It's not only horses who have course preferences - trainers do as well

When I was growing up my dad, my brothers and I always used to have a tipping competition at the big meetings like the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot.

My dad invariably won because firstly we were all in single digits in terms of age. Secondly, he was extremely competitive and never liked us winning anything, and finally he had one foolproof system: he always tipped the horse with 'CD' by his or her name.

I used to laugh at the simplicity of his method, but as I've got older I've started to see there was a method in his madness as it's pretty clear that certain tracks suit the main attributes of certain horses.