I’ve saved the best for last. It took me years to eventually realise this: if you always play your hand with position – being the last to act on every betting round – then you will find it is far easier to win at this game. You get all that information about everybody else’s actions before you have to act, and in a game where small edges count for a lot, that is a significant advantage. Roger Plummer of the Daily Mirror’s racing desk shares his strategy for picking the winning dog.
I once mentioned to Harry Lloyd, one of the best greyhound judges I have ever met, that I was struggling to find something to back in a race at Hackney one Saturday morning. After careful consideration Harry said to me, ‘Back the one with the curliest tail.’ So, just for a bit of fun, I studied the greyhounds as they paraded, noted the six dog had the curliest tail and had a couple of quid on. Needless to say, the dog obliged and, from that day on, if anyone asks me what to back at a dog meeting, I always impart the aforementioned advice.
Now I can’t say this is going to be a 100 percent successful because it all depends at what time during the parade you view the dogs, I have noticed that the dog with the curliest appendage five minutes before the race is not necessarily the main qualifier just before they enter the traps.