Turf Deli Racing News

Got a Hot Tip ?

Be warned. Be prepared.

Spring carnival is upon us - and the invasion is imminent.

No, not the invasion of the international runners that feature in the media every day. They invaded and conquered long, long ago. All hail your superior staying pedigrees.

Nor the invasion of the corporate bookmakers who have flooded our TV screens, newspapers and internet for the last couple of years. We tuned out to them to save our remaining sanity.

We are programmed to ignore them and their tempting value offers. Tom Waterhouse. Tom Waterhouse. Tom Waterhouse.

The latest invasion is that of the spring carnival tipping services.

Watch over the next couple of weeks as they spring out of nowhere in plague proportions, touting, sprouting and spruiking their wares.

You will find them on every street corner, on every discussion forum, flooding inboxes around the country.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Turf Deli commenced way back in 1999, in the murky depths of last century, where people spoke in a strange language called Analogue, and dial up internet access was still cutting edge.

This website was started out of utter desperation because of the lack of analytical and critical racing information available.

Newspaper form guides provided the only race commentary. The best that was normally available was generic copy and paste comments on each runner that was as informative as "Keep Safe" and even sometimes bravely went as far as "Have To Improve" or "Hard To Beat". With hard print publishing deadlines days before hand, it often meant that come race day, the race commentary available was out of date, bland, generic and really close to useless.

The other options were tipping services that charged exorbitant amounts for what seemed like just a list of numbers with no reason or explanation - and even less explanation when you tried to review any sort of results history to make your own judgments. Fancy wanting proof of what you are paying for ?

Personally we have never believed you should pay a single cent for a straight out list of tips - if they were any good the service wouldn't have to sell them in the first place.

How times have changed.

With Facebook, Twitter and the ease of setting up a blog there are dozens of in depth, good quality form commentary and tipping services around these days. And plenty of lesser quality ones too - that don't actually provide anything but generic information in between stuffing bookmaker ads down your throat.

Every time you blink, they multiply. Don't blink. Don't even move. They still multiply. Whilst we still listen to the races with the little transistor radio pressed hard against the one remaining good ear.

Most of these services don't last more than one or two racing seasons anyway. Cause it is actually quite hard work trying to find winners. Believe us - we have done hard time for over ten years. When looking at these tipping services, if you can't see a full history of results and the services provided, especially if you are expected to pay for them, then definitely ask "Why Not" ?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

There is a nationally recognised standard set of rules you need to follow when setting up an internet tipping service.

The most important thing is not your ability to tip long shot winners, or snare a great value quaddie, but your catchy name.

Like naming a racehorse, there are conventions to be followed when naming a tipping service. It is vitally important that you create a witty pun based on some punting or racing term, else the whole thing just isn't going to get off the ground.

Regal and royal sounding titles are popular, such as the Chancellor of the Exacta, the Duke of the Duet and the Prince of the Get Out Stakes. Actually they always seem to be male titles, there is definitely a niche market out there for any females that want to start flogging tips. Maybe Lady Luck's Lovely Long Shots ?

Else your name has to sound very down to earth to appeal to the common battler punter. Gazza's Great Tips. Or Sam's Sure Things.

Or plays on wording of punting or race track terms.

Follow The Scooper - scooping up value winners (and left over manure) from the mounting yard.

Else you could always go the animal kingdom angle.

The Friendly Form Lion Roaring Out Winners ?
The Trifecta Termite Gnawing Out Value Collects ?
The Grilled Flake Wetting Your Wallet And Your Appetite ?

Oh - and don't forget it has to contain the words "Gold" and "Pro" and "Special" - almost forgot.

Actually - might head off and register some domain names - back soon.

The next thing you need to think about when starting a tipping service is to come up with some sort of wacky cartoon horse logo to get people's attention. Horses with dollar signs for eyes and carrying overflowing bags of money. Horses dressed in a Hugh Hefner dressing gown, draped in shiny gold bling and smoking a fine quality cigar. Horses winking knowingly at the internet punter.

Finally you want to blazon your service with outlandish claims that makes it sound like you win every single week, week in , week out, without fail.

Push that huge First 4 dividend when you managed to put the long shot winner somewhere in your top eight selections and made some vague passing reference to the other runners. Claim the quaddie dividend even though it was 4 x 6 x 8 x 12 runners and you would have got 4% for your substantial $100 outlay. Pick the longest odds available anywhere in Australia on your winner, changing products from week to week, even though you can only know which betting product had the longest odds retrospectively after the race.

It is amazing what you can do retrospectively to make selections look good - it is more powerful than photoshop for ironing out those unsightly wrinkles and losing bets.

Then it dawned on us and the horrible truth was revealed - we had become a cliche !

Coming soon - SpecialProGoldClicheTipping.com.au

View previous newsletters in the newsletter archive.