Hello Punters! I've just crawled out from under my rock.
As a new boy in this forum I thought I'd let you know about last Saturday. And you can let ME know if something like this has ever happened to you. There I was betting on the Gold Coast races when suddenly a very strange feeling came over me. It went like this:I'd been reading a thread in this Forum where one of the Members reckoned that by watching the trainers you could make money. Especially if these blokes were spending thousands of dollars (their's and their horses owners') on Interstate (or even overseas) trips!! There were all sorts of wild claims about people spending a fortune on sending also rans like Choisir to England and then winning Group races at 30-1. Previously I'd just thought it was mostly about checking out Park Lane, Mayfair and those other exotic hotel sites in London.There were ludicrous tales of trainers from New Zealand winning Doomben Cups at $150 (yeah, well why didn't you tell me where Awapuna was BEFORE the race!!!) or trainers from outback Victoria winning Group 1 SA Derby's THIS YEAR with Class 3 horses. Some "kook" was even saying that if you had a RED HORSE and were willing to risk the money on a long sea voyage in the early 1930s that you could maybe have won some big race in America (what????) when everyone reckoned you didn't have a chance. You know: wild eyed and loony ravings.
Anyway, nutty as it might seem,I suddenly felt "the force" moving my hand to my wallet and then a RED NOTE (spooky, eh? RED HORSE/RED NOTE) flutter in the breeze! It was like when I was contacted by "the spirits" at school via a glass and a OUIJA board. Was I in control or NOT?? Was I being directed by the ghost of Alexander the Great's father Philip (Philipos = horse lover in Greek; ed) to put that hard-earned polymer bill of exchange on that G. Rogerson no-hoper (QR3)? Would it break the bank OR the barrier??
"It's 50-1" said my nearest and dearest. "Mr Rogerson has probably spent all that money bringing the horse here from Sydney so that he (the horse) can GO SHOPPING on the Surfer's strip. Or else to ogle those fillies in the field". Hmmmm. That made a lot of sense, so I quickly returned my money to my pocket and commenced again to sip my champagne. Alas, you probably know the rest.($51.10 Unitab, if you don't)
However, when, in the very next race Bob Purcell too, from Bowen 1400ks up the road (where????) almost won at 50s (QR4), I became a little agitated. "It was just another fluke, darling" said my better half "the bookies always know BEST" and then ( she always repeats the same line until you submit) "trainers are like girls; they just want to have fun!! And spend spend spend. THEY aren't here for commercial reasons. THEY aren't scrooges like you. Squandering money is therapy for THEM". You see how it is? The plane flights, the stabling,the track riders, the hotels and dinners and and and; all so that Gra-Gra and Bob and Clarry can sample the nightlife,the Palace Versace and maybe catch a tube Sunday Morning at Kirra. Hmmmm.
Anyway, talking about Clarry, I have suddenly remembered that he ALSO won a race last Saturday with a Sydney horse at 50s (QR7). Man, was it a shock! So much so that even the owner was non-plussed. Said JS "I was betting on my OTHER horse and only spent the twenty grand getting Mirror Mirror here so that she wouldn't feel left out of all the glitter and glam. Have I ever mentioned that girls like her (MM wins MM; even spookier) just want to have fun! Imagine the poor thing was watching the news on Saturday Evening and Churchill Downs had been handed the trophy!! What a blow!! Racing, for me, is all about squandering money while raising the self-esteem of teenage girl horses. Any financial benefit that comes your way (at 50s) is purely unintentional coincidental and definitely NOT PLANNED!!!"
Well, as the sun sets and I recall that furnace-like afternoon of missed opportunities (why didn't someone tip QR3 and QR7 for me; not every punter has a ouija board in the garage), I am saving up to buy (second hand, of course) a good road atlas of Australia (and maybe a map of the world). With these, I'm sure, I'll soon discover just exactly where Sydney IS!! (NOT next to Southport). And, perhaps,armed with these charts and distances will one day be able to give myself MY OWN longshot tips without having to rely on the spirit of that long gone travelling red neddy to get me through. Bye bye
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Formerly Punter57

Wow, now I do believe in spirits. The spirit of Punter57 has come back from the dead.
Bravo.

KV

Wow, look at the size of that paragraph and all the CAPITAL LETTERS !!

How's things 57 :-) ?

Beautifully written, Roach.
BTW since 6/11/05 I'm ahead 388 units betting on my slightly varied P57 weekday mechanical longshot system - the one I call the Poor Form (PF) system.
Winners at $37 ( IP7 ) and $56 (GR6 ) in the last two days have swelled the coffers.
I know I told P57 I wouldn't brag but I can't help myself - I've never had results like this in a lifetime of punting. With selections running at about 20 per week I think I'll be ahead for a long time to come.

