Professional Gamblers: Sidney Harris

Who is Sidney Harris? He is a famous punter that became interested in horses in his mid-forties. Sidney Harris was a stock market trader before he became a professional punter. Sidney made his largest gamble on Black Monday. The 19th of October 1987.

As the financial advisors' sat stunned unable to move watching their VDU screens losing their fortunes, Sidney had a lunchtime bet that the market would continue to fall and the public would continue to panic. That day Sidney netted over £60,000. He was one of the few individuals that were able to see a chance for profit from very adverse circumstances.

Since his retirement from stocks he has since retiring from the Stock Market, Sidney has dedicated his life and time to horse racing. Sidney has also developed some remarkably good associates. When Sidney wrote his book, 'Horse Racing, The Essential Guide To Backing Winners', he had been a professional gambler for seven years. He recalled how he became a professional punter on the 26th of August 1993; one day after the 'Largest Bookmakers in the World' made the definite decision to disallow his betting. Their reason for the suspension of his accounts was they believed he was winning too much.

For the most part punters tend to rely on luck. No instance is the saying 'the harder you work the luckier you get', more applicable than in horse racing. According to Harris, 'each punter's journey is unique. Each travels a path that has no signs guiding them.'

Well established and often misguided ideas, will often lead many to repeat mistakes that eventually become debilitating and regularly indulged habits. You must have a defined strategy so you can easily see your mistakes and correct them. It is important to develop a common sense of sorts.



Fundamental Rules For Gambling - Suggestions Harris gives for professional gamblers:



1.Never back a horse unproven on the going.

2.Never back a horse from an out of form stable.

3.Never back a horse unsuited to a track.

4.Never back a horse ridden by a jockey with a poor track record.

5.Never back a horse whose trainer has a poor track record.

Bookmakers and layers look for horses with a minimum of one of the 5 rules above. The horses that have one of the 5 conditions listed do make a above credentials as they make magnificent favorite pick. To put it bluntly, the punters that can not see past the bookmakers and layers fake hot picks will find themselves backing the losing "favorites".

If you successfully remove horses that have or meet one of the above listed conditions, you will have greatly limited the playing field. Thus you will have saved yourself enormous amounts of time.

Statistically speaking, it is very rare for an animal with such damaging characteristics rarely win the race. Harris remarks that you need to make sure your potential selections pass the above filters, the Fundamental Rules listed above.

Now if you want to think in more positive ways, there are other characteristics in a horse that you should look at.



WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN PICKING A HORSE:

1.Always back trainers who are in form. To find them look in 'today's trainers' in the Racing Post or on their website. You will be able to look and see if a stable is in form.

2.Always back a trainer with a good record at a familiar track. Turn to the Top Trainers section for the track in question in the Racing Post or click the appropriate button on the R.P. website and you will see which trainers are likely to be in contention.

3.Aim to back jockeys with a good track record. Turn to the Top Jockeys section and you'll see at a glance which jockeys regularly do the business at this track.

4.Check out horses with future 'multiple entries'. Multiple entries are a useful positive factor. A trainer looking for the right race will enter a horse in various races. Horses with multiple entries deserve extra scrutiny. Check the races these horses might have run in. If they've been pulled out of higher grade races and will still be running in lower grade affairs - they start to look interesting!

When asked for advice he would give to an armature or semi-professional punter Sidney Harris expressed, "Horse Racing is fraught with financial danger. You can literally lose your shirt and indeed your house on racehorses. Awareness is the key to finding winners in horse races. Every decent priced winner you'll ever find starts with one clue from a repertory of hundreds of possible clues. Once you find such clues - you're well on your way to uncovering profit."

In conclusion, Sidney Harris is a well educated, self made winner in the punters circuit. He literally has applied his knowledge of business smarts into making punting a profitable business for himself. Follow his guidelines and you too may find yourself successful.