Brett Love exlains why he Loves Racing to On Course Profits

A Q and A Session

1. Hi Brett and many thanks for joining us this month, would you start by telling us a little about yourself and your background?

Hi and very nice to be here. I originally had the same boyhood dream as a lot of young lads in that I was desperate to be a professional footballer. Lucky for me and due to passion and ability I got the chance to fulfil that fantasy when I was picked up by West Bromwich Albion as a 13 year old schoolboy.

I worked and trained very hard and eventually I was chosen to be 1 of 12 apprentices. For the next 2 years I played at a lot of the best grounds in England and was pretty successful and I was over the moon when they offered me professional terms just after my 17th birthday.

I started the 1st season as a pro brilliantly, scoring and creating lots of goals and I was soon propelled into travelling with the 1st team. Unfortunately, just a couple of days after I travelled with them for the 1st time I suffered an horrendous injury which sidelined me for the next 9 months and eventually put an end to my career and dreams.

From that moment onwards I still had a burning ambition to be ‘someone' and turned to my next greatest passion which of course was horse racing!

My Dad had always been a tipster so I learnt the ropes from him and eventually developed my own betting techniques/strategies. I have been betting ever since and decided to become a professional punter/tipster around 10 years ago.

2. What attracted you to the world of horse racing world and what do you enjoy most about the sport?

My passion and attraction to horse racing first came about through my great uncle, Bill Love, who owned the 1982 Cheltenham Festival Triumph Hurdle favourite The Grey Bomber! I was only 6 at the time but vividly remember him being unbeatable around the Prestbury Park track and I just loved going to visit him at his yard to watch him school like a leopard over several flights of hurdles on a crisp winters morning.

Trained by Denys Smith and ridden by Chris Grant, Bomber was the unbeaten, bold jumping grey who had such a wonderful nature but who was devastatingly electrocuted in a freak accident at home before his full potential could ever be reached! I cried for days afterwards.

I enjoy lots of different elements of racing, from simply watching the animals in action, to visiting the tracks and soaking up the atmosphere. I obviously enjoy earning a living from betting but the one defining thing that I say I most enjoy is the daily test and the satisfaction I gain from ‘solving the puzzle' in picking those winners!

3. What led you into the world of racing tipsters and what do you feel you can offer racing enthusiasts and punters that other tipsters can’t?

As stated earlier, my Dad was a tipster so I thought to myself I can do that.

I enjoyed the way he went about his business and what it entailed, so I put a lot of time and effort into following in his footsteps but trying to find my own little niche/edge in the sport to stand out from the crowd.

I think I can offer something to suit everyone. As I have proven, I have a very high level stakes profit to suit the every day punter and a very impressive ROI to suit the professionals that work on a high monetary turnover but tend to bet less often. I am very consistent and try to limit long losing runs.

My main standout attribute and unique selling point that I can offer is that I am one of only a very select few, I believe, that makes a good profit based on figures calculated at returned Industry SP alone!! I am quite selective and target the better class races and hate to lose my own money let alone anyone else's so if anyone wants to follow me/subscribe to my service they can rest assured that they are investing in selections I have put lots of time and effort into finding and that I will confidently put my own hard earned cash on.
I'm not in it for the get rich quick merchants, I like steady, realistically attainable profitability over a long sustainable period.

4. What traits do you think a good racing tipster should possess and what do you think the average punter is looking for from a tipping service?

If I or any average punter were joining a tipping service I would look for transparency and not fictional figures that most tipsters in the papers claim. I would like to listen or read the rationale behind the selections and would hope to keep long losing runs to a minimum.

I think a good racing tipster can provide this and should possess a good working ethic alongside sound, disciplined selection and betting processes and approaches.

The true sign of a good tipster in my opinion, I firmly believe, is if they can make a profit to SP which very, very few can. Even though you should try your damnedest to get value and the best possible price, for a lot of followers/bettors this is becoming increasingly harder, nigh on impossible for some than ever before so SP or BETFAIR SP is the only metric which is truly attainable and measurable for EVERYONE to gauge.

I would like to think that anyone looking and judging the merit of my results would look at profits based on both advised prices (which are available at the time of selection) and the returned Betfair SP and realistically believe they could easily achieve a profit figure halfway between the two!

5. How would you describe a typical working day?

I tend to concentrate on the best races at the better class meetings/courses so with the way racing is going at the moment (apart from when the festivals are on like Cheltenham, Aintree Chester etc) I tend to be very quiet in the week and work towards being fresh and raring to go for the weekend. Friday and Saturday are generally my 2 main betting days so this is a typical weekend.

FRIDAY – I will have already put my bets on for the day so from about 3pm onwards I am getting ready for Saturdays racing. I study the form tirelessly using the Racing Post website and the tools they provide for members. I closely monitor Oddschecker for any drastic movement and to find the best available prices that I can easily get.

SATURDAY – I am up at 5.30am to get the papers then on to my office for 6am. I grab a couple of coffee's to wake me up and peruse the national papers just to get relaxed and in the zone. From 6am until around 6pm, I literally plan every second. It is high pressure for 12 hours.

Six hours of intense form analysis again (in case of overnight changes in going etc) before sending my tipping selections and then the betting session kicks off. Every second counts. I maintain pre and post session checklists to ensure I keep to a regimented process.

Hopefully I have had a good day and that is the last work day of the week for me, I complete my usual 2 hour or so review of the Saturday races to help identify any areas that I must continue to work on.

6. What style of approach do you take to your betting on a personal level? What do you think of staking plans, loss retrieval systems etc.?

I have lots of different pots that I place bets out of following the numerous systems and methods I have developed. I keep these ticking over with progressive staking plans that increase the amount I place on each selection. I call these my retirement pension pots!

My main betting account is for form picks ONLY. I tend to stake my highest amounts on these selections and they are the ones I send to my subscribers and live off day to day.

I mainly bet each way and I work on a level stakes process to attainable prices but having been limited by so many bookmakers I tend to place a lot of these on Betfair now and I more often than not have to settle for Betfair SP which I find really profitable due to the prices I tend to back at and especially on the place market on handicap races under 16 runners.

Other than that I take little notice of staking plans and I think it is playing with fire using a loss retrieval system as you would conceivably need an infinite amount of money on a bad run to get it all back, just to make a small profit on top.

7. New and old punters alike can struggle to make a success of their betting. If you could give them just one piece of advice to improve their profitability what would it be?

It doesn’t matter what you are betting on, racing or sport, the most important thing is discipline. Only bet on something you really want to bet on and don’t just bet on something because it is there. Don’t chase your losses and if you lose, so be it, there is another race coming up tomorrow. This is easier said than done but even when I have had a really bad day I live by the mantra ‘tomorrows another day'.

I would also say remember your wins, stick to what you think you are good at and specialise on certain race types. There are copious amounts of races on any given day so try to gain an edge over the crowd by limiting your range to pick from and keep good records of the type /class/number of runners etc of these races if you have a bet in them.

My forte is form analysis and my main strength lies in analysing 7 furlong, 1 mile & 1 mile 2 furlong all aged handicaps on the flat and 2 mile, 2 mile 4 furlong handicap hurdles over the jumps. I find these the easiest to read, especially Class 3 and upwards and I regularly find the winners of these type of events.

8. What would you consider to be a highlight of your racing experience to date? Do you have any personal racing / betting experiences which when reflecting back brings a smile, or for that matter any which bring a grimace; you can share with our readers?

The most satisfying and enjoyable moment of my betting career was undoubtedly also my biggest single win. It was the 1996 Grand National and my favourite horse of all time ROUGH QUEST.

I class myself as a bit of a novice punter back then but the emotional roller coaster I went through that day watching him I don't think will ever be beaten. Having backed him each way in the Cheltenham Gold cup at 66-1 I thought if he ran well there then he would have a great chance in the National if taking his chance. He used to travel like a dream with that big prominent noseband and ran a cracker to finish 2nd. I had already availed myself to the 50-1 about him for the National and told all my friends and family to do the same. Going off at 8-1 on the day, the hairs on the back of my neck and arms stood up for the whole way round, and as usual he floated over the fences before pouncing late on up the run in. The elation, and relief, I felt after that race was indescribable.

It not so much of a grimace but a tinge of sadness. To this day, every time I see a grey national hunt horse I think back to old Grey Bomber and the things he could have gone on to achieve had he lived.

9. What about the gambling industry, is there anything you like to see changed there? Many website forums are full of criticisms of the bookmakers and their treatment of their customers? Is this something you have an opinion on?

I have a very strong and scathing opinion on the old enemy!

I find it a disgrace that even the small punters have a nightmare trying to get a reasonable bet on to advertised prices. I am sick and tired of getting emails stating I have had limitations put on my accounts and they should all be prosecuted for false advertising!

Time and again you see certain bookies with stand out prices and place terms yet they will lay you these to a paltry £1 stake! They should be made by law to stand those prices to a reasonable amount to EVERYONE.

The other thing I hate at the moment is the BHA race planning.

The midweek fair is getting worse and worse and the prize money for the lowest level races is paltry. I am all for the Class 6 horses and their like running as they keep the industry ticking over but as much as I look forward to Saturdays the best races need to be spread out and put back to when they were originally ran back in the day . There are too many good meetings on Saturday which makes form analysis increasingly difficult and very time consuming. This can lead to misjudgements and errors as a tired mind gets overwhelmed with information.

10. What do you do to relax and unwind? What interests have you outside the world of horse racing?

Win lose or draw, I always have a few beers after racing on a Saturday. After that I like to go out with my wife for the evening for a nice meal etc.

I try to make Sunday a family day out for the kids doing various activities, last Sunday was football golf! I like to spend as much time as I can with all my family and especially look forward to holidays with them.

To keep the mind and body both sane and fit I still play a little 5 a side now and again.

11. You have to choose between horse racing and football? Which one win

Tricky one that!

Having had the chance to be a footballer that will always be my first love but if I had to choose I would have chosen the best of both worlds and to have been a professional footballer till around 35 years of age then a pro punter/tipster thereafter!

To find out more about Brett and his service go to www.lovesracing.com