U versus your dad

[jayalexander]

I'm always reading on here that people got interested in the horses through their father's interest. My dad doesn't have a clue how to use a computer and just has a look through the cards in a newspaper, along with his memory, and I'm sure many others from an older generation use similar methods. You and I, on the other hand have a seemingly endless number of resources at our disposal to aid us in finding winners. Now, I'd say that my 75 year old dad's strike rate is a better than mine, and he simply goes for horses that he fancies from previous runs without opting to spend precious minutes of his life on the racing post. He has some very weird views on racing, such as trainers only running horses on AW for their 'con' money (whatever that is) and he doesn't read anything other than the small horse racing articles in the daily red top newspaper that he reads. I wondered what everyone elses view on us 'new breed' of racing fans who use a wide variety of resources to assist us versus those who go back to basics was?

[Aidymac]

Re: You versus your dad I think we look too much into everything these days in horse racing!! I remember i used have great luck just backing horse by instinct, a quick look at the paper or the racing post and you know the horse you want to back when you get that tingly feeling when you see its name.. I think resources are great but i think sometimes they can distract you from finding a winner too.. I think some people read into form too much.. Such and such a horse finished 2 lengths behind this fantastic horse back in 2008, all of a sudden your backing that horse just because of that run.. I think the form-book can be a loads of nonsense, you wont make money backing horses on form??? Horses run differently nearly every time they run, trainers prep horses for certain races, and hold them up on purpose in other races!! I am trying to find my old way of betting, where i could look at a card for 5 minutes and get that great feeling that i knew i had picked a horse with a great chance just by instinct.. One such example was a horse called L'antartique who was trained by Ferdy Murphy and it was a very big competitive race and i had one look at the card and i just couldnt take my eyes off L'Antartique, i just knew it was going to win, i got a great sensation.. I went up to the counter and put 50 win on it @ 13/2 and it won nicely.. Now if i had spent 6 hours looking through the form , no doubt i would have picked a donkey.. I dont know if others feel the same way, but i think knowing more wont make you more..