We started betting on horse racing some years ago when the need for a secondary income became apparent. It was a casual  glance through the more obscure pages of Ebay that led us to a so-called 'never fail' betting system. We knew nothing about horse racing (apart from the occasional punt on the grand National or the office sweepstake) but if what the author of the system claimed was true, we'd be 'home and hosed' and reaping unlimited rewards in no time at all! Any of this sound familiar?

We bought the system, which actually turned out to be what we now know as a progressive staking plan. For the first fortnight, we thought our Gravy Train had finally come in! We were over £2000.00 in profit and there was even talk (it makes us smile to think of it now) of giving up the day jobs if it continued, after all, it was all tax free! Then came the losing run! Within three days, all the profit was gone and we weren't just back to square one, we were probably back to square -3 or so!

Okay, once bitten, twice shy. Having become 'involved' with the sport of kings, we decided that we would try and learn more about it to see if there was a way of making some decent money out of it. We digested everything we could, read articles, 'talked' to people who had forgotten more about racing then we'll probably ever know. One of the first things we learned was " stay away from progressive staking plans"....in other words, never chase your losses!

Over the course of the next few years, we became 'au fait' with the lingo; learned how to read a racecard; learned how to read form etc etc......and guess what? We still ended up losing more than we won. It was then that the realisation hit us.........only a very very small percentage of punters end up making even a secondary income on backing horses to win! Even fewer were prepared to admit it!

It was a natural progression from there to turn our thoughts to laying. What could be easier....choosing a horse to lose a race, I mean that's just like taking candy from a baby isn't it? Wrong again! Any of you reading this who has already tried your hands at laying will know that sooner or later, one of those randomly picked horses that you chose because the odds were so high and the likelihood of it winning so low will defy all logic and previous form and romp home first past the post.....say goodbye to a very large slice of your betting bank! Because of the potential liability to your betting bank, it's sometimes necessary to put far more thought into a lay selection than it is to a win selection.

As you'll have read on our home page, initial results were very promising but in due course, the selections began to perform badly. It doesn't take too many losing lays to wipe out a whole bank and consequently, eventually, we turned our thoughts back to backing and in particular, to the place market.