2 handicap and he was beaten just under 2 lengths under a good ride from 3lb claimer Hadden Frost. The big field should present no problems to a horse that has run placed at Royal Ascot and the Cesarewitch and if he gets good ground, which is looking very likely now, it all seems to be falling into place for a big run.

We may even see him run in the Imperial Cup at Sandown on the Saturday before Cheltenham as the Pipe stable always seem to target this race with their Cheltenham handicappers. It sets them up for a nice bonus if they win both races and in previous years we have seen them win and go close many times.

Whatever happens at Sandown this could well be my Cheltenham handicap banker.

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THE BETTING MACHINE

We're coming to the end of the month and the end of this particular system trial but I'm still struggling to really sum up the Betting Machine. Hopefully it will be a bit clearer after the weekend.

What is apparent though is that it's in good form at the moment and it had another really good day yesterday. 3 winners from 9 at odds of 4/6, 7/1 & 8/1 leaves it well in profit for the month.


B/F +£1155.23

1 2.10 F King Edmund 7/1 83p lost -83p
2 2.20 B Razor Royale 4/6 £18.71 won +£11.64

Total £1166.87

1 2.40 F Isntshelovely 25/1 24p lost -24p
2 3.00 W Desperate Dan 15/2 £1.60 won +£11.76

Total £1178.63

1 3.20 B Pelicon Point 3/1 £1.98 lost -£1.98
2 4.00 W Garra Molly 2/1 £6.93 lost -£8.91
3 4.40 Shillingstone 15/2 £3.56 lost -£12.47
4 5.10 J'Adhere 8/1 £4.58 won £24.17

Total £1202.80

1 5.20 B Edge Of Town 6/1 £1.02 lost -£1.02

Total c/f £1201.78

Read the sales page here...THE BETTING MACHINE

Today's runners are;

2.20 L Super Ross
2.30 T Special Occasion
2.40 S My Sweet Georgia
2.50 L Supreme Duke
3.00 T Mark The Book
3.30 T Cast Cada
3.40 S Fasliyanne
4.30 T Postmaster
4.50 L Alvino
5.00 T Kiama
5.20 L Samsons Son

Good luck,
Gavin.

P.S. Somebody at the Racing Post must read this blog as after yesterdays moan the first of my free books arrived in the post this morning. We now have at least one prize for the Cheltenham tipping competition.

It's all about Cheltenham....

Cheltenham

With less than two weeks to go before the flag goes up on the annual curtain raiser, The Supreme Novices Hurdle, the countdown is well and truly underway for this years much anticipated Cheltenham Festival. Here at Nag Towers we'll be doing our best to get everyone in the mood by offering an action packed couple of weeks as we look forward to this great meeting.

A lot of readers have been asking if Matt or I will be attending. I'm pretty certain Matt isn't but what I can say is...it's absolutely certain that I won't be.

Don't get me wrong, I really love Cheltenham and only Royal Ascot beats it in my Top 5 favourite race meetings (3rd is The Breeders Cup, 4th is Glorious Goodwood and 5th is Aintree for those who were wondering) but actually attending the 4 day craic is no longer my idea of fun.

It all goes back to when I did the whole Festival thing a few years back, actually quite a few years back, when it was just a three day jolly and a series of events convinced me never to return. It was cold, wet and too crowded which I gather is pretty much the norm. I couldn't see or hear any of the races and being in the company of a group of lads drank far too much and partied too hard. I had my wallet stolen (happily after 5 races of backing losers - that pickpocket was even unluckier than me!), saw horse after horse fall or get beaten and suffered a gash to my head when someone slipped and knocked me down some steps . To top it all off I got done for speeding on the way home, which I know wasn't Cheltenham's fault, but it didn't help improve my mood.

These days much prefer to join Matt in some London hostelry with an adjacent bookies and watch the action from there. No queuing for a pint, you get to see and hear all the races and the toilet facilities are generally a bit better too!

I'll stick to visiting Cheltenham at one of their 'lesser' meetings.

---------

I'm just putting the finishing touches to the free Naps Competition that I'll be running over the four days of Cheltenham.

There's been a slight hiccup with the prizes as the Racing Post haven't sent out the free books from their January offer yet, which has cheesed me off no end, so I'm having to track down some other stuff for you. I spent most of January visiting numerous betting shops and tearing out the tokens for the book offer and managed to acquire quite a few titles but it's now been over 6 weeks since I sent my first book request off and I'm beginning to give up hope of ever seeing them. If all else fails I'll have to raid the Nag3 piggy bank and stump up for some racing related prizes myself.

I'll post all the competition rules, registration details and the list of prizes at the weekend.

No such delivery problems with my Cheltenham Guide though which is available for download now and will be updated throughout the next fortnight. Click below for details....

Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide

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The Betting Machine

It still refuses to give in and posted another impressive set of results on Tuesday taking it well into profit.

B/F £1097.98

2 2.00 L kiyari 5/2 £4.93 lost -£6.16
3 2.20 L Iffy 4/1 £5.69 lost -£11.85
4 2.30 L Headdown 7/2 £9.69 lost -£21.54
5 3.00 L Five Gold Rings 7/4 £28.02 won +£27.50

Total +£1126.71

1 3.40 C Whiskey Magic 2/1 £2.84 lost -£2.84
2 3.50 L Lightening Strike 8/13 £23.06 won +£11.35

Total +£1138.06

1 4.20 L Pristine Condition 9/2 £1.28 lost -£1.28
2 4.10 C Master Builder 5/1 £2.55 lost -£3.83
3 5.10 C Southerness 7/2 £6.00 won +£17.17

Total +£1155.23

3 winners from 9 horses.

For those of you who are still tracking the results, today's selections are;

2.10 F King Edmund
2.20 B Razor Royale
2.40 F Isntshelovely
3.00 W Desperate Dan
3.20 B Pelicon Point
4.00 W Garra Molly
4.40 F Shillingstone
5.10 F J'Adhere
5.20 B Edge Of Town

Read the sales page here...THE BETTING MACHINE

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Good luck,
Gavin.

One for the stats....

A nice winner for the trend stats on Saturday and very nearly a one-two with Big Fella Thanks staying on strongly for third behind tipped up 10/1 winner Nacarat.

It was very good to hear that so many of you were on too!

Unfortunately the racing 'experts' weren't so good with their selections and they failed to add a single penny to our Bonus Ball prizepool leaving it at a still respectable £34.75.

This Saturday is the last chance we have to add to the fund and it will be this Saturday's Draw that will decide the winner (or winners) of the cash.

I'll once again put on a perm of the 7 most popular numbers in the Lottery Draw plus back 4 horses from the newspaper tipsters.

Entries must be in by 7.30pm this Saturday.

Number 1-49 to quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk

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The Betting Machine.

The remarkably resilient BM has once again defied this particular critic by getting itself back in front after a profitable weekend.

It started Saturday morning just over £50 down since the start of the trial but after 4 winners from it's 12 selections it continued it's great fight back

B/F £947.61

2 1.40 C Cypress Grove 3/1 £3.45 lost -£4.25
3 2.00 L Mellow Mixture 10/11 £20.43 lost -£24.68
4 2.10 C Tambourine King 9/4 £19.40 lost - £44.08
5 2.35 K Herecomesthetruth 8/13 £109.88 won +£23.53

Total £971.14

1 2.55 N Political Paddy 9/1 54p won +£4.86

total £976.00

1 3.40 L Duff 11/10 £4.48 lost - £4.48
2 4.00 N Gisland 3/1 £4.77 lost -£9.25
3 4.10 L Re Barolo 7/4 £13.69 won +£14.71

Total £990.71

1 4.35 N Skippers Brig 10/11 £5.50 won

Total £995.71

1 4.50 K Ballybach 8/1 63p lost -63p
2 5.00 C Aim For The 7/1 £1.52 lost -£2.15
3 5.10 N Eco Story 8/1 £2.15 lost -£4.30

Total C/F £991.41

Now just £9 down it carried on winning throughout Sunday with another 3 winners from 11 horses,


B/F £991.41

5 2.10 F Alfie Shrin 4/7 £42.62 won +£24..35

Total £1015.76

1 2.40 F Sound Accord 5/1 £1.02 lost -£1.02
2 3.00 T KiverganBoy 13/2 £1.73 lost -£2.75
3 3.20 L Itsawindup 9/2 £4.03 lost -£6.78
4 3.45 F Lough Derg 5/2 £10.90 won +£20.45

Total £1036.21

1 4.15 F Hoourable S 15/2 70p lost -70p
2 4.25 L Haarty boy 4/5 £13.93 lost -£14.63
3 4.35 T Tastes like More 4/6 £45.35 won +£15.60

Total £1051.81

1 4.55 L Jake The Snake 5/2 £2.12 lost -£2.12
2 5.05 T Gydus 5/2 £5.09 lost -£7.21
3 5.15 F Oamara Stone 7/4 £13.19 lost -£20.40

Balance C/F £1031.41

And so it continued on Monday (today) with 2 winners from 7...

B/F £1031.41

4 2.30 H Pickamus 10/3 £12.44 won £21.07

Total £1072.88

1 2.40 W Little Lost 10/1 54p lost -54p
2 2.50 P Novikov 4/7 £19.88 lost -£20.42
3 3.30 H Lamanver Homerun 5/4 £29.24 lost -£49.66 Fell at last when 20L clear
4 4.10 W National Monument 3/1 £23.65 lost -£73.31
5 4.40 W Sign Of Approval 9/4 £44.29 won +£26.33

Total £1099.21

1 5.00 H Springtree 9/2 £1.23 lost -£1.23

Total C/F £1097.98

I really don't know what to make of it all.

Read the sales page here...THE BETTING MACHINE

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The Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide

After Saturday's timely reminder of how the trends for a race can help pick the winner there's never been a better time to get my NagNagNag publication for this years Cheltenham Festival.

It's got all the trends and past seasons stats to help find the winner of every race at Cheltenham and will be updated throughout the coming weeks to accommodate all the remaining trials and races still to be run.

The updates are free and easily accessible from the Members Area and the first one is now available covering the weekends action.

You can even try before you buy......

Get a FREE download of the complete data and race analysis for the Triumph Hurdle by simply entering your Email address in the Free Race box at

Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide

Good luck,
Gavin.

Elementary my Dear Watson....

.... There should be plenty of clues for the forthcoming Cheltenham festival hidden in today's cards so I'll be donning my deerstalker hat, putting on my Inverness cape and puffing on my calabash pipe as I sit down to watch the racing on Channel 4.

Sherlock Holmes is famously quoted as saying 'when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth'

but for the purposes of this racing blog we'll translate that as 'we'll use the trends to find out what can't win and what we are left with is the horse to back!'

Unfortunately, Matt (in the role of a modern day Moriarty) has beaten me to the punch by doing the trends for the Racing Post Chase today but at least he has come to the same conclusion as me.

I'll not bother repeating his analysis, except to say that the two that are left are;

Big Fella Thanks & Nacarat

Elementary my Dear Watson!

(You can read how he came to this decision by reading his excellent blog here....Geegeez Blog)

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Bonus Ball Bet

After last weeks success we'll stick with the same method of picking the horses. If it ain't broke why fix it!

Matt Williams Back Page Bet (Racing Post)

Lacdoudal 3.10 Kempton £2.50 Each Way

Newsboy's Nap (Daily Mirror)

Duff 3.40 Lingfield £5 Win

Pricewise Eider Chase Tip (Racing Post)

Harmony Brig 3.30 Newcastle £2.50 Each Way

Value Scope (Daily Mirror). Surely he must tip a winner soon?

Ungaro 3.10 Kempton £2.50 Each Way


If you haven't entered yet, you know the drill by now. A number (1-49) to

quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk before 28th February.

The Prizepool is currently at a healthy £34.75. All winners will share the cash.

----------

Kempton Placepot

I've shown you the perm and how to write the tickets out so it's only right that we have a go at winning with it.

For those of you who can be bothered to write out the 20 tickets I'll be using this perm....

Fav + 6/9
Fav + 1/2
Fav + 1/3
Fav + 8/13
Fav + 5/7
Fav + 4/7 = 160 bets

And for those who haven't the time or inclination here's a more standard attempt....

6/7/9 - 3 - 1/2/3/4 - 4/8/13 - 6/7 - 4/7 = 144 bets

----------

The Betting Machine

Since my last update the BM has experienced two consecutive 6 cycle losing sequences and as a result is now in a frantic game of catch up.

It may be cheap and it may be fun but boy is it frustrating!

Every time you think you're on to something and your bank is going the right way along comes a dreaded losing cycle to set you back into a deficit and you have to start all over again. To it's credit it has since reclaimed a large stack of the money and yesterday gave 6 winners out of 14 but it still sits £50 odd down since the start of this trial.

AND here lies the problem with the Betting Machine and every other product like it.

You're basically paying your money for a staking system and the selections become irrelevant, just a mathematical occurence.

Obviously you want them to win but you need them to win frequently and you need to be paid accordingly when they do win. Unfortunately with this system that doesn't happen.

Take last week as an example when one of the BM selections, All in the Red, won at 14/1 as the second leg of a cycle. We were asked to stake the grand total of £1.51 on it to win just £21.14.

A very nice winner in anyone's books and if any other system had picked a 14/1 winner they would be shouting it from the rooftops (and rightly so.) But with the BM it's just another winner which meant the end of a cycle and the start of another.

14/1 winners don't come along that often but when they do pop up you want paying!

The other thing of course is that in this particular test we started off with a bank (theoretical of course!) of £1000 and we are being asked to stake £1.51. Other selections have seen stakes as low as just 10p. Now come-on, who on earth is going to bet that?

It's all well and good staking these sums on relative outsiders but then when you are asked 2 hours later to stake £170 on an odds-on favourite there's definitely something wrong somewhere. Not many people have the nerve to stake this kind of money after 5 consecutive losers.

Every tipster, whether it's Dave Nevison, Tom Segal, Newsboy, Claude Duval or Derek Thompson, actually definitely Derek Thompson, will have losing runs that stretch for 6, 7, 8 or more selections.

It's inevitable, just the way betting goes and it can't be overcome by a staking system using such a small cycle, especially when the good winners are not exploited enough.

I'm sure that if we took the selections from the BM and applied a level stake to them we wouldn't be that far behind or maybe even in front but using an aggressive 6 horse cycle to reclaim your losses seems a recipe for disaster.

I like the software, it's fun to use and I really wanted it to work this time around but as with all these staking based systems there's always a losing run around the corner ready to wipe out your profits.

If you've got a spare £20 much better to buy the Nag3 Publication

Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide and buy yourself a pint or two with the change.

The Bank Balance is currently £947.61 and as promised I'll keep you posted with the results until the end of the month.

------------

Which of course leads me on to plug the same said racing guide one more time this weekend.

It's full of everything you need to help pick out those Cheltenham winners including race trends, trainer tables, statistics and key race trials.

Also included is exclusive use of a Members Area where there will be downloads available throughout the build up to Cheltenham covering all the latest news, results analysis of the trial races yet to run and full coverage of the big handicaps as soon as the weights are announced.

Here you can also get access to all the selections, ratings and Placepot perms during Festival week.

And all of this is available for a one-off payment of just £14.95.Nothing else to pay and no recurring membership fees. Guaranteed.

BUT as a special offer to all of you loyal readers I will give everyone who reads this blog a 20% discount. Simply use the Code A02DF in the Bonus Code Box.

Available by clicking here;Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide

Right, I'm off this weekend to visit the family in The English Riviera, back on Monday.

Good Luck,
Gavin.

Cheltenham Festival preview...

Exciting news from Nag Towers.....

CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL TRENDS GUIDE

There's no need to tell the longstanding readers of this Blog about the amazing number of big price winners supplied here over the past few Cheltenham Festivals but for those new readers who may be unaware (or for those older readers who may be suffering memory problems)...

Tips from this blog have included winners at 11/2, 9/1, 10/1, 14/1

and at each of the last two Festivals a massive 50/1 winner.

Using exactly the same data analysis and trends research that has provided all these winners I have been meticulously researching and preparing this guide over the past 5 weeks and I will finally unveil the first ever Nag-Nag-Nag Publication today at 12 O'Clock lunchtime.

You've probably read my emails or seen my posts about it and a lot of you have downloaded the Free race sample I offered this week but today is the first day you can download the guide in full with all 27 races included.

I'm incredibly excited about this guide and I'm sure you'll be impressed by the level of research and the amount of work that has gone in to producing the Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide.

It's got everything you need to help pick out those Cheltenham winners including race trends, trainer tables, statistics and key race trials.

You also get exclusive use of a Members Area where there will be downloads available throughout the build up to Cheltenham covering all the latest news, results analysis of the trial races yet to run and full coverage of the big handicaps as soon as the weights are announced. Here you can also get access to all the selections, ratings and Placepot perms during Festival week.

