Lift off

After my last post, I managed to turn things around a bit in the last 7 days

It's a good job really, as my confidence in (and enthusiasm for) trading took a bit of a hammering during the first three weeks of this month.

It was interesting doing the Leicester card today having just visited the track the week before last. Having an appreciation of a track's layout helps me to view the race in my mind's eye, which assists my in-running judgement calls. A tight, undulating track like Leicester, with its uphill finish, can certainly shake up the in-running markets more than a 1-miler on Newmarket's "July course" for instance; I find those a waste of time to trade in-running, especially if Tommo is calling them :(

"let's leave that one to the judge...!"

With Cheltenham just 2 weeks away, I want to try and get together a 4.5k trading bank. Last year I used a 3.5k bank and managed to get into a good stride to earn a decent sum. I don't really like chasing targets as it puts undue pressure on me but I've got a few more weapons in my arsenal since last year - especially in-play - so let's see.

A thoroughly crap Feb

I think the title says it all!!

I can't get any "lift-off" this month at all, and 1st-21st February takings are pretty poor

Of course, the snow caused a lot of problems at the start of the month but I simply haven't been able to get into any kind of rhythm when there's been racing on.

I'm finding the pre-race trading almost impossible at the moment - there seem to be too many "players" out there moving the prices around too quickly for an out-and-out scalper like me. It's not just odd days now either, but pretty much every day. All this low grade / small field dross doesn't help matters obviously, and I expect a lot of other traders are feeling the pinch too without much punter money around.

I was up by a ton today just from the in-running stuff but as soon as I dipped my toe in the pre-race waters I was "done" for £70!!

"Profit gone!"

I'll just have to try and abstain from the pre-race stuff at the moment until I can get a handle on it again.

Leicester
I ventured over to Leicester racetrack last Thursday for a little "jolly"...and jolly cold it was too!

the uphill finish

Despite doing a lot of prior analysis and turning up "armed" with my selections for all six races, I only ended up putting my money down on the feature race of the day in which McCoy was running. I find it difficult to get out of trader mode when it comes to gambling - I suppose I'm just more appreciative of money now and can't bear to throw it away.

I managed to land the winner...well one of them! Mr McCoy got up besides my selection in the final furlong  to force a deadheat grrrrr! A fiver stake on a 4-1 selection at half the odds didn't exactly have me laughing all the way to the bank ;-)

It was nice to get out from behind the screen though, even if Leicester is a complete nightmare to drive through! I did my degree there many years ago, and I have a certain fondness for the place.

I want to make a habit of getting to the tracks a bit more, and have decided to make it a life's ambition to visit every UK track before I peg it. I was going to include the Irish ones too, but I've just been on Wiki and there are more than I thought!!

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Following on from this post, I'm pleased that the blog remains the go-to place for "cow" searches on Google

No 7 made me chuckle :-D