The Lower Classes

Something which has always lurked in the back of my mind was looking at the unexpected angles within Horse Racing and hopefully turning them into hard cash – so after being bored for a few hours on the PC I decided to do some digging around and get the ball rolling on what I’m hoping will be some interesting and money-making stats.

I’ve started off by setting my parameters to races with prize money of £4,000 and below, this will locate races with the class bracket towards the bottom end of the spectrum. The un-genuine and the not very good can often be found down in these levels but some trainers do specifically well with these type of animals; a list of the better performing can be located in the table below.

So we have now established a list of 17 different trainers who all show a profit to level stakes in races with prize money of £4,000 or less. Taking the data from the table above it would appear that Michael Jarvis comes out top of the list in this type of grade and although he hasn’t’ showed as much profit as William Knight amongst others he’s most consistent.

Now it’s time to analyze a select few whom I’ve picked out to try and narrow down the search to specific tracks. For this I’ve used the same criteria above, but have managed to add in the course as well. I’ve started this search with Michael Jarvis as he sits top of the pile above I thought it was only fair, and it would appear he does best at Nottingham and Lingfield in these types of races.

Showing a solid strike-rate of 34% at Nottingham a track where Michael Jarvis does well on the whole is decent, although by the look of things there aren’t many decent prices lying around with just a profit of £60.06 to £10 level stakes. Lingfield however is a different kettle of fish, a strike-rate of nearly 30% but his profit is three times as much and weighs in on £380.91 to £10 units.

I then decided to give William Haggas a try after such an improved season for his yard this year and he continues to fire the winners in. He appears to do better by far in this grade at Southwell and shows a near 40% strike rate in these moderate affairs. If you’d backed all his horses in races of our criteria at Southwell to £10 you’d of made a tasty £180.35 profit. He’s also doing well at both Kempton and Yarmouth and can be backed at all three tracks to the tune of a healthy profit.

Tom Dascombe is next on the list and a trainer who has made rapid headway through the training ranks after firing in Classic Blade in the July Stakes at Newmarket, along with Firth Of Fifth in the Superlative Stakes. He’s done remarkably well since taking up his license and looks sure to progress into bigger and better things in the future. That doesn’t mean however he won’t farm these smaller races. You can already see he’s a potent force around Wolverhampton and Lingfield in races worth £4,000 or less, and shows a solid profit on each track. His horses should be followed at these two tracks as they won’t be far away judging by the above, especially at Wolverhampton.

Next I thought I’d include a local trainer in this piece and who better than Nick Williams who has really impressed this year, landing the Chester Cup with the evergreen Bulwark is an achievement worthy of note. Showing a healthy profit at all three jumping tracks above, a solid strike-rate of 35% at Worcester suggests his horses wont be far from winning went campaigned here in the lower grades.

Finally there is William Knight who has been doing well with his handicappers this year, and his flag bearer King Of Dixie has made the step up to pattern class, however Knight is doing considerably well in the lower grades at Lingfield, so much so it’s worthy of mention. A strike rate of just 11% in our criteria of races but when he runs his horses in this type of race round Lingfield his strike-rate almost doubles and posts a lethal profit of £1,315.00 to £10 stakes in the process. His horses in this grade are worth keeping in your pocket as they can make you some solid cash.

Okay now that’s your lot – I’ve spent the past hour or so putting together these stats and I think we can all see from the above stats that it is possible to make some cash in the lower grades, just keep in mind the table of trainers above when encountering a race worth £4,000 or less in prize money – that should put you onto plenty of winning bets.

Take note of William Knight with his runners at Lingfield, Tom Dascombe at Wolverhampton and William Haggas at Southwell. Although backing these trainers’ horses blind in the grade of race should ensure you keep the wolf from the door.

Take it easy,
The Duke