And all of this is available for a one-off payment of just £14.95.
Nothing else to pay and no recurring membership fees. Guaranteed.

BUT as a special offer to all of you loyal readers I will give everyone who reads this blog a 20% discount. Simply use the Code A02DF in the Bonus Code Box.
Available from noon today by clicking here;

Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide

If you haven't had chance to download the FREE race sample yet then don't despair as it will be available right up until Cheltenham.

Simply click here; Free Download.

It just requires an email address and there's no Credit Card details needed or any catch involved.

And if you want to take a look at what you will be getting for your money, then Matt has very kindly compiled a video which takes a tour through the guide and you can view that here;

Video preview

So, please come along and take a look this lunchtime at the newly unveiled.....

Cheltenham Festival Trends Guide

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The Friday Fun feature will be moved to a Saturday Fun this week in what should be a packed post. We'll have the Bonus Ball Bet, a full update on the Betting Machine (and it's attempts to try and claw it's way out of the big hole it dug for itself) and a look at the big race card at Kempton.

Good luck,
Gavin.

Placepot guide....

A little bit later than promised and with a few pictures to help us along here is another attempt to explain the Placepot Perm from last weeks post.

First a look at a typical Placepot ticket. I 'borrowed' these from the local Betfred but they are pretty standard in every betting office and shouldn't differ too much from shop to shop.

They have a box at the top to enter the name of the meeting you want the Placepot at, two rows of stake boxes underneath ranging from 5p to £20 and then the all important 6 columns containing the numbers for your selections (1-40). Under these number boxes and to the right is the Un-named Favourite box.

If we take the meeting as Cheltenham and the perm as my favourites + two selections in each race then we would have 20 tickets to fill in. We will use the stake as 10p....

So where in last weeks post I wrote the perm as looking like this;

B B B 2 2 2

B B 2 B 2 2

B B 2 2 B 2

B B 2 2 2 B

B 2 B B 2 2

B 2 B 2 B 2

B 2 B 2 2 B

B 2 2 B B 2

B 2 2 B 2 B

B 2 2 2 B B

2 B B B 2 2

2 B B 2 B 2

2 B B 2 2 B

2 B 2 B B 2

2 B 2 B 2 B

2 B 2 2 B B

2 2 B B B 2

2 2 B B 2 B

2 2 B 2 B B

2 2 2 B B B

(where 2 is the number of selections per race and B is the banker or favourite)

Writing it out on the Placepot slips would look like this......

TICKET NUMBER 1

So this is how we would fill in Ticket Number 1 or Fav x Fav x Fav x 2 x 2 x 2.

Highlighted in red, the first thing to do is write the meeting on the slip (Figure 1).

Next enter the stake by putting a line through the corresponding box. In this example 10p (Figure 2)

And to fill in the selections we need to choose the number for each leg (Figure 4) by again putting a line through the box required. This part is very similar to filling in a Lottery ticket.

As this particular perm requires the Favourite in legs 1, 2 & 3 we complete the favourite box at the bottom of the number column (Figure 3) and for legs 4, 5 & 6 we put the numbers of our selections in (Figure 5). For this exampe I have just used numbers 1 & 2 for all 6 races

TICKET NUMBERS 2 & 3

For the second and third tickets simply fill in the favourites boxes according to the perm

i.e. F F 2 F 2 2 and F F 2 2 F 2

and also the corresponding selections for the legs.

Carry on writing the ticket for F F 2 2 2 F.

And so on for the remaining tickets

F 2 F 2 F 2,
F 2 F F 2 2...........




Until the last one, 2 2 2 F F F.

This should give you 20 tickets with 8 lines in each.

I hope this visual example helps to explain things a bit better.

Good luck,
Gavin.

P.S. Don't forget if you haven't downloaded the FREE Cheltenham Preview you can still get it from http://www.festivaltrends.co.uk/

P.P.S. And if you haven't submitted your Bonus Ball number yet there's still plenty of time. A number (1-49) to quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk before 28th February. Prizepool is currently over £30.

Sunday round-up...

I've got the scanner sorted on my computer and tomorrow I'll be publishing a pictorial guide to the Placepot perm I gave out last week. Hopefully a few pictures of some completed Placepot tickets will make it easier to understand.

---------

Bonus Ball Bet.

Two winners yesterday from the Racing Experts gets our BBB Prizepool off and running.

Matt Williams's back page bet in the Racing Post is worth the price of the paper alone and he gave sound reasoning for believing Carruthers could upset the hot favourite Breedsbreeze. I strongly recommend following what this guy says.

Thanks also to Newsboy who provided 3/1 winner Take the Breeze.

What it all means is that the Prizepool stands at a very respectable £34.75 with two Saturdays remaining. I'd like to think we can get this up to £50 before the draw date and give someone a decent meal down the local Indian/Chinese/Italian or whatever takes your fancy.

I'll stick with the same 4 tipsters for next weeks bets.

It's free money waiting for someone so why not try and grab a slice.

Simply email a number (1-49) to

quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk

and if your guess matches the Bonus Ball on the National Lottery draw for the 28th February you will share the Prizepool with all correct guessers.

Absolutely no catch whatsoever.

--------

They weren't the only ones to get amongst the winners yesterday as War of the Roses provided a juicy 14/1 winner for my AW list of horses to follow. Running under the optimum conditions highlighted in my previous post he proved a game and worthy winner.

You can read the full post here;

http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/2009/01/back-in-saddle.html

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The Betting Machine.

Yesterday's results;

CF balance +£959.52

2 1.05 A Carruthers 7/4 £6.71 won cycle =+£9.60
Total =+£969.12

1 1.15 U A French Horse 3/1 £1.62 lost cycle -£1.62
2 1.25 L Bartica 5/2 £4.53 won cycle + £8.71
Total +£977.83

1 1.50 U Mcoeldowney 15/2 £0.65 lost cycle -65p
2 2.00 L Harty Boy 5/1 £2.09 lost cycle -£2.74
3 2.15 A Tamarinbleu 2/1 £8.72 lost cycle -£11.46
4 2.25 H Stow 9/4 £13.78 won cycle +£19.54
total +£997.37

1 2.40 W Punjabi 2/1 £2.52 Lost cycle -£2.52
2 2.55 H Massasoit 3/1 £4.18 lost cycle -£6.70
3 3.20 A Santia 11/8 £15.80 won cycle +£15.03
Total +£1012 40

1 4.10 L Saints Boy 11/4 £1.85 lost cycle -£1.85
2 4.25 A Jau 5/1 £2.41 lost cycle -£4.26
3 4.35 U Guydus 11/4 £7.10 lost cycle -£11.36
4 4.50 W In Vino 7/4 £18.10 lost cycle -£29.46

total cf +£982.94

Four winners yesterday but it's back up to leg 5 of the next cycle and it's leaving itself vulnerable to another wipeout.

The all important selections for today where the BM will need 1 of the first 2 horses to win and reset the cycle are;
2.10 H Black Jacari
2.30S Stash
3.10 H Pteodactyl
4.10 H Tamadot
4.30 S Air maze
4.40 H Wishful Thinking

You can read the sales page here;THE BETTING MACHINE

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CHELTENHAM PREVIEW GUIDE

My Cheltenham Preview Guide is still available for downloading and judging by the feedback I'm receiving it seems to be getting a big thumbs up.

If you haven't got a copy yet all you need to do is visit

http://www.festivaltrends.co.uk/

pop in your email address and you can download the full version for the Triumph Hurdle.

Packed with stats, trends, facts, figures, trial news, horse analysis and the all new, exclusive Nag3 rating system the guide will cover all 27 races of this years Cheltenham Festival.

There's no catch, no sign up and no credit card details needed. All you need is an email address.

Please have a good look through and let me know what you think, good or bad!

Good luck,
Gavin.

Love is in the air......

For those of you who aren't aware or had simply forgotten (there's still time to nip down the garage for a box of Milk Tray or a bunch of flowers) it's Valentines Day today.

Supposedly the most romantic day of the year I've never really been one for this particular 'festival', personally I think it's strictly for the under 25's or the kind of people who write into Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs on Radio 2. The missus however, always insists I buy her a card and having done the deed I now have enough brownie points to continue my love affair with the Sport of Kings.

I do have to take my son and his friend to the cinema (Bolt in 3D) this afternoon which means that my trusty Sky+ will be recording all the action for my enjoyment later this evening. While the missus watches 30 fat, sweaty blokes kick and throw a funny shaped ball around a muddy pitch I'll be upstairs in the bedroom catching up on all the Cheltenham pointers.

Who says romance is dead!

