A few months ago I read and interview with Tom Segal, the man behind the Pricewise selections given by the Racing Post.

I was amazed that he didnt really put much work into finding his selections, about 20 minutes. And that the main factors he considered were the jockey and the price.

This seemed far too simple. In my experience people who profit from their racing put in much more time.

I've just read the Value Backing book from Carl Nicholson. I would put Carl on a par with Tom except that with Carl's selections, because he's not featured in the Racing Post, there is not so much risk of the prices disappearing.

Carl's book is a quick read with just 100 pages and although he obviously does a lot of race watching in order to create a list of horses that he thinks will run well in the future, his actual selections process does sound quite straightforward.

Here is a quote from Carl's book which summarises his technique…

“If you find a horse that likes the going and has recent form on it, has competed in the grade (or higher in some cases) of the race in question before and has run well in it on a recent run.

And has run well over the distance or even better over the same course and distance in its recent past then you will have found a selection then you will have found a selection that should be very competitive in that race.

Now this does not mean that it is going to win all the time, but you are not guessing on the three most important factors of a horse winning any kind of race.”

Finding winners, doesnt have to be complicated!

Carl gives out a free selection from his Value Backing Extra service every Friday, to register for that Click Here.

Today's Selection

Leicester 2.40 Ballywatt – win bet 9/4 Paddy Power