By the way Crash, has Zoe gone away?
She seems to have lost interest in posting since you returned.

Good afternoon all.
Just scuttled out from behind the fridge and been thinking about all these crazy trainers and their schemes. Been wondering how come they (the trainers) never seem able to GET IT RIGHT. You know what I mean; sending horses for a holiday in Queensland in the winter but ending up putting them back to work, and then finding that the horse is a no-hoper anyway. This last should've been clear enough to even the thickest trainer, when the bookies put their horses up at 20s and longer!! But no. They are stubborn!!
This year in Brisbane all those silly billies were sending horses like Applicant (30/4/05) Demolir (2/5/05) Saxon (7/5/05), Cinque Port (21/5/05), Red Oog (also 21/5/05) Admiral Spy (4/6/05) Spurson (4/6/05) Lost Claim (13/6/05) Atapi (25/6/05) and Poetic Papal (also 25/6/05) etc etc to start as well-deserved also-ran material in numerous Carnival races (ie Group 1s, Group 2s etc) and beyond. OK, some might argue that as all these horses WON ( odds offerred: up to 150-1) the trainers were NOT the silly ones but that's beside the point. What I'm getting at is that since the bookies (and totes) made them rank outsiders that WE shouldn't have been listening to their dingbat "bosses" in the first place. So what if you could turn a tenner into a thousand in One Minute and Eleven Seconds???. Is THAT why we are in this game??? Well...is it? I always remember my dear old parish priests (Father O'Leary; later Father O'Sullivan) putting the case against longshots like this (after a losing Sixties Saturday) "If God didn't intend for us to lose our pay then He wouldn't have given us SHORTIES to bet on!" Amen.
Of course, apart from being silly, and money-wasters, trainers might also not go to church(!!) I say this because as soon as the Brisbane Carnival was over they were at it again. Not only spending up big to give their horses all-expenses-paid trips interstate (ie Strassboug, Vintner, Proprietor during the M.Cup Carnival) but also splashing out on FOREIGNERS to come out here and take the oats from the mouths of our own hard-working horses AT HUGE ODDS. Sure, you might be thinking of Flowerdrum at 80s (23/6/05) in Melbourne or Kindjhal on 13/8/05 at 35s (also Melbourne) or Majestic Feeling in Sydney on 22/10/05 at 70s and also thinking that this won't be tolerated for long. But you'd be wrong. I can assure you that this scandal has been going on for years
I've tried not to backfit these results and especially not to imagine that I've been making a good living out of all this for the past twelve years. But, ever since Vintage Crop stole our Cup at 20s on QTAB in 1993 I've been fuming and (I'm a little ashamed to admit) taking revenge BY BETTING THEM. How come a handful of foreigners are permitted to run in our races and then win them at 50s or even 150s and true-blue Aussie punters have been missing ALL THE FUN?? How come the bookies are encouraging us to bet on the favourites etc when they (the bookies) are only happy when these self-same favourites LOSE?? Why are THEY (the bookies) keeping the party hats and streamers just for themselves?
Anyway, if you've heard of horses like Ethereal or Second Coming or Secret Savings or Istadaad or Taufan's Melody or Figurehead or Maguire or Bob's Boy then you probably know that they've been winning races in Australia at big odds for years (got me beat how these no-hopers can win races like the Doncaster and Caulfield/Melbourne Cups/ Qld/Vic Derbys etc ) after arriving to howls of derision and dismissal. Here's a tip; to find similar animals, look to see if today's race is in the same country or state as their last few runs (you may need an atlas for this!!!). Good luck; I'm getting out of the light and back into a dark corner RIGHT NOW.

PS Jacfin. Not sure about this P57 fellow but I have a feeling you may have got that Rogerson hay-burner last Saturday in QR3 too. Just a feeeeeeeling; more a vibe really. And now: the Roach is off and running !! cheers
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Formerly Punter57

Great stuff Roach. A man (insect) of passion. Just what this forum's been lacking of late. I just hope other forum members won't stamp on you or your ideas.


KV

Hey Darky,

Roach could be Hay Chee revitalised....love it, long may it continue and he doesn't ******** it up.

Cheers.

I can just see it now.

MUST BE 100/1 +

3RD LETTER IN HORSES NAME MUST BE R

RIDDEN BY A 3KG CLAIMING APPRENTICE

TRAINER MUST HAVE TRAVELLED 100 + MILES TO THE PARTICULAR RACE TRACK .

Cheers in fun.
darky.