---------

BONUS BALL BET

Due to my continued run of bad luck and dodgy tips I will be relying on the experts today to try and put some cash into the BBB Prizepool.

First up is Matt Williams of the Racing Post (who I think is the best tipster in the paper) and his back page bet today

Carruthers 1.05 Ascot £5 win

Pricewise of the Racing Post headline tip is the horse I was very sweet on in last weeks Totesport Trophy so that will do nicely as number 2 tip

Belcantista 1.40 Ascot £5 win

Value Scope in the Daily Mirror makes me look like a champion tipster and he hasn't had a worthwhile winner for ages but every dog has his day and let's hope that day is today.

Carnival Town 1.55 Haydock £2.50 each way

and finally the ever dependable Newsboy and his Nap for today

Take the Breeze 3.30 Uttoxeter £5 win

Let's see how the experts get on.

Don't forget to register you number (1-49) at quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk for the draw on 28th February 2009

----------

CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL PREVIEW GUIDE

For those of you who missed it yesterday, I'm in the process of producing a Cheltenham Festival Preview Guide and I'm giving all you faithful Blog readers a sneak preview of this forthcoming essential bookie-bashing tool.

Simply go to

www.festivaltrends.co.uk

and pop in your email address and you can download the full version for the Triumph Hurdle.

Packed with stats, trends, facts, figures, trial news, horse analysis and the all new, exclusive Nag3 rating system the guide will cover all 27 races of this years Cheltenham Festival.

There's no catch, no sign up and no credit card details needed. All you need is an email address.

Please have a good look through and let me know what you think, good or bad!

Please note: There does seem to be a problem for those readers using Firefox browsers. It is being dealt with but if you haven't got Internet Explorer and would like a copy of the download please drop me an email at gavin@festivaltrends.co.uk and I'll send you a download link for the guide.

-----------

The Betting Machine

There were no selections yesterday so the bank remains at £959.52

As of 9.30am there are no selections today either which means for the second consecutive weekend I am unable to pass on the tips. I'm not too sure what is happening here but Friday through Sunday there does seem to be a delay in making the selections available.

You can read the sales page here;THE BETTING MACHINE

And finally for all those readers who emailed me yesterday, I have it on good authority that Friggatriskaidekaphobia is indeed the medical condition of the fear of Friday the 13th whereas Triskaidekaphobia is simply the fear of the number 13.

I haven't gone completely mad.........not yet anyway!

Good luck,
Gavin.

P.S. Don't forget to get the free Cheltenham Preview download here.

Friday the 13th....

or for those who suffer from Friggatriskaidekaphobia, an excuse to stay in bed all day.

Taken from the Greek word Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the Number 13) Friggatriskaidekaphobia is the name given to the condition of those people with a fear of Friday the 13th.

It's never really bothered me because when it comes to the horses I'm unlucky every day, not just Friday 13th!

-------

CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL PREVIEW GUIDE

The last few weeks I been slaving away, chained to my laptop and buried under a pile of stat & form books as I compile the forthcoming NagNagNag publication, The Cheltenham Festival Preview Guide.

The guide will be available on the 20th February and will be packed with stats, trends, facts, figures, trial news, horse analysis and the all new, exclusive Nag3 rating system.

To give you some idea of what will be contained in this guide you can download the full section covering The Triumph Hurdle from here;

http://www.festivaltrends.co.uk/

Simply pop your name and email address in the box and you'll be given all the details and the free download.

There's no catch, no sign up and no credit card details needed. All you need is an email address.

Please have a good look through and let me know what you think, good or bad!

--------

The PLACEPOT

I've had a number of emails from readers about the Placepot perm I ran through the other day and it seems I may have made it a bit more complicated than was needed. I also had a great suggestion to scan some Placepot tickets and post them on the blog so you the readers can see what I'm banging on about. If I can get my scanner to work then I will attempt to do that over the weekend.

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The BETTING MACHINE

Friday 13th came a day early for The BM and even though it managed a 14/1 winner early on due to the nature of the system it counted for nothing as it then ran up a 7 loser sequence meaning another full losing cycle.

All the hard work of the past 10 days, gradually rebuilding it's bank since the last losing cycle has been wasted. The results;

2 1.40 C Seefin Mountain 3/1 £3.92 lost (cycle -£4.82)
3 1.50 L All In The Red 14/1 £1.51 won (cycle +£16.25)

Total =£1101.97

1 2.10 C Jigsaw Dancer 13/2 £0.85 lost (cycle -£0.85)
2 2.20 K Spanish Ace 7/1 £1.69 lost (cycle -£2.54)
3 2.45 C The Gossmoor Yank 6/5 £15.88 lost (cycle -£18.42)
4 3.00 S Rawdon 8/11F £55.48 lost (cycle -£73.90)
5 3.30 K Blue Tomato 9/4 £44.87 lost (cycle -£118.77)
6 4.30 C Hivikos 7/1 £21.54 lost (cycle -£140.31)

Total =£961.66

1 5.00 C Double Dash 9/4 £2.14 lost (cycle -£2.14)

C/F total +£959.52

Today's selections are not available yet.


You can read the sales page here;THE BETTING MACHINE

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BONUS BALL BET

Given my complete lack of form I will be relying on the experts tomorrow to pick our selections for the Bonus Ball Prizepool.

I'm planning on using 4 newspaper tipsters and doing 4 singles to try and get some decent money in the pot. They can't do any worse than last weeks bets.

So time to send in your guess for this months draw. Any number (1-49) to quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk and if your guess matches the Bonus Ball in the National Lottery Draw 28th February you share whatever is in the pot.

Last month's winner scooped the pot all on his own, remember it could be you!

---------

FRIDAY FUN

Some Friday 13th funny but true stories......

- Friday 13th August 1976 was particularly unlucky for New York man Daz Baxter. Having elected to stay in bed to ward off bad luck, the floor of his apartment block collapsed and he fell six storeys to his death

- A full moon on Friday February 13 1987 drove troubled Robert Bullard, 21, to attempt suicide by putting his head in a gas oven. Not only was his methodology flawed – suicide by natural gassing is virtually impossible since Britain moved from lethal coke gas to less dangerous natural gas – but a flicked light switch caused an explosion which injured his mother and a policeman and caused £35,000 damage. Robert was unharmed.

- Friday 13th February 1998 was simply business as usual for Mancunian John Sheridan, dubbed Britain’s unluckiest man after once having his car stolen five times in one day, making 16 trips to casualty in two years, seeing eight TVs explode in six months and losing out on a £4000 lottery win when he put the ticket in the washing machine with his jeans. John’s big day began when his Saab ran out of petrol. He hitched a lift with a sympathetic policeman, whose car broke down at the garage. John returned to his car with a can of petrol, got it started but lost a wheel as he turned a corner. He returned home on a bus, which broke down. Completing his journey on foot, he realised he’d left his keys inside the car and had to return in case in was stolen.

- Friday 13th October 1972 was the date a plane carrying Uruguayan rugby team Montevideo Old Christians crashed on its way from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile. When rescuers finally found the 14 survivors two months later, it emerged that they had survived by eating human flesh from some of 31 crew and passengers who perished in the crash. In 1992, the story was filmed as Alive, starring Ethan Hawke.

- On Friday 13th July 1984 Robert Maxwell bought Mirror Group newspapers

and the scariest Friday 13th fact of all......

Margaret Thatcher was born on Friday 13th October 1925!

Good luck,
Gavin.

System review update......

THE BETTING MACHINE

Yesterday's results;

B/F +£1069.90

1 1.10 L Cantabilly 7/2 £1.53 lost (Cycle -£1.53)
2 1.40 L Dream In Blue 9/4 £5.43 lost (cycle -£6.96)
3 2.35 K Jake The Snake 11/8 £16.70 won (Cycle +£16.00)

Total +£ 1085.90

1 3.10 L Bobski 6/1 £0.90 lost Cycle -£0.90

Total C/F +£1085.00

Another winning cycle for the BM as it plods along increasing it's bank steadily if not spectacularly.

Today's selections;

1.40 C Seefin Mountain
1.50 L All In The Red
2.10 C Jigsaw Dancer
2.20 k Spanish Ace
2.45 C The Gossmoor Yank
3.00 L Rawdon
3.30 K Blue Tomato
4.30 C Hivikos
5.00 C Double Dash

The sales page is here THE BETTING MACHINE where it is on offer for the first month at just £20.

We'll be running the trial until the end of the month so we can see if the cheap and cheerful BM can sustain it's good start.

Good luck,
Gavin.

