For years I have wondered why Australian horseracing rates the best jockeys and trainers based on their total wins for the season and I have come to the only conclusion possible: it's the easiest. The rest of the world has many definitions of success but generally percentages become the only true barometer. Would you invest your superannuation money in a fund yielding 6% or 5.5%? The answer is a no brainer.This season the Sydney training premiership will be won by Peter Snowden. Based on publish
For years I have wondered why Australian horseracing rates the best jockeys and trainers based on their total wins for the season and I have come to the only conclusion possible: it's the easiest. The rest of the world has many definitions of success but generally percentages become the only true barometer. Would you invest your superannuation money in a fund yielding 6% or 5.5%? The answer is a no brainer.
This season the Sydney training premiership will be won by Peter Snowden. Based on published data on Tuesday in "The Sportsman" he has trained 92 winners from 543 runners for a win average of 16.94% while Gai Waterhouse has trained 68 winners from 347 runners for a win average of 19.59%. A quick tap on the calculator shows Gai is a 13.52% better trainer (19.59% minus 16.94% = 2.65% x 100 = 265%/19.59 = 13.52) yet no recognition is shown for her better performance.
Punters backing every runner trained by the David Hayes stable in Melbourne and Adelaide would be wondering why such a high profile trainer has such poor training figures. All told he has had 73 wins from 734 runners for a strike rate of 9.94% but he is not the worst. In Perth Neville Parnham has had 613 runners for 39 winners for a miserable win percentage of 6.36%.
We punters have a hard, tough life but surely concentrating on the truly top trainers MUST be the way to go if following trainers is one of our betting strategies. For the record the best trainer in Australia, based on the figures in "The Sportsman", is Mark Kavanagh with his Melbourne and Adelaide runners totaling 82 winners from 323 runners for a fantastic win percentage of 25.38%. Backing every one of his runners actually showed a profit, albeit a mere $2 odd, but which punter can honestly say they had 323 bets across all sorts of classes and broke square.
So, Trainers:Rule 1 for the 2010-2011 racing season has to be "follow Mark Kavanagh". This does not mean you have to back every runner but closely following this excellent trainer, when all the planets align, must have you in the right ball park to start with.