The first thing to say is that when this article was first written there was no cash out button on Betfair, so life is easier if you just want to lock in a profit and green up on a horse you've bet, no calculator required.
But you should know the maths and how to calculate your own stakes and that's what we cover on this page.
Yesterday Pete asked how do we calculate our stakes when we have made a trade and we want to green up.
So Pete has backed a horse that is shortening in price and he wants to green up on that selection. IE lock in a profit whatever the outcome.
If for example you were lucky or smart enough to get on Shaws Diamond yesterday morning you could have bet it at around 16.0.
This mare started with a Betfair SP of 6.64. (Easier to find these green up opportunities in hindsight!!)
So let's say you had a back bet for £10 at 16.0 in the morning and it's just before the off and your horse is now trading at 6.8.
You want to lock in a profit on Shaw's Diamond and want to know what stake to lay at 6.8.
The calculation is to multiply your initial stake times your initial back odds (£10 x 16.0 = £160)
You then divide that by the lay price that you can get (£160/6.8 = £23.52)
Place your lay of £23.52 at 6.8 and your initial bet of £10 has now converted to a guaranteed payout of £12.84.
I mentioned a while back that a lot of serious backers don't wait for a selection to win these days.
Instead they lock in a profit once their horse trades down to a certain level and then lock in the profit.
This method is great for predetermined trades or for when you have time to calculate the stake.
When the pressure is on you might prefer to use software that can make the bet in the click of a button 🙂
If you want to it the other way around. So say you have one that's drifting and you lay a tenner at 6.8 and now can back it at 16.0.
Multiply your lay price by your lay stake (£10 x 6.8 = £68) and then divide that by your new odds (£68/16.0 = £4.25).
Back your selection for £4.25 at 16.0 and lock in a £5.46 profit.
A final note: It's easier to find steamers just listen to the pundits and check out free tipsters. Also you risk less money in the initial bet and get a better profit on the green up.
(Green Up: Common parlance for a guaranteed profit on Betfair where every selection shows it will profit if that selection win)
Greyhound Baulking
So last time we looked at which dog had the fastest sectional times and was likely to lead.
But times don't tell the full story. There are other factors that effect the run up to the first bend and they can all be grouped together into one question.
That is will the dogs, or at least the one we are interested in, get a clear run to the bend and that's what we'll look at today.
Greyhounds run in a number of distinct styles and track positions.
There are those that want to run close to the rail and those (usually bigger dogs) that prefer to run out wide where the bends are easier to negotiate. Generally speaking when a dog leaves the trap he will aim to get in the position that he prefers.
This will be clearer if I use an extreme example.
If we have a dog that is too big to negotiate the bends near to the rail and needs to run wide around the bends then somewhere between the traps and the first bend he will want to get into the position that is most comfortable.
If that particular dog was starting in trap one then somewhere along the way he will cut in front of, or behind the dogs in traps two to six.
He will most likely bump into or impede some of these other dogs on his way to the bend.
This means that the sectional time that we expect from any other dog that is impeded will not be what we expect it to be. So for example in our screen shot from the last message our trap five may not have had an advantage if he was impeded by others along the way.
To assess the likelihood of any dog getting to the line as quickly as we expect we need to look at its previous races and those of the dogs around it to predict any problems.
Predicting likely trouble from the traps is more of an art than a science but there are clues a plenty in the race card.
First off you want to look for comments in the previous races of the runners. If a runner is slow or very slow away consistently then this is an advantage for the adjacent runners as they will have clear space around them.
Also look for comments regarding a dogs position at the start. You might find an indication that a dog heads for the rails at the start or heads wide at the start EG RlsStt would indicate that the dog in question headed for the inside rail at the start.
When you see comments like this you have to put them into the context of todays race. For example if a dog earns the comment RlsStt but is in trap one today then the comment is not relevant. However if he is in trap two then it may have negative consequences for trap one but be a positive sign for trap three.
Also look at what trap each dog has been running from if a dog is used to trap one but is today in trap three then it may be that he will head to his regular position near the rails.
Use all of the relevant comments and information to build a picture in your mind of how the run to the bend will pan out.
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