January Round Up & Laying horses

January was the worst performing month for this blog since I started it in October last year.Bets were advised in 19 races and there were 4 winners and 7 placings (5 seconds) which scraped a miserly profit on the month of 0.25 units.Nothing flash I'll concede but it is some profit to add to the previous months successes.The early months of October and November were very good but I was just advising selections then and not giving staking and odds advice.Since I started giving specific staking and odds in December the cumulative totals are as follows :-

Stakes  56.55  Returns  63.58  Profit  7.03   Profit on turnover 12.43%

As we move into February we'll quickly see the quality of the racing improve and we'll be dealing with decent racing and better horses which does give us plenty took look forward to.December and January are tough months to cope with with lots of racing and most of it of very poor quality and the added distractions of Christmas and New Year.
I have a lot more "lay"bets on the exchange during the off months and find that the best way to keep things ticking over every day.Laying horses can be difficult for a lot of punters especially the ones who don't like betting at short odds as effectively your betting "odds on" the majority of times when you lay one (unless it's odds on itself of course).Four or five winners on one afternoon can wipe out all your gains from the previous few days so it can be a very frustrating exercise if you go through a poor run as inevitably you will at some point.The reality is though that when you have a midweek card at Moe to deal with it's almost impossible sometimes to find anything you want to back but not at all hard to find plenty that you wouldn't back with someone else's money.
My approach is that I lay to lose a set amount irrespective of whether I'm laying an even money shot or a 10/1 shot.I lose the same amount when any of them win but the shorter they are the more I make when they get beaten.Around the country tracks I'm very wary when the market seems to be emphatic about something and will often decide to scratch the "lay" and back it back and accept a small loss.This cottoning on to when there is more going on than you actually know about just comes with experience but I'm never slow to back off when things aren't looking quite right.
For anyone who is thinking about starting to try "lay" betting my advice would be to firstly understand that you have to accept that laying winners is as much a part of it as is laying losers-that some of them win is inevitable.Start for modest amounts that aren't going to knock you out if three or four of them win in a row (it happens).Build up slowly as you get better at it.If you get into the market early in race a very good rule of thumb is to think seriously about scratching and accepting a modest loss if the market is telling you you've got it wrong.For example if you lay a second favourite at 4.00 and the favourite starts to blow and your lay shortens to 3.50 get out,clear your liability and accept a modest loss.It's a bit different if your playing late just before off time but it's also harder over the long term to have an edge if you get into the market late.If you find that 75% of the ones you lay blow in the market albeit only a half point or so your well on your way to getting good at it-just be careful with the ones that firm up and unless your holding a strong opinion don't be slow to scratch and take a small loss.