robertob's eye-catcher thread

[robertob]

Time for an own thread after being now constantly active on ATR for around a year. I hope this thread will help me to improve my discipline and does result in being more selective in terms of my bets. I do publish my bets on this form already and on a blog as well but I feel a thread like this may improve my process of finding selections even more as the line between being really confident in a horses chance and just fancying a runner is thin I think, but can be decisive in terms of being successful in the long-term. This thread shall be dedicated to my eye-catchers on the flat only. I record every race that's ran on the flat in the UK and do every day some extensive work, looking through the race and watching out for horses that ran better than the bare result suggested. I tried to bet only on horses from my eye-catcher list in the last couple of month, with decent enough success and I have to say after this time now I feel comfortable and confident as never before in my betting as this style suits me perfectly. I'm not as good in relentless form study, which is tiring and sort of boring after a while for me. I love to watch racing though, and think I have an eye and understanding of why a race is ran and unfolded in a certain way. The watching of races again and again, and certain parts of races in particular, is tiring as well but it's something I really love to put in the effort and it's always rewarding as if you see something that not anyone has seen and therefore it gives you an edge, as watching racing and drawing conclusions on the evidence of visual impression is very much a subjective thing. But obviously you can't do this entirely without form study. After finding an "eye-catcher" it's very much about getting to know the horse's form, preferences etc. to get a clearer picture about the run and future prospects. But then it is helpful in terms of the selection process as the horses literally coming to you. I just get every afternoon a list with horses that are running for me the next day, that itself already helps me to be more disciplined and selective. My "hunting ground" are the low grade handicaps in particular, mostly class 5 and 6 Handicaps, I try to avoid maidens, claimers and sellers, but not entirely, while bets in the top races are rare as I think my edge gets lost there. I know these low grade races are not everyone's cup of tea but I like them, feel comfortable there and think the visual impression tells you allot in these sort of races. In football they say: The truth lies on the pitch. I think racing is no different. All my bets will be between 1-10pts, depending on confidence in the horse. I start with a bank of 200pts...

[robertob]

Re: robertob's eye-catcher thread 16.25 Wolverhampton: Gabrial The Boss @ 9/2 Paddy Power - 3pts win He's down in a claimer for the first time after running twice in eye-catching fashion. He finished 3rd in a Kempton Handicap in November, when found out for speed in the final 100 yard, he finished a fine 3rd only 1¾ lengths in the end though. This form works out pretty well with three NTO winners. Gabrial The Boss appeared then at Wolverhampton five days later and was travelling best of all turning for home but was very unfortunate to be locked on the inside and lost soon every chance when badly hampered in the closing stages as well. He's now back after a break of four weeks and despite being still a maiden I expect him to be very competitive in this small field with Andrea Atenzia booked for the ride for whom this is the only ride today.