Drifters and steamers

[Ferru]

Hi What do you all think about the best course of action as regards drifters and steamers? There is a school of thought that says that if a horse is drifting it isn't a sign of insider knowledge, but rather that the horse is the subject of hype and is undervalued. However, it is surprising how often steamers - particularly heavy steamers- go on to either win or to do far better than their original odds would suggest. Does anyone have any data showing what profit can be made from backing or laying horses because they are heavily drifting or steaming? Thanks Jeff

[Fatz]

Re: Drifters and steamers Here's some figures released by Betfair in 2005 basically claiming that backing all 'drifters' would return a profit and backing all 'steamers' would return a loss. Personally I'm a bit sceptical and intend testing data from one thousand races run in 2007 using Betfair's definition of a drifter/steamer. I'll post the results if/when I finally get round to doing it. Cheers, Fatz. http://www.betfairpromo.com/tactemails/camb1a.htm