P.S. I've got a great Cheltenham freebie for all readers in tomorrows Blog.

Bookie bashing.....

3 ways to try and beat the bookies in today's post.

First we'll have a look at a couple of complex Placepot perms which can increase the number of selections per race without breaking the bank.

Then a look at the Betting Machine which continues to show a profit and finally news of an exciting new NagNagNag publication that is coming soon.

---------

PLACEPOT PERMS

This feature is a follow up to the perm I posted last September and is a slight variation in the way the selections are made.

You can read the post here;
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/2008/09/placepot-permutations.html

Which basically explains a perm that used the un-named favourite and coupled them with 2 other selections. It then put 3 race favourites and 3 sets of selections in 20 different lines.

This gives a total of 160 lines for 3 horses per race (1x1x1x2x2x2 = 8 bets x 20 lines) instead of a full perm which would be 729 lines (3x3x3x3x3x3).

Today's perm variation uses the same 160 line perm but it drops the un-named favourite in favour of your own selections.

How it works is by first picking 3 horses in each race.
You then need to pick out 1 banker from these 3 selections in each of the 6 races.
Then simply use this banker as a replacement for the un-named favourite.

So instead of a line looking like

Race 1: FAVOURITE
Race 2: FAVOURITE
Race 3: FAVOURITE
Race 4: 2 selections
Race 5: 2 selections
Race 6: 2 selections = 8 bets (2x2x2)

it would read

Race 1: BANKER
Race 2: BANKER
Race 3: BANKER
Race 4: 2 selections
Race 5: 2 selections
Race 6: 2 selections = 8 bets (2x2x2)

and so on for the other 19 lines listed in the previous post.

For the more adventurous of you, you can also change the number of selections in each race and doing what our cousins on the other side of the pond would refer to as an exotic perm.

4 in a race with a banker will cost 540 (3x3x3 bets x 20 lines) bets instead of 4096 (4x4x4x4x4x4).

Or a really exotic perm where you select a different number of selections in each race.

Say you choose 4 horses in race one, 3 in race 2, 5 in race 3, 3 in race 4, 3 in race 5, 3 in race 6 this would normally cost a wallet busting 1620 lines (4x3x5x3x3x3) but by breaking it down to 1 banker per race and the rest as selections it would look like this;

B x B x B x 2 x 2 x 2 =8 bets
B B 4 B 2 2 = 16
B B 4 2 B 2 = 16
B B 4 2 2 B = 16
B 2 B B 2 2 = 8
B 2 B 2 B 2 = 8
B 2 B 2 2 B =8
B 2 4 B B 2 = 16
B 2 4 B 2 B = 16
B 2 4 2 B B = 16
3 B B B 2 2 =12
3 B B 2 B 2 = 12
3 B B 2 2 B = 12
3 B 4 B B 2 =24
3 B 4 B 2 B = 24
3 B 4 2 B B = 24
3 2 B B B 2 = 12
3 2 B B 2 B = 12
3 2 B 2 B B = 12
3 2 4 B B B = 24

For a total of just 296 bets.

The minimum you need to get the Placepot up is 3 of your bankers placed and 1 of your selections placed in the other 3 races.

Obviously the more bankers and more selections you get right the more lines you get up and the more you will win.

Good luck if you decide to have a go.

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THE BETTING MACHINE

Another couple of winners yesterday for the BM keeps it nicely in profit for the trial so far.

B/F £1037.33
2 2.10 L Woodcote 8/11F £16.06 won (Cycle +£10.38)
Bank Total = +£1049.01

1 2.20 S Zarilan 5/2 £2.10 lost (cycle -£2.10)
2 2.40 L Amwell House 6/1 £2.09 lost (cycle -£4.19)
3 2.50 S Kingsmaiten 15/2 £2.65 lost (cycle -£4.84)
4 3.10 L Blacktoft 8/13 £45.08 won (cycle +£20.90)

Bank Total C/F = +£1069.91

Today's selections which will start with a new cycle at leg 1;

1.10 L Cantabilly
1.40 L Dream In Blue
1.55 M Glencree
2.25 M Caravel
2.35 K Jake The Snake
3.10 L Bobski
4.25 M Menchikov
4.55 M Hillview Boy

You can read the sales page here THE BETTING MACHINE

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CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL GUIDE

I have some exciting news about this years Cheltenham Festival and the punters guide I have been working on. Full of stats, trends, figures, trial results, race profiles and my exclusive Nag Rating System I'm hoping it will prove an invaluable resource in the fight against the bookies. It's nearing completion and will be available shortly.

I'll tell you more later this week and give you a chance to see the content that will be included with a free, complete Download of one of the major Cheltenham races. Watch this space.........

Good luck,
Gavin.

McCoy Magic...

Great to see racing getting some good headlines in the National Press as Tony McCoy reaches the 3000 winner mark. Lots has been written, and rightly so, on the subject and there's not much left to say but I'll add my two pence worth anyway.

The guy is the greatest jump jockey of all time and punters love him because everytime he gets on a horse you know he's going to give 100%. He has the mental strength that is present in all the top champions in sport and it is one of the main attributes that separates the winners from the losers. Not only that but from what has been written over the past few weeks he seems like a real top bloke too.

He has re-written the record books and looks set to continue at the very top for a long time to come. I doubt the 5/1 Corals offer on him riding 4000 winners will last very long and for those big hitters William Hill's offer of 1/4 he makes 3500 winners looks like a good long term investment as surely only a career ending injury could stop him reaching that milestone. He's 4/5 to make the final list for BBC's Sports Personality and 33/1 to win it.

Just two things left off the CV, that elusive Grand National (5/2 with William Hill to win it before he retires) and a Knighthood!

---------

I'm going to chance my arm with a few bets today.

As always do as you please with them Back them / Lay them or just ignore them......

1.50 South Soba Jones - A multiple course winner who usually does all his winning at this time of year. He's getting on a bit but he won this race last year and I think he's now ready to strike.
(1pt e/w)

2.50 South Don Pietro - Not a bad seller with some in-form horses running. The selection is the highest rated horse in the race and this 6-y-o can win for his in form stable.
(1pt e/w)

2.10 Ling Woodcote - He's very well in on official ratings and with the assistance of George Baker in the saddle this previous Ascot winner looks to have found a decent opportunity to get back in the winners enclosure.
(1pt win)

4.10 Ling Dundry - He ran a cracker last time out when second on the course with the rest well behind. He comes from the top trainer and with the top jockey aboard looks a great bet.
(2pt win)

---------

THE BETTING MACHINE

A few winners for The BM yesterday keeps the system in profit for the current trial;

1 1.30 P Excape £2.02 @ 5/2 lost (cycle - £2.02)
2 2.35 Wind Instrument £4.41 @ 11/4 lost (cycle -£6.43)
3 2.45 K Clovis £2.40 @ 9/1 won (cycle +£15.44)
Bank total + £1028.32

1 3.25 W Eighteenfifty £15.42 @ 1/3 Won (cycle +£5.14)
Bank total +£1033.46

1 3.45 P Quaspia £1.03 @ 5/1 won (cycle +£5.17)
Bank total +£1038.63

1 4.30 P The Package £1.30 @ 4/1 lost cycle -£1.30

Total c/f +£1037.33

Today's selections which will start at the second leg of this cycle are;

2.10 L Woodcote
2.20 S Zarilan
2.40 L Amwell House
2.50 S Kingsmaite
3.10 L Blacktoft
3.40 L Capable Guest

You can read the sales page here THE BETTING MACHINE

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THE PLACEPOT

For those readers who are a bit more experienced with the Placepot, and in particular Placepot Perms, I wrote an article last September which can be read here

http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/2008/09/placepot-permutations.html

This dealt with a more complex perm that can reduce the number of bets in a 3x3x3x3x3x3 Placepot from 729 to 160. For all those who are interested in these type of multiple selection perms I'll be back tomorrow with a few variations on this specific 'system'.

Until then, here's another attempt at getting the PlacePot up;

Southwell

2/7 - 3/5 - 1/4 - 5/8 - 3/4/6 - 1 = 48 bets


Good luck,
Gavin.

Things I have learnt this weekend....

- A nice curry, a few Budweisers, good company and playing poker until 4am is a cracking way to spend a Saturday night.

- Too many Budweisers and playing poker until 4am on a Saturday night leaves its mark on Sunday morning.

- £10 to upgrade to First Class on a packed train is great value.

- The BHB deserve a lot of credit for re-scheduling the Kempton card and hopefully this is the way forward when a big meeting is lost.

- Denman can still win the Gold Cup. Having his first race since a heart operation on a track that wouldn't suit him he ran an okay race. He did have Albertas Run over 20 lengths behind and would have needed the run. The Gold Cup is the number 1 objective and I don't think he should be written off just yet.

- David Pipe may not rack up anywhere near the numbers of winners that his dad managed but come the Saturday big race he's usually got his horses fit and ready to go. In Madison du Berlais he has a fast improving horse who has won a Henessey and now lowered the colours of the reigning champion. He deserves his chance in the big one and has real place possibilities.

- Air Force One is an outsider to consider for the Gold Cup.

- Lingfield is the toughest AW track to read the form at and betting in-running at the course is not for the faint hearted.

- I really am suffering from a severe lack of form. I couldn't even pick a winner with tomorrows Racing Post in my lap. Hopefully things will improve before Cheltenham comes around.

AND

- Ray Quinn will win Dancing on Ice, Steve Palmers column in Sundays Racing Post is great reading and I'm fed up of the 6 Nations already.

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THE BETTING MACHINE

Saturday's selections came out very late (again!) and I was unable to post them (again!).
Carrying on from where we left off;

Saturday:

Leg 3 4.45 Ling Geese A Laying 7/1 £3.24 lost (cycle -£9.54)
Leg 4 5.30 Wolv Silk Gallery 9/4 £13.95 lost (cycle -£23.49)

total +£73.18
Bank Total +£1073.18

Sunday:

Leg 5 2.10 Leo The Lion 2/1 £25.36 lost (Cycle -£48.85)
Leg 6 2.40 Bois Joli 2/1 £39.99 lost (Cycle - £88.84

Full losing cycle leaves the profit now at +£7.84

Leg 1 3.40 Premio Loco 4/5 £6.30 won (cycle +£5.04)

Total +£12.88

Bank Total c/f to Monday = £1012.88


Today's selections;
1.30 P Excape
2.30 P Wind Instrument
2.45 K Clovis
3.25 W Eighteenfifty
3.45 P Quaspia
4.20 P The Package
4.50 P Glebehall Bay

The stakes and results will be posted tomorrow.

The Betting Machine uses a progressive staking system that increases the amount you place on each horse until you get your previous losses back and make up the profit the losers should have brought you.

In theory it's the perfect way of betting but unfortunately a long series of losers can see you placing massive wagers just to recoup a small amount of money and this is where all progressive staking systems fall down.

To combat this eventuality the BM uses a cycle of 6 selections which basically gives up trying to win back the money should 6 consecutive losers occur. It then reverts back to the first leg and the original staking plan.

The BM therefore needs to have plenty of winning cycles and hope that it can build your bank high enough to cover these losing cycles.

So can the BM do this? Only time will tell and we'll track it's progress over the coming month.

You can read the sales page here THE BETTING MACHINE

Good luck,

Gavin.

Just a quickie....

BONUS BALL BET

A quick post today as I'm visiting Matt in his newly named and re-modelled, but still palatial, GeeGeez Towers. If you haven't seen his new horse racing systems blog site then check it out by clicking the link.

He has kindly given us two horses for the Bonus Ball Bet and in the hope that two heads are better than one here it is;

SEA CLIFF 2.45w
JOHN TERRY 335L
ALBERTAS RUN 2.50K (Matt)
COMEINTOTHESPACE 300L (Matt)

50P EW LUCKY 15

£2.50EW JOHN TERRY

If you haven't registered yet and you want to take part simply email a number (1-49) to
quiz@nag-nag-nag-nag.co.uk.

All last months guesses have been wiped and you need to re-register again for this month.

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THE BETTING MACHINE

I apologise for not putting up yesterday's selections but unfortunately they came on-line very late and I didn't get time to post them.

6 1.45 B Quartz De Thaix 1/2 £85.25 won (cycle +£20.65 total) bank total+£1059.84

1 2.10 F Gauvain 8/15 £9.94 lost (cycle -£9.94)
2 2.25 S Back In The Red 2/1 £10.24 lost (cycle -£20.18)
3 2.40 F Quel Brere 4/1 £8.98 lost (cycle -£29.16)
4 2.50 B Taste Like More 4/1 £12.52 lost (cycle -£41.68)
5 3.00 S Rawdon 2/1 £33.84 won (cycle +£26.00) bank total +£1085.84

1 3.20 B Pie In The Sky 13/8 £3.34 lost (cycle -£3.34)
2 3.45F Mount Sandel 4/6 £21.27 won (cycle +£10.84) bank total +£1096.68

1 4.05 S Karta 4/1 £1.37 lost (cycle -£1.37)
2 4.25 B Baby Run 5/2 £4.93 lost (cycle -£6.30)

So we are now onto leg 3 of the current cycle with our bank total standing at +£1090.38
or £90.38 profit.

For the second day running the selections are a little late in being made available and I'm in the unfortunate position of not being able to post them again.

The sales page for this cheap and cheerful system is here THE BETTING MACHINE

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PLACEPOT

KEMPTON 5-7-14 / 1-2-4-5 / 2-3 / 2-3-13 / 1 / 5-6 = 144 lines

Good luck,
Gavin.

If I didn't have bad luck..

I wouldn't have any luck at all!

So sang Blues singer Albert King, which just about sums it up for me though another blues line 'I'm down so low if I cheered up I'd still be depressed' wouldn't be that far off either.

Firstly, my Placepot goes down on the last leg when the favourite falls at the last with a guaranteed 3rd looking in the bag and then my each way 25/1 shot finishes fourth in a 16 horse handicap which was unfortunately a 14 runner handicap due to two non-runners. Newbury has been called off thus ruining my weekend plans of a day at the races and to top it all off, the 6 nations starts tomorrow which means I'll have umpteen weeks of watching Wales over and over again as the missus drools over Gavin Henson playing what has to be the worst sport ever invented.

If I had a time machine I'd go back to Rugby on that day when some young whippersnapper ruined a jolly good football kick about by picking up the ball and suspend him from the school indefinitely. (I know the story is probably apocryphal but the chance of me getting my hands on a time machine are pretty slim anyway!) If that didn't work then I'd get back in my time machine and go back to the days when Rugby town was first named and re-name it Poncey. Can't see too many butch, 20 stones blokes wanting to play a game called Poncey.

I digress, apparently and according to the missus, Wales are certs for the Grand Slam. She's even had £2 of my hard earned money on them acheiving this feat which is the first time I've seen her bet, though not the first time she's spent my hard earned, since she backed Will Young to win the first Pop Idol.

Oh well, onwards and (hopefully) upwards.

-----------

THE BETTING MACHINE

At least The BM didn't suffer the same luck as me yesterday as it managed to find a couple of winners including the all important 6th leg of it's first cycle.

The results;

Starting bank 5/2/2009 £884.12

leg 6 1.50 Taunton King Caine £57.92 @ 5/2 won +£144.80 (cycle +£28.91)
Bank +£1028.91

leg 1 2.00 Charlotte Grey £1.28 @ 9/2 2nd -£1.28 (cycle -£1.28)
leg 2 2.20 Fair Point £3.85 @ 3/1 won £11.55 (cycle +£10.27)
Bank +£1039.18

leg 1 2.50 Pertinent £0.65 @ 8/1 3rd -£0.65 (cycle - £0.65)
leg 2 3.00 Chocolicious £5.52 @ 2/1 4th -£5.52 (cycle -£6.17)
leg 3 3.20 Bruslini £15.80 @ 11/8 4th -£15.80 (cycle -£21.97)
Bank balance c/f+£1017.21

Which means the BM is now in front after two days but back up to leg 4 of its 3rd cycle.

I haven't as yet (11.37 a.m) had today's selections but I'll Post them as soon as I have them.

Early days still for The BM and I'll be writing my initial thoughts about it on Monday. Until then you can read the sales page here;

THE BETTING MACHINE

Where you can find out about the Half Price Special Offer of only £20 for the first month.

---------

Today's Placepot is from Southwell where hopefully we won't have any problems with fallers. What we do have though, is a problem with small fields which could get even worse should Southwell suffer the same number of Non-Runners it experienced yesterday.

7-9 / 1-2 / 1-3 / 4-5 / 3-4-5 / 1-8-13 = 144 bets

1.20 Isabella's Fancy looks to have a good opportunity in a very poor race. Twice seen staying on well over a shorter trip, this step up to a mile should suit her and she may be worth a small interest. (1pt win)

---------

Friday Fun

When she's not watching the rugby, the missus likes to watch Dancing on Ice and apparently she's not alone as the whole world has been caught up in the fun. Mainly due to Todd Carty making a fool of himself as he stumbles around the rink this one clip has had well over a million hits on You Tube, if you haven't seen it yet, check this out....

Flippin 'eck Tucker!






---------

No Newbury tomorrow so I'll have to re-think the Bonus Ball Bet.

Good luck,
Gavin.

Escape from the weather.....

I've had enough of the cold and I've decided to escape to the warmer climes of Dubai. I've put the radiators on full blast, changed into my shorts and T-shirt, donned my sun glasses and slipped on my sandals. At 3.30pm I'll be all set to tune in to Racing UK and watch the action from Nad Al Sheba...

Which is where the only horse I'll be backing today runs. It runs in the first, a turf handicap with a classy looking line-up but I guess that's the sort of field you'll get for £50k prize money.

Plenty in with a chance but the one I think might be worth an interest at the price is Little White Lie. His last 3 runs were pretty good and included a 4th in a big field Newmarket handicap, a win in a fairly decent conditions race and a 6th on the All Weather when upped to Listed class. Having his UAE debut for A Bin Huzaim he won't find this easy but I don't think he deserves to be 25/1.

Selection: Little White Lie (1/2pt EW at 25/1)

I'm currently -12.07pts since Jan 1st.

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PLACEPOT

Today's attempt from Taunton looks like....

1-3 / 3-8 / 4-9 / 4-8 / 1-4-9-10 / 8-11 = 128 bets

I'll be having a look at some more complicated perms at the beginning of next week in Part 3 of my feature on the Placepot Bet.

------------

THE BETTING MACHINE

3 losers from 3 yesterday puts the BM on the ropes early on in this system review and it will be interesting to see if it can recover from this setback. I intend to keep a daily record of all the bets for the complete month of February to give it chance to show it's true colours.

Our bank started the day at £981.51

£13.36 Mellow Mixture 5/2 finished 2nd -£13.36 Cycle total -£31.84 Bank total £968.16
£17.19 Quince 3/1 finished 2nd -£17.19 Cycle total -£49.04 Bank total £950.96
£66.84 Dollar Express 11/10 lost -£66.84 Cycle total -£115.88

Which meant the Bank total finished the day at £884.12.

As you can see, from the amounts the BM asks you to place, it uses a progressive staking system that tries to recover the previous losses and the original profit it set out to achieve.

With the current losing cycle of 5 horses it has put a dent in my virtual bank and will be looking for it's first horse of the day to recoup those losses before reverting back to the start.

Here are today's hopes....

1.50 T King Caine
2.00 S Charlotte Grey
2.20 T Fair Point
2.50 T Pertinent
3.00 S Chocolicious
3.20 T Bruslini

You can read the sales page here: THE BETTING MACHINE

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Bonus Ball Bet

With Mr Rolston's cheque winging it's way to him for last month's BBB it's time to start building the Prizepool again.

I'll be away this weekend in London as I'm off (hopefully) to Newbury with Matt and a few other friends. It should be a great day out with top quality racing, a few beers and perfect company.

So just in case I don't get to post this Saturday I'll be placing £10 EW on Belcantista in the Totesport Trophy for this weeks BBB prizepool.

You can stake your claim to this months prizepool by simply guessing the Bonus Ball for the National Lottery Main Draw on 28th February 2009.

Send your number (1-49) to quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk

anytime before the draw and if you guess right you get the cash along with all the other correct guesses. It's FREE to enter with no catch...

Good luck,
Gavin.

P.S. Don't forget my poker blog is now up and running. I've made $200 in 3 days in my quest to reach the WSOP. So far, So good.
http://fourking-ace.blogspot.com/

Snow, snow go away....

All these abandonment's are really getting to me at the moment but I doubt anyone is more cheesed off than Tony McCoy. Just two away from the magical 3000 career winners he must be pulling his hair out as jump meeting after jump meeting is called off.

It's not looking good for the rest of the week either and according to the Racing Post Newbury is 8/11 to be off, Evens to be on this weekend. With loads of Cheltenham Festival trials due to be run throughout the country it's going to cause a lot of problems in any trainers schedule as they try to get their horses fit and ready to go. What odds Denman runs on the All Weather flat for a Gold Cup prep run?

---------

Anyway, fingers crossed that Newbury does survive on Saturday.

Totesport Trophy Handicap - Trends

- None of the last 11 winners had won more than one race that season
- All 11 had finished in the top two at least once in their last two starts
- 10 of the last 11 winners were 5 - 7yo's
- 10 of the last 11 were 16/1 or less
- 8 of the last 9 had run no more than 15 times over hurdles
- 7 of the last 10 winners ran at Cheltenham or Leopardstown last time out

Trainers with good recent records (since 1999);
Nicky Henderson - 3 winners, 4 placed from 23 runners
George Morre - 2 winners, 1 placed from 6 runners
Phillip Hobbs - 0 winners but 8 placed from 15 runners

The horse that I am very sweet on and the one that will be paying for my next visit to Vegas is the Phillip Hobbs trained BELCANTISTA. He ticks the boxes of all the main trends and comes here off the back of an excellent run in the Ladbroke at Ascot. He was beaten just over a length by Sentry Duty that day and now enjoys a 3lb pull which should be more than enough to turn the tables on that horse given the way the race panned out that day. He won't mind the soft and at around 8/1 he looks a nailed on each way bet.

Selection: Belcantista (3pts each way 8/1)

---------------

PLACEPOT

Well at least I managed to get the Placepot up yesterday. Unfortunately, so did everyone else and with 6 placed favourites the dividend of £4.60 was about as good as we could have expected. What was quite amazing was the Pool of over £132,000 for a poor day's racing on the All Weather.

Time to try again at LINGFIELD......

4/7 - 2/6/13 - 6/7/12 - 7 - 3/10/12 - 2/6 = 108 bets

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THE BETTING MACHINE

I was planning on reviewing this product last October but for one reason or another I decided to shelve those plans and so The Betting Machine has been sitting on my virtual shelf all Winter.

It has now been relaunched by Benjamin Street with a new website and a new pricing structure so I thought I'd dust my copy off and put it to the test for the month of February.

As a special promotion The Betting Machine is now offered at a very reasonable £20 for the first month with unlimited usage and then £40 a month there-after. This looks a very good price to test any system for a month as the option to cancel at anytime is in your hands

The sales page is here; THE BETTING MACHINE

So what can you expect for your £20? Well, firstly you get a quick and easy download of the Software and an instruction manual. It also looks like you get great customer support as my Emails to Benjamin have all been answered efficiently and well within 24 hours.

Once downloaded the software requires a single click to open The Betting Machine (BM from now on!) and this is where the fun starts.

You are greeted by a 'lovely' bright green screen with a few blank information fields, a few tabs and a panel on the right hand side with the days selections in already loaded for you. Simply click on the number for the selection and press the paste button at the bottom of the panel and the BM is now ready to work out your stake for this horse.

Type in the current odds and press calculate and hey presto, the figure is instantly displayed.

After the race is run, simply let the BM know the result by clicking the winner, loser or dead heat button and totals are re-calculated and the BM is ready for the next selection. All very easy and simple to follow.

As Matt insists it's always best to paper trade any new system before forking out your hard earned cash, this is what I plan to do.

Starting with a theoretical £1000 bank The Betting Machine instructed me to place the following bets yesterday;

£2.67 Strathmore (3rd at 15/8) LOSS -2.67
£15.82 Diamond Surprise (2nd at 4/5) LOSS -15.82

Bank now stands at £981.51 with a losing cycle of 2 horses. The BM will increase your stake up to a cycle of 6 losers and then will restart with a new loop.

It's worth stressing that it is early days and this is a system that relies equally on the quality of the selections and the staking progression. We'll track the results until the end of February and see how we stand then.

Finally, today's selections from The BM are all running at Lingfield;

1.00 Mellow Mixture
2.00 Quince
2.30 Dollar Express

I'll be back tomorrow with the staking and the results.

Good luck,
Gavin.

Still cold.....

and we finally got the snow last night but it's nowhere near as bad as the rest of the country. It's already starting to thaw here and I hope this spreads to Newbury as I'm planning on going racing on Saturday armed with a really big hope for the Toteport Trophy. The Clerk of the Course there says it's 50-50 at the moment which doesn't look particularly good for me or all of those Denman and Master Minded fans but at least there's still some sort of chance.

I'll be previewing Saturday's big handicap in tomorrows post where I will unveil my big hope.

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PLACEPOT

In the second look at the Placepot I'll be having a look at some tips and strategies that may help in getting the bet up.

