Below is a list of the most frequently asked questions and horseracing terminologies. If there is something not answered in this list feel free to contact us by using the form on the Contact page

Racecourse Guide

Course Index

Knowing the vagaries of each course, draw, pace, trainer & jockey stats can help rationalise your selections. Use the table to link off to individual courses.

All Weather Tracks

 

Course Direction (LH/RH) Flat/AW/NH Speed/Turns/Inclination Type
CHELMSFORD Left AW Galloping Flat
KEMPTON Right AW/NH Tight Flat
LINGFIELD Left Flat/AW/NH Galloping Undulating
NEWCASTLE Left AW/NH Galloping Flat
SOUTHWELL Left AW/NH Stiff Flat
WOLVES Left AW Tight Flat

Turf Tracks

 

Course Direction (LH/RH or 8) Flat/AW/NH Speed/Turns/Inclination Type
ASCOT Right Flat/NH Galloping Uphill
AYR Left Flat/NH Galloping Flat
BATH Left Flat Galloping Uphill
BEVERLEY Right Flat Stiff Uphill
BRIGHTON Left Flat Stiff Undulating
CARLISLE Right Flat/NH Stiff Uphill
CATTERICK Left Flat/NH Tight Undulating
CHEPSTOW Left Flat/NH Stiff Undulating
CHESTER Left Flat Tight Flat
DONCASTER Left Flat/NH Galloping Flat
EPSOM Left Flat Stiff Undulating
FFOS LAS Left Flat/NH Galloping Flat
GOODWOOD Right Flat Stiff Undulating
HAMILTON Right Flat Stiff Uphill
HAYDOCK Left Flat/NH Galloping Flat
LEICESTER Right Flat/NH Galloping Undulating
LINGFIELD Left Flat/AW/NH Galloping Undulating
MUSSELBURGH Right Flat/NH Stiff Flat
NEWBURY Left Flat/NH Galloping Flat
NEWMARKET Right Flat Galloping Undulating
NOTTINGHAM Left Flat Galloping Flat
PONTEFRACT Left Flat Stiff Uphill
REDCAR Left Flat Galloping Flat
RIPON Right Flat Tight Undulating
SALISBURY Right Flat Galloping Uphill
SANDOWN Right Flat/NH Stiff Uphill
THIRSK Left Flat Galloping Undulating
WETHERBY Left Flat/NH Galloping Flat
WINDSOR Right/Figure 8 Flat Galloping Flat
WOLVERHAMPTON Left AW Tight Flat
YARMOUTH Left Flat Galloping Flat
YORK Left Flat Galloping Flat

Membership FAQ’s

Membership options

There are 2 membership options:

Free Membership

Gives access to speed ratings for a selected daily meeting with experts selections. If you wish to see the Paid Members TIPs you will need to subscribe to a PAID Membership subscription.

Paid Membership

By subscribing to the PAID Membership Subscription you will be notified as to when the PAID Membership TIPs are posted. When you visit posted TIPs and you are logged in as a PAID Member you will see the PAID Members TIPs.

How much does it cost to join?

There are three paid options:

Monthly Subscription

The price of our Monthly subscription is £25 . After that if you decide to stay with us you’ll be charged £25 for subsequent months. That’s just under a pound a day which is excellent value. The key to success is to stick with the service for a long time like 6 months to a year and then your subscription fees will be more than covered.

Half Yearly Subscription

The price of our half-yearly subscription is £120. That works out at £20 per Month,  After that, if you decide to stay with us, you’ll be charged £120 for each subsequent 6 months. This is much better value than the monthly option. The key to success is to stick with the service for a long time like 6 months to a year and then your subscription fees will be more than covered.

Yearly Subscription

The price of our yearly subscription is £180. That works out at £15 per Month,  After that, if you decide to stay with us, you’ll be charged £180 for each subsequent 12 moths. This is much, much better value than the monthly or half yearly options. Again, the key to success is to stick with the service for a long time like 6 months to a year and then your subscription fees will be more than covered.

I've forgotten my username/password

No problem. Please go to the login screen and enter your registered email address under the lost password heading. An email will then be sent to that address reminding you of your username and containing a link to where you can reset your password. If you’re still having problems, email me on feedback@Always-Back-Winners.com

Betting Terminologies

Draw Bias

Not all UK racecourses have a draw advantage, but some do. Knowing which ones, and in which types of race, can greatly improve your chances of making your horse racing betting more profitable.

Check out our full article HERE.

Pace Figures

‘Pace Makes The Race’ is a term that is often coined. Certain tracks and distances favour front running charges and vice versa.  Having that information is another worthwhile tool for profitable betting.

Check out our full article HERE.

Going Stick

All UK turf racecourses publish a TurfTrax GoingStick reading alongside their official description of the going. This info is generally available 6 days prior to each meeting in order trainers can plan or change their declarations.

This procedure measures ‘penetration’ and ‘shear’, the two forces which the horses’ hooves exert when they hit the ground and is rated on a scale ranging from 1 to 15.

The lower the figure shows the ground is softer or slower, and vice versa, a higher reading means it’s firmer or faster.

More information can be read at the TurfTrax website.

Spread Betting

In traditional fixed odds betting there are usually just two outcomes to worry about:
a) You are right and you win your stake multiplied by the odds. Good!
b) You are wrong and you lose your stake. Bad!

But in spread betting there are varying degrees of being right or wrong and the more right you are the more you win. Conversely, the more wrong you are the more you lose.

Say the bookmakers offer 4/5 about Manchester United beating Arsenal at Old Trafford. Your best mate works as groundsman at The Emirates and knows that the first choice  Arsenal goalkeeper has the flu, the second choice keeper is injured and the 16yo youth keeper will make his senior debut tonight. Obviously, you think Man Utd are going to thrash them in a goal fest so you stake £100. It doesn’t matter if they win 1-0, 2-0 or 9-0 though you will always get paid out £180 and win £80 for your bet. Fair enough, you knew right from placing your wager that was going to be the case. You either win £80 or lose your £100. The ease of their victory is irrelevant.

But what if you could bet on how easily Manchester United would beat Arsenal and get paid out more and more for every goal they score? This is where spread betting steps in.

By either buying or selling on the bookmakers spread we can do just that…

WHAT IS A SPREAD?

The spread is simply a range of results that the bookmaker’s traders think will be the most likely outcome in any specific event. In our example this may be number of goals Man Utd score in the match.

The traders may think the most likely number of goals Man Utd will score in this match will be 2 but that’s a little precise and there is no room for error so the traders build a safety margin into the spread. They give themselves a bit of leeway by creating a gap around their result which is usually around 2-10% and is much like the over-round in a standard betting market (the smaller the margin the better it is for the punter). It would be written as 2 numbers separated by a hyphen. So instead of having a spread of 2 they would make it say 1.5 – 2.5.

The traders are working with the same information as everyone else and their opening spread, much like in fixed odds betting, is based simply on their opinion. Once the spread is announced the same market forces that operate in fixed odds betting will get to work and move the spread backwards or forwards depending on where the money is being wagered.

Once the spread has been set it is then up to the punter to either buy or sell…..

BUYING AND SELLING

Once the spread is set you must decide whether you think the outcome will be bigger or smaller than the market suggests. If you think the outcome is going to be bigger then you will want to BUY and conversely you would SELL if you think the outcome will be smaller. Buyers use the higher number of the spread and sellers use the lower one.

If we stick with our example of 1.5-2.5 goals in the Man Utd vs Arsenal match we obviously think there will be a lot of goals so we would buy. As we are buying we use the top figure (2.5) and stake our £100. For every goal Man Utd score over 2.5 we will now win £100.

So the following outcomes may occur…

Your mates inside information is spot on and Man Utd win 8-0. You win £550 (8-2.5 x 100)
Your mates inside information is spot on but the young keeper plays a blinder and Man Utd only manage a 3-1 win. You win £50 (3-2.5 x 100)
Your mates inside information is a load of rubbish, Arsenal play their first choice keeper and Man Utd lose 1-0. You lose £250. (0-2.5 x 100)

As you can see from just these three examples there is a lot of volatility in Spread Betting!

One of the advantages of buying in a spread is that you know exactly how much your maximum losses will be. In our example we know that Man Utd cannot score a minus number of goals so the least they will score is 0 making our maximum loss £250. But our maximum make-up can be many times our stake depending on just how many goals Man Utd can score. Exciting stuff!

Now say you didn’t have a mate who worked as groundsman at the Emirates and you’re a lifelong Arsenal fan who would never dream of backing Man Utd to win. You know you have the best goalkeeper in the premiership and Man Utd will do well to score.

So you sell the Man Utd goals on the spread for £100 (at the lower number 1.5).

In this case the following outcomes may occur…….

Arsenal reveal 5 minutes before the match that their number 1 and number 2 choice goalkeepers are out injured and they are forced to play a 16yo in goal. Man Utd win 8-0. You now lose £650 (1.5-8 x 100)
The 16yo keeper plays well and Man Utd only manage to win 3-1. You lose £150 (1.5-3 x 100)
The rumours about Arsenal goalkeepers prove groundless and in a thrilling match Arsenal win 1-0. You win £150 (1.5-0 x 100).

Now you can see just how dangerous selling on a spread can be. We knew in our example that the maximum we were ever going to win was £150 but our losses could have been catastrophic with no real limit on how many goals Man Utd could have scored. Read a market wrong and you can end up losing a lot of money. Imagine something like the number of runs in a cricket innings. Sell at 250 and a side scores 600+, it’s not going to be a good day!

That’s not to say selling is always a bad idea. Buying is always more popular in the markets with less people selling so sometimes there is value to be had in the lower end of the spread but I would advise sticking with buying when you first start out!

ADVANTAGES TO SPREAD BETTING

As we have seen the main advantage spread betting has over it’s fixed odds counterpart is that the more correct you are the more you are rewarded.

Another advantage with spread betting is that once an event has started the spread doesn’t disappear or simply stay the same it moves depending on how that particular market is performing. This market movement makes it possible to adjust your position and gives you an opportunity to trade out either to guarantee a profit or limit your losses. Obviously the more you get it wrong to begin with the more you’ll end up losing and the earlier you get it right the more profit you can lock in.

There are usually a lot more markets available to wager on with Spread Betting as there are countless options available to the traders. In a simple football match you can bet on number of goals scored, time of the goals, corners, throw ins, shirt numbers, substitutes used etc. and all have differing ranges of ‘correctness’. Some of these markets offer a lot of value and offer the chance of big wins for small downsides and with every sport imaginable having multiple markets on them as well as stocks, currency and financial spreads available the betting opportunities are enormous.

Obviously the more markets that are on offer the bigger the chance of the traders making a mistake. They can’t know everything and if you specialise in a certain area or have a mate who works as groundskeeper at The Emirates and shares information with you then you have an immediate advantage. Once the markets are released the traders are then relying on market forces to re-adjust their spreads. Much as in fixed odds betting, going against the general consensus can often prove a profitable strategy.

BUT BEWARE!

It is possible to lose a lot of money very quickly when spread betting and you can lose much more than your original stake. Be aware that a £100 stake does not necessarily mean you will only lose £100, It could be many multiples of this amount. It’s always best to imagine the worst-case scenario and work out the most you can lose on any market BEFORE placing your trade.