American Legend

Good Morning lovely people!

Another slightly piece meal post today as I have a few things I want to cover. For those of you who have sent in requests for certain topics to be covered in future posts, I promise I will produce individual posts addressing all of those areas in the coming weeks.

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On that subject, I thought I'd just throw out a question I've received today that has had me scratching my head a little. I know there are a lot of shrewdies out there who look in on this blog from time to time and I would really welcome any help that can be offered on this one.

The question I received is this:

"Can you suggest a simple staking plan to cover three horses in the same race. Say horses A, B and C to cover both win and place + forecast and trifecta?"

My initial thought in response to this question - the staking strategy would be entirely price dependent and would require the win and place bets to be considerably larger that the exotics to have any hope of showing a profitable return. You would need to dutch the singles to sufficent stakes to ensure that if you only managed to back the winner you would get a positive return from that alone.

Beyond that, I need to have a good think about it and run some tests to see whether such a staking strategy could be made to work. One things for sure - you would get a very decent strike rate if you could find a way to stake it profitably! Any suggestions from readers would be of great help!

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At long last Henry Cecil has received the recognition his long and illustrious career deserves. Until now scandalously overlooked in favour of the less deserving,  Henry has finally received the call to become a knight of the realm. Long known by punters as "Sir Henry" he can finally use the title for real.

Sir Henry has always been one of the very few top trainers to rarely give the media and punters a bum steer. He's always honest in his assessment of a horses chance and this, along with his natural charm and modesty, has contributed greatly to the overwhelming affection the public feels for him. Add to that his triumphant return from health and personal problems and I cannot think of anybody in racing who deserves the accolade more. A true gentleman and one of the best trainers of a horse to ever draw breath.

Arise Sir Henry.

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The True Story of Titanic Thompson: American Legend

I've just finished reading a book about Titanic Thompson, one of the greatest gamblers of all time. I had previously heard of Thompson but didn't quite know the extent of his exploits.

It's a rollicking good read, detailing Thompson's entire, outrageous life from his early days as an unbeatable proposition bettor (read the tale of his stone retrieving dog to get an understanding of why he was unbeatable), through killing five men (all ruled self defence!) to hustling/sharking millions of dollars ( in early twentieth century money) at golf, cards and outlandish rigged proposition bets.

Thompson was the real -life inspiration for Runyan' s Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls. He would literally bet at any stakes, with anybody, on anything - so long as he'd engineered an edge!

Below is an excerpt from the introduction:

"In the years between world wars, Titanic Thompson motored from town to town in a nickel-plated, two-ton Pierce-Arrow, the same car Babe Ruth, Franklin Roosevelt and the Shah of Persia favored. He carried his tools in the trunk: left and right handed golf clubs, a bowling ball, horseshoes, a shotgun and a suitcase full of cash. During his first twenty years on the road he crossed paths with Harry Houdini, Al Capone, Howard Hughes, Minnesota Fats and Jean Harlow. Still he managed to remain a cipher to the public. Damon Runyan wanted to write about him, but Titanic told him to forget it. He said, "Mine ain't the kind of work publicity helps." So Runyan based a character on him - Sky Masterson, the hero of Guys and Dolls.

Professional gamblers still talk about Titanic Thompson. They say that he threw a watermelon over a three-story building, that he pulled Capone's pants down, that he beat Ben Hogan playing right-handed and then turned around and beat Byron Nelson left handed, that he survived the sinking of the Titanic by sneaking into a lifeboat dressed as a woman. Only the watermelon story is true. But plenty of other Titanic tales are gospel. He hunted quail by throwing rocks, knocking the bird out of the air. He tricked Capone out of five hundred dollars and double crossed Arnold Rothstein, the crime boss who fixed the 1919 "Black Sox" World Series. He hustled country club golfers for twenty thousand a hole while Hogan and Nelson were earning ten thousand a year. He once drove a golf ball more than five hundred yards"

I absolutely loved the book even though I'd heard quite a few of the stories before. It's an irresistible tale and one I can heartily recommend.

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Thanks to all the readers who have enquired about when my new value service is going to launch. I'm beavering away like a madman as we speak setting things up and preparing for the launch - which I'm pleased to announce will be happening next Friday! Look out for an email from me very early next week with further details as to how you can grab yourself a space on the most exclusive service around.

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Finally today, a last call to those of you who haven't yet checked out Jonathon Burgess's new betting portfolio sevice over at:

The Winning Approach

I've had an early preview of the product and it looks amazing value. Jonathon is the author of  False Favourites and Race Specialist, two of the best received laying manuals around and anything he produces is well worth a look.

Ove the last week, Jonathon has been giving away some great freebies in the lead up to the launch of The Winning Approach. If you haven't already grabbed his free system or seen the Pro Betting Tips he's giving away I recommend you head over there now. The Winning Approach goes live tomorrow and, as Jonathon is limiting the release to 250 copies, I don't think it will be around for long.

Have a look at it here....

Have a great day and lots of luck with whatever you are backing

Kieran