One thing that is true in life and betting is that experience is vital. It takes many years of hard work and learning from every bet to get to know every factor which has an effect on a horses' performance. Here I`m going to explain briefly some of the things which can help improve betting performance.

A formbook - is always an advantage (the Racing Post website is also very handy).

Speed Figures - are very important to me. I do my own speed figures and create my own personal formbook and notebook.

Contacts - I receive information about gambles hours before they happen through a very small network of contacts including occasional bookmaker information. Also it is vital to know if unraced horses are expected to win ,not trying or just no good. This information can be used to take advantage of bookmakers who price up every race each day.

Track Knowledge - there is a huge variety of different tracks in the UK and you would be surprised how many times a horse will run well only to get beaten at a short price next time simply because of the differences between the courses.

Experience - the experience to know what is needed to win every type of race and the ideal horse who fits the pattern.

Breeding - often important on extremes of going or a step up in trip.

Specialize - there is just to much racing and you can`t master it all. You must specialize by narrowing down the population of horses you're interested in backing. Generally I stay with flat hdcaps and All Weather racing.This is where my best results have come over long periods of time.

Staking - I could recommend a few systems to you but I use 2 - 10 pts on my service which works well and helps follow my motto 'bigger the value the bigger the bet'.

Value - using my experience, I come up with a price for every selection. Then I compare that to the bookmakers price. The bigger their price is than mine the more I will stake. I sometimes find value by using a negatives list of certain horses, trainers and jockeys I do try to avoid backing favourites where possible although often I`m on horses at 4/1 and they start favourite at half the price.

Confidence - a big factor for success is confidence and I always look to maintain a healthy strikerate of winners. When backing horses myself and advising others to stake hundreds of pounds it is important to know that there is little chance of a long losing run and with this knowledge every bet can be staked with confidence.

From my experience you need to get to know other clever punters, form a link and improve your knowledge. Then you can bounce ideas off each other. With the right connections it is possible to make racing pay a second wage for you, more so now with tax free betting widely available there has never been a better time.

Join me and learn many formulas that go into selecting winning bets, improve your racing knowledge and make money along the way.