On a serious note, there are some damn good tipsters out there and some shit ones who actually charge you money. I can remember in my younger naive betting days thinking I could make easy money by getting Derek Tommo's tips on the phone! Come on he’s on the television so, obviously, he must be good right? So, off I went down the phone box with about 3 quid in loose change excited to be getting the main mans tips.
How wrong was I?
''I must have got up to the going report before the phone gobbled up my 3 quid for breakfast''
Next up was the Daily Mirror, also known as the racing bible in our work. You have Newsboy, Value Scope and The Winning Machine. After a while, I gave up with that too.
So, the best tipster out there?
I will name a few who are damn good at what they do and first off is a legend in my eyes, step forward Dave Duggan (pictured) who back in 2005 worked for Attheraces and done a column every Sunday and if I remember right he had 6 or 7 big-priced winners in a row. Every week Atheraces would feature him on an ad break showing his winning naps and bigging him up like he was some kind of God. Great days, am not sure what happened to him on Attheraces.
To be honest, I think Tommo did a Shergar and kidnapped him because he was making his tips look so shit.
Andy Holding is another great tipster who I followed for a while but as with most tipsters now, once they put the tips up the good prices disappear within minutes which leads me on nicely to one of the best tipsters I have known. Hugh Taylor makes a profit year in year out but as with Andy, trying to get the price he puts up is near impossible, but you have to take your hat off to the man if you look at the stats from each season you have to be impressed. I wish I could write my bets down and see if I was in profit or not at the end of the season, I only bet small but am sure it wouldn’t be good reading.
Then, we have social media and every Tom, Dick and Harry are giving tips out, I would like to think I have gotten a bit wiser since the Tommo days and I ignore most, to be honest, only the odd few are worth a second glance.
A couple on Twitter who is always worth giving a look is an old mate of mine @Ravenspass1 who knows everything you need to know about the breeding side of horses and certainly knows how to pick a winner or two, then we have @DanBriden who has an amazing amount of knowledge about the flat and national hunt game and always gives great write-ups.
I have saved the best till last (in my opinion) @Flatracing, not only has Jason given me the chance to do my blog but having known him for a number of years I would confidently say he knows more about 2-year-old racing than anyone, just search Group Horse this season and see for yourself, the amount of research and hours his articles must take to do is mind-boggling, he only gives tips out now and again but I do remember the four winners in one day he gave out on Group Horse last season (trying to forget to be honest as I never did them).
If anyone got this far thanks for reading and good luck finding winners this season whoever you follow if you have any tipsters you follow who deserve to be on this page let me know.
