FINAL REVIEW
The system uses a stop in profit system (with a target of 1 point per day), not just stop at a winner, with a stop loss, should that be required. It is straight forward, but you need to be available during the day to place bets due to previous results.
No form study is required, but access to the Racing Post in paper or internet format is.
The latest version of the system comes as a twelve page e-book, the first three pages written as a kind of foreword by the original writer of the system.
The book advises a 300-point bank to start with, so I started with a £600 bank, so therefore £2 level stakes each bet, as there are multiple selections in each race. This would allow for ten consecutive days of bets reaching the stop loss without any profit being made, which the ebook gives the impression would be next to impossible.
The system does not cover evening racing, to at least allow some time off, and not on Saturdays due to races not allowing sufficient breathing space to obtain results, and to place the required bets on the next race.
I ran the test with two versions running at the same time – for ease of reading, I called them A and B. Version B is the old version of the system, and version A is the new version with new filters added which in the book is shown to be in testing.
The system itself is simple to use, but you can be at the computer for a few minutes if the first race of the day pays off, or several hours if things don’t go as well as one would wish.
The test ran for 30 racing days (8th December to 23rd January). The missing days were due to some extraordinarily bad weather, which we are still suffering from. The results were as follows:
Version A:
Starting Bank: £600.00
Finishing Bank: £498.65
Loss during test: £101.35
% Bank lost: 16.9%
Winning days: 18
Losing days: 12
Stop loss invoked: 0
Version B:
Starting Bank: £600.00
Finishing Bank: £464.21
Loss during test: £135.79
% Bank lost: 22.6%
Winning days: 17
Losing days: 13
Stop loss invoked: 0
I know that sometimes people want to know what would have happened with level stakes betting on qualifying races. With this System A would have lost only £16.60, System B would have lost £39.50.
The weather whilst the test was being done was diabolical…… normally there would be two turf based meetings per day. During the period of the test, 19 days had one meeting left running, 11 days had the two scheduled meetings survive, the majority of these before Christmas. Additionally eight days were lost completely!!!!
James (the author) has queried some of the results, and we had a discussion as to when prices are to be taken. I believe that I followed the rules as written in the book. The book states that the first bet of the day can be placed an hour or more before racing starts. For the purpose of the test, I wanted to be consistent, so I took prices from Betfair at two minutes before the advertised start time, including any known delay where races were put back.
To conclude, despite the losses, I do have faith in the system…my thoughts are at this stage the filters need to be experimented further with to provide a system that will produce a profit. At this stage therefore, with the losses that the test has made, I have to class this system in the failed system category. However, if James would provide me with an amended version of the system in the future, I would be more than happy to revisit the test, and to run a further one.
(Note from Graham: I’ve spoken to James about this system as he was not happy that we were taking the prices at 2 minutes before the off to decide whether the race qualifies or not. By doing this we missed a few big priced winners that would have made a big difference to the overall results. According to James, you need to watch the market constantly and if at any point the odds move into range then the race will qualify. Of course, this is a very difficult thing to do and I’m not sure anyone operating the system would actually stare at the screens constantly just in case a race qualifies, but to be fair to James I will place this system in the Neutral section.)
You can get the Life System here:
No Longer Available
