>>>> I can help you….
My name is Nick Pullen….
I’ve been betting the horses for 30+ years – and since 2007 I’ve written the Against The Crowd (ATC) service….
My column goes out Monday to Friday and caters to racing punters who bet the big-field handicaps on the flat and over the jumps – the toughest betting puzzles on the racing programme….
My simple objective is to provide readers with high-quality information, insights, advice, and opinions they can put to profitable work in the big-field handicap markets. No more. No less….
I reckon I do a pretty good job of it. My track record says as much. And I reckon plenty of readers would agree….
But that doesn’t mean I’m an infallible genius who knows everything and always gets everything right. Not at all. I’m far from that….
I don’t mind telling you straight off the bat that I’m wrong a hell of a lot more times than I’m right….
That’s always been the case and it always will be….
I don’t pick the winner of every race I target for bets at the weekend or at the big midweek Festivals….
I don’t get it right with every observation I make….
I don’t get it right with every opinion I share….
I don’t get it right with all the advice and recommendations I give....
I get plenty wrong. But I don’t worry about it. And I certainly don’t apologise for it….
Getting things wrong is part and parcel of playing the game. It’s par for the course. To be expected….
After all, we’re talking about horse racing – a sport that revolves around largely unpredictable half-ton animals made of flesh, blood, muscle, and bone running around a field….
Nobody gets everything right. Nobody could hope to….
The important thing is to get enough right at sufficiently good prices to make the game pay across the long term….
And I most certainly get that job done. I’ve been doing it for 15-years. And I can tell you for sure that my readers – past & present would happily confirm that….
But, at the end of the day, they don’t need to. Because it’s all a matter of incontrovertible record….
Make your betting pay more across the long-term….
>>>> Take Arecibo, for instance….
At the start of the 2021 flat season Arecibo was officially rated 91….
You might recall, he had come over from France to join David O’Meara’s yard back in the spring of 2019 – starting off his British career at Ripon on a mark of 100….
Two runs in, O’Meara gelded the horse and two runs after that Arecibo won a C3 handicap at Ayr off a mark of 91….
It was the only time he won for the O’Meara yard in 24 runs. It’s fair to say he’d been difficult to win with. The 6yo was headed into a new season with a career record that read just 3 wins from 36 runs @ 8.3% on the turf flat….
But he was very much on my radar – and I told my ATC readers why….
I also alerted readers to the fact that Arecibo had something else in his favour. He’d recently moved to Robert Cowell’s yard….
I pointed to Cowell’s work with another cast-off sprinter – Raucous. He’d looked like a horse on a terminal decline heading into Cowell’s yard. But within 18-months he’d banked a stack of prize money for his new connections and gone very close to winning a Wokingham and a Stewards Cup – the top races on the sprint handicap scene….
I gave my readers the bottom line….
It turned out to be very good information for readers who took note….
Arecibo won first-time up for Cowell at Newmarket – sent off at 9/2. He won again at the same track in May – sent off at 85/40….
Then he really hit his straps – going very close in the G1 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot. He finished 2nd that day sent off at 28s. But he’d been much bigger that same morning and was easy to back at prices as big as 50s….
He placed next time at Sandown sent off at 8s. Later in the same season he placed again in France….
It was quality information that I gave to ATC readers – even if I say so myself. It was information you could put to profitable use in the market. And many ATC readers did just that….
One of them – TN – had this to say….
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>>>> Or consider Copper Knight….
Arecibo was no flash in the pan job….
Tim Easterby’s Copper Knight was another horse I was very interested in for the 2021 flat campaign….
Here’s what I told my readers on Monday, 12th April….
Again, it turned out to be a good quality lead for punters – one that paid dividends in the markets across the season….
Copper Knight ran 13 more times between May and the end of October – winning three times and placing in an additional four races….
Two of those wins – banked in C2 handicaps at York and Doncaster in fields of 14 and 17 – paid out at 18s and at 22s ….
So, we’re not talking about some odds-on cert dotting up in a 5-runner race against vastly inferior horses….
If you’d backed him in each of his runs during the season to the tune of 1 point each-way at SP you’d have banked a profit of 47.5 points….
That’s A1 betting business by any standards you want to apply – and it started with good-quality information….
And let’s not forget that the profit stated above is calculated to SP. Chances are you’d have got even better prices early doors, at Betfair SP or on the tote….
I don’t get everything right but – like I say – the things I do get right tend to pay well. And that’s the kind of high quality information racing punters appreciate....
Here’s what ATC reader DC told us….
Be better-informed than the punters you bet against….
>>>> Hey Jonesy was another big-priced highlight….
As part of the ATC service, I draw attention to these kinds of horses – horses ready to oblige at big prices – year-on-year….
In 2020 it was probably Hey Jonesy who provided the highlight for readers….
During lockdown and ahead of the racing restarting, I’d taken an in-depth look at Kevin Ryan’s horse and on 14th May I reported my conclusions. I told readers this….
My assessment was spot-on and paid big dividends….
Just five weeks later Hey Jonesy struck in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot on his second run of the season. He was sent off unloved and unfancied at 18s – but had been easy to back at bigger prices earlier in the day….
Plenty of ATC readers had taken note and were on. MR, for example – who had this to say….
And AF was just one of many more who made hay that hot June day….
Smarter thinking – smarter info – smarter betting….
>>>> How we cashed in on Frankel progeny….
And ATC is not just about highlighting individual horses….
I also dig out little-known betting angles you can exploit and make profits from….
Just like the one I shared ahead of the 2021 Royal Ascot meeting – one that revolved around Frankel progeny….
Here’s what I told my ATC readers….
That was high-quality information – a pre-meeting steer that led ATC readers to profitable bets at the meeting….
Here’s what ATC reader NH had to say….
Terry weighed in too….
Angles that deliver profit….