I place a lot of casual bets on cricket, footy, soccer and occasionally boxing, with varied success. I'm not a committed punter like some but I do enjoy it and would like to take it up more seriously.

I've never previously taken any sort of interest in horse racing at all and have such little grounding in basic terminology and the variables of the sport that most of the posts on this forum are undecipherable to me.

I've decided to spend a few months reading heavily in order to lay the foundations so I can eventually become the sort of punter who can expect to turn a healthy profit by the end of a year of punting.

I bought a couple of horse racing weeklies today and, as expected, had a pretty hard time following the articles but have started highlighting words and looking them up on the net for definitions.

What I intend to do is first read a book outlining the very basics of horse racing, from terminology to tactics to variables such as track bias. Having done that I'd like to get a couple of the seminal books on betting systems and tricks that punter's can use to pick a winner with some degree of reliability.

I also intend to read forums like this and continue to read papers and magazines to learn the names of horses, trainers, jockeys and stables.

Basically I'm trying to build a knowledge base from what is currently an almost non-existant grounding in horse racing.

I'd greatly appreciate it if you folks could help me out and give me some authors and titles that will serve purposes I described above.

Cheers

Punters trying to 'turn a healthy profit by the end of a year's punting' are legion and some have been trying to do just that for 40 odds + yrs. unsuccessfully. You'll make more money in a fixed term deposit bank account than you ever will punting. Only about 5% of punters ever make a profit and they never did it in their first year that's for sure. A first year of Laying is just as hard as most layers lose.

There are some services that will/might turn a profit for you by following their tips [this site is supposed to be good] but remember that paying for a profitable service requires reasonable bets [around $100 a bet] to make it so because costs have to be deducted from payouts before calculating any profit.

There is plenty of info. on the net that will fill you in on the horse racing basics of selection, money management etc. for free without buying any books.

Good luck!

You have to start somewhere and the best advice I can give you is trade on paper until you think you have a profitable way of betting then start with small bets ($5-$10 per horse, even $2) Its a completely different game with money on the line.

Lots of good books out there. Lots of free stuff on the net too.

Crash is right in that most people don't make a profit but those are usually mug punters who do not take the time to learn and study. It will probbaly take a few years to get it right and get to know thje horses but if you spend a few hours everyday doing th form you will gradually get there.

Good Luck

you could do worse than having a read of 'Dr Turf's guide to better punting', i read it yonks ago & dont know if he has ever updated it, but if you can find it should help get you started

Thanks for your help lads.

But just for clarity's sake, so I don't abandon this venture before it's even started, how many of those 95% who don't turn a profit actually take punting seriously and bother to research the tricks?

Plenty of punters do heaps of work, take punting very seriously and still lose. Sure, there are a lot of so called 'mug punters' around who only punt on tips and favorites and do very little or no work at sorting out the complexities of the punt, but it would be wrong to describe all losing punters as mug punters who don't put the hours in.

When betting on humans [the jocks and trainers etc.] and animals, there will always be 100's of variables that are impossible to work out or know before a race. That's the main reason punting is called a negative expectation game.

I'd suggest you consider: "Xanadu's Guide To Wagering Excellence" ..excerpts of which appear in my thread: "Smart Punting."
Haveagoodun.

Contact Malcolm Knowles of inracing who has superb research articles available.
Unfortunately there are very few quality Australian punting books available.

Avoid any COMMERCIAL racing system on the market.(Fairy tail rubbish)

Cheers.
darky.

Considering Malcolm Knowles sells his own COMMERCIAL racing systems [been there done that and no thank you] and even charges for his basic form guides, the advice to head for his site, which is nothing but commercial, your well intended advice I'm sure, might be a bit off the mark Darky[?]

Post deleted.
Calling a racing identity a "turkey" is not acceptable here.
Moderator 3.