PERM
The first bit of advice I'd give to anyone doing the Placepot is to perm a few selections in each race rather than doing a straight line of only one horse per race. The best way to make money doing the Placepot is to stake small amounts on perms and hope for that freak or large dividend.

SMALL FIELDS (2-7 runners)
When doing a Placepot these are the races that can make big dividends and big payouts. The average punter sees short priced favourites as having more chance of being placed in these types of races as there are less runners. Going against the norm is a good way of betting the Placepot and it's always worth perming extra horses in small fields in the hope that these type of horses are unplaced. In races of 2-4 runners I would even suggest putting all of the runners in a perm.

NON-RUNNERS ON FAVOURITE
Non runners are the Placepot punters worst enemy as your selection now becomes the Favourite and favourites are the horses you want out of the frame. So before placing your Placepot check your horses are running and try to put your bet on as close to the off as possible. It's always an idea to have reserves in mind just in case your selections are absent.

The favourite / non-runner rule can work in your favour though as when really fancied horses don't run and you get the favourite unplaced this really boosts the payout. This famously happened at Newcastle in 2002 when no less than 37 horses were withdrawn. Mayhem ensued as favourites got beaten left, right and centre (including one at 2/7 in a two horse race) and contributed to a freak dividend of £22,121.50

1ST 3 IN RACING POST BETTING
These horses are also the ones you need out of the frame as most people don't have time to really study 6 races and will just go by the betting in the paper.

PLACED FORM
Horses with a string of 2's and 3's in it's form are obviously going to appeal to your average or lazy Placepot punter so it's always worth studying the form in depth to try and find the less fancied horse or those that don't have lots of recent placed form to it's name. It's worth stressing that the more you try to go against the norm, the more likely you are to get that freak dividend payout.

BANKERS
When doing a perm it's always useful to have a banker in at least of the legs as this can reduce the amount you're laying out.

BIG MEETINGS
These are always good places to bet the Placepot at as the starting pool is usually very large. At the Cheltenham Festival £300,000+ pools are the norm which all helps towards that big dividend.

DO's AND DON'Ts....

DO....
A perm
Try to oppose vulnerable favourites
Try to oppose horses with a lot of recent placed form
Use bankers if you really fancy a runner
Be aware of any Non-runners

DON'T....
Follow the crowd.
Be lazy. Don't just pick the horse with placed form or use the fancied horses.
Forget to name the meeting!!

Which leads nicely on to today's attempt at SOUTHWELL

3/5 - 4/8 - 2/8 - 5/6 - 9/11/13 - 1/2/4 = 144 lines

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THE BETTING MACHINE

I had planned to start my review of this system yesterday but with all the racing being called off there didn't seem much point. It has thrown up a couple of selections today which are;

2.40 Strathmore
3.10 Diamond Surprise

and I'll be back tomorrow with a more in depth look at the system, what you get for your money and my first impressions.

You can read the sales page here; BETTING MACHINE

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CHELTENHAM PREVIEW

I'm currently up to my neck in figures, stats and form as I put together what should prove a most valuable weapon in everyones Cheltenham Festival arsenal. With just 5 weeks to go until the big one I'm researching a Nag3 first publication.....

The Cheltenham Festival Preview Ebook

Packed with shed loads of information you won't want to miss this one and I'll have more details after the weekend. Watch this space......


Good luck,
Gavin.

Ffffflipping ffffreeezing...

It looks like the weather will be severely affecting the racing over the next few days and even the All Weather racing can't be banked on to survive the present cold snap. It's cold here in Cardiff but we've yet to have any snow, much to the disappointment of my son!

With Wolverhampton facing a 3rd inspection as I write this I won't bother with any selections today and concentrate on a few other features.

Bonus Ball Bet

Saturday's Lucky 15 was another disaster and only contributed £2.50 to the Prizepool which meant the grand total of £22.65 was up for grabs in the weekend Lottery draw.

After a staggering 362 of you entered the draw I can announce that the sole winner is GAVIN.

No not me, it's Gavin Rolston. Congratulations to you Sir and your cheque will be with you as soon as I have your address.

That's right out of 362 entries only 1 person correctly guessed number 39 as the Bonus Ball. You would expect roughly 7 winners from that number of guesses but it just goes to show the vagaries of Numbers Betting.

Anyway, the slate is now wiped clean and entries are now being accepted for February's Bonus Ball Bet. Same again, I'll keep trying to boost the prizepool throughout the month and then split the money between all winning entries. The next draw we'll concentrate on will be

Saturday 28th February.

Guesses to quiz@nag-nag-nag.co.uk

Again it's FREE to enter but you will have to submit your number again. No guesses will be carried over from last month.

------------

THE PLACEPOT

In the first of this weeks look at the Placepot I'm going to start with the basics. This is for all those readers who are unfamiliar with the bet or with pool betting in general.

Basically the objective of the Placepot is to try and get a horse placed in the first 6 races of any horse-race meeting. (The Placepot always runs for the first 6 races regardless of how many races are on the card.)

The places you require are exactly the same for the Placepot as they are for each way betting i.e.
In races of 1-4 runners you need to find the winner
Races of 5-7 runners you need to place in the first 2
8 runners+ means a first 3 place is required unless it's
a handicap of 16+ runners when you can place in the top 4.

So it's simply a case of selecting one horse in each of the first 6 races and hoping they get in the frame. If all 6 do make the frame you win.

How much?

Hopefully a lot but this will depend on a couple of factors.

Firstly, on how much you stake. You can place anything from 10p to as much as you like on the Placepot but the dividend is always declared to £1.
So if the dividend is £150 you will win £150 for every £1 staked (£15 for 10p, £1500 for £10 etc).

Secondly and the most important factor, on how many other people win.
As the Placepot is a pool bet, the dividend is affected by how many winning tickets there are. It works like this; All the money wagered on the Placepot for each meeting is placed in a pool. The Tote take out their commission and what's left is divided amongst all the winning tickets to produce the dividend. Therefore the fewer winners there are the higher the dividend (and vice-versa).

Oh, and the most important thing about doing a Placepot is indicating which meeting you require your bet for. Only an idiot would forget to do that I know but it's worth mentioning.

In the Placepot bet I posted on Saturday I selected a number of horses in each race and this is called a Perm (short for permutation). I did however forget to indicate that the bet was for the Lingfield meeting......DOH! Thanks Matt for pointing out my omission and confirming everyone's suspicions that I am indeed an idiot.

A perm increases your chances of winning the Placepot but does however cost more to put on. Most of the Placepot bets I do are perms and they simply work like this;

You select a number of horses in each race that you fancy and fill in the Placepot card with each horse. When you have done all 6 races you simply multiply the number of horses in each race together.
Say you did 2 horses in each race then this will cost 2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 bets. Decide on your stake and work out the cost of your bet by multiplying by the number of bets. In this example for £1 it would be £64 (64 bets x £1), 10p £6.40.

For 3 horses in each race it would be 3x3x3x3x3x3 = 729 bets or £72.90 for 10p

You don't have to do the same number of selections in each race and it's sometimes a good thing to have a banker in at least one of the races to reduce the cost of the perm.

Example: 3x3x1x2x2x2 = 72 bets

To work out any winnings you multiply the number of correct selections in each race to find out the number of winning lines you have and times this by your stake.

So, if you did a £1 perm bet with 3x2x2x2x1x4 selections this would cost you £96. You get 2 in the frame in the first race, one in the second and third, both horses in the fourth, your banker wins the fifth and 2 of your last 4 are placed you would have 8 lines up (2x1x1x2x1x2).

The dividend pays £425 so you would win £3400 (8 lines at £1 x the £425 dividend).

In any race there is also the option of putting in the un-named favourite. If you select a non-runner your selection will also now become the favourite. In the case of joint or multiple favourites the horse that is the lowest racecard number is the one that counts.

Finally, the betting slip. It's very easy to use and looks similar to a Lottery ticket (but with more numbers on). The 6 races go from left to right and each race has a column of horse numbers plus the favourite. Each number has a box next to it and to place your bet you simply put a line through the box that corresponds to the racecard number of your fancy.

There's another box for the stake (10p to £100) which again just needs a line through the relevant amount and there's a line at the bottom to write the meeting you require. Don't forget this!

And that is how you do the Placepot bet.

If you have any questions on the Placepot please use the comments box below or email me at gavin@nag-nag-nag.co.uk.

Tomorrow I'll take a look at Placepot strategies, tips and a few do's and don'ts.

Good luck,
Gavin.