Summary: Rick Williams is our Senior Form Analyst here at Champion Picks and he's got some incredible knowledge regarding most aspects of doing the form and finding winners. A key part of that success is choosing the right races to get involved in and on this episode of the Betting 360 podcast, instead of having him talk about the specifics of what horse to bet on he's telling us all about how to decide which style of race offers the best betting opportunities. Punting Insights You'll Find What to look for in metropolitan vs. non-metro races. When track conditions play a major part in his decision making. The major importance in building a good base on your analysis systems. Why he doesn't have any rules regarding race distance or class. How the likely pace of a race influences his analysis. Today's Guest: Rick Williams Rick's Closing Tip: " Sometimes you just have to rule a line through horses because for whatever reason, they're not suited. " Get the Transcript: Episode 026: How To Select A Race To Bet On with Rick Williams Welcome to Betting 360, your number one source for horse racing and sports betting insights. Coming around the bend is your host David Duffield, with another expert view to give you the winning edge. David: Hi this is David Duffield, and welcome to another episode of the Betting 360 podcast. Fresh off a couple weeks break, we had the Flemington spring carnival week, and then I’ve had some time in Hong Kong and Macau recently, so had a freshen up and then good to go again. And today on the show I’ve got Rick Williams, he’s the senior form analyst here at Champion Picks. And I wanted to talk to him about how to go about selecting a race to get involved, so not so much selecting a horse, but more about the types of events that can lend themselves to backing winners at a decent price. And also which races you might be able to put a line through pretty early on. So we don’t have hard and fast mechanical rules about how we go about that, but just to give you an idea of maybe some races you can look to exclude from your detailed form analysis. So I’ll have a chat with Rick right now. David: Good to have you back on the show Rick. And just wanted to talk to you about what you can consider when looking to get involved in a race, whether there’s any type of events that you put a line through pretty quickly, and others that get you excited and wanting you to be involved. So I’ll just run through a few different factors about what plays a part in the decision making, and you can let me know how important it is, starting off with the state, where abouts do you focus most of your efforts and why? Rick: A couple of different ways I bet. Obviously I produce ratings, and for that sort of stuff I focus on Victoria predominantly, and I do a little bit of New South Wales, mainly the Sydney Metro. I also keep track of different horses that run through all the states, but basically for the purpose of tracking them as a black booker, as opposed to developing a set of ratings, that the next time they step out I keep a speed rating for all the horses and a class rating. So if I wanted to I could, but just for the quality of races that I target for those particular events, you know just to sort of track them, and time wise as well. You know to do a set of ratings everywhere everyday using possible, you know manually. So yeah I just try and stick to Victoria and the Metro for Sydney for the ratings, and yeah track as many as I can elsewhere. David: And so there’s the occasional hit and run mission. Like this week we bet in Townsville, and last week Pinjarra, so when there’s a real stand out you’ll bet anywhere. But outside of that the focus is Victoria, and to a lesser extent New South Wales? Rick: Yeah. I mean I think it’s important you know when you’re betting, to try and understand each horse as an individual as much as you can. They all have different traits,
