As part of your education you're going to develop a stable of 10 horses and follow their every move for the next year. This stable of horses will include a GH1 horse, preferably on a cups campaign, can be from o'seas if you wish, a GR1 and GR2 / GR3 horse from Gai Waterhouse Stable, a couple of decent handicappers (find the ratings from a well known publication which will give you a decent list to choose from), one has to be lightly raced and on the up, an unraced well bred 2y/o, a couple of horses part owned by the trainer, a maiden, a decent country horse. Mix up the sex, we want at least two geldings in this lot but not the "maiden". Mix up the trainers, don't go for the bigger well known trainers, we want one or two bush trainers and maybe one or two from Perth and Adelaide.

Follow EVERY move of these horses, ring the stables, go to the trackwork and trials where possible, go to the races, talk to anyone who seems to be involved with the horse. Investigate why they're entered for a particular race, find out their habits, their weaknesses their strengths, the motives of the trainer, the jockeys previous experience with the horse, the market moves, how the horse ran in the race, did it have bad luck, was it pushed wide, did you get the best price on course or could you have done better with Betfair, the weight the horse carried and does it matter, the barrier, the track and conditions, trackwork, keep meticulous records of everything.

Above all else try to get some inside information, I'm sure you'll be able to on some if you dig hard enough and stick with it long enough. This is crucial. When / If the horse wins was it well backed, did it look like it had a chance on "form", did the stable back it, was it easy in the market, why did it win.

It's not a lot of work really 10 horses with an average of 5 or 6 starts each is only 50 or 60 races each year. You decide if you want to replace a horse at anytime but keep records of why you did and try to keep the mix of horses / trainers as varied as possible.

It's crucial that you attend some trackwork / trials and talk to those involved with the horse. Dig for as much information as possible, I cannot stress this highly enough.

You must have some skin in the game so you must back your horses when you decide you want to, and this could be at every start, it's up to you. The size of the bet when you think the horse is going to win should make you feel uncomfortable, