'I couldn't imagine trying to tip or bet without them' - the importance of race replays
Betting on Racing is an app-exclusive daily punting guide from three of the Racing Post's most renowned experts: Tom Segal, Paul Kealy and David Jennings. A new instalment will be published every weekday for the next three weeks.
I'm old enough to remember how difficult form study was in the days without pictures and the internet!
I was a youngster at the time at the Racing Post and wasn't allowed anywhere near a tipping column (rightly so as I was clueless!), but I'd see the Spotlight writers come into the office with huge bags over their shoulders full of form books for the last three years or so.
They would have to search for a horse in the index to go to the page with its latest piece of form, and on that page would be the number of the page on which its previous piece of form could be found, and so on.
Quite how anyone managed to tip a winner when virtually never seeing a race and relying on in-running comments from someone else was beyond me and I certainly doff my hat to those who went before me.
Things are certainly so much easier now with race replays available from all tracks with a Racing Post Members' Club Ultimate subscription.
Watching a race can give you so many insights, from the obvious ones of how the race is run and whether there was any trouble, to the riding styles of jockeys and the running styles of horses.
It enables you to see a clear picture of what has happened and to build a picture of what might happen in future events.
Your knowledge of how horses travel in a race and whether they are better off a strong pace or a slow one, or whether they race prominently or come from behind, or whether the jockeys likes to sit still for as long as possible or gets animated sooner rather than later, can all help in your daily study.
Again, you can use the notes tabs on horse profiles to jot down a reminder of what happened as you saw it rather than take the words of someone else as sacrosanct.
Racing is all about opinions and I've lost count of the number of times I've disagreed with an in-running comment.
These days when watching replays half my screen is devoted to the race and the other half to an online stopwatch as I bid to get an idea of how fast a race is run.
You can get accurate details of this from some tracks on other websites, but not all as yet, and they are invaluable.
Trying to work out the likely pace in the race is of obvious importance, but so is building up the knowledge of horses who find for pressure and those who do everything on the bridle and very little off it.
Race replays are an absolute must and I couldn't imagine trying to tip or bet without them.
Tomorrow: David Jennings' Irish racecourse insight
Read more in our Betting on Racing series:
Tom Segal: the importance of good jockeys and why they matter
David Jennings: put in the hard yards and stick to what you're good at
Paul Kealy: 'Notes can become seriously valuable' - form study tips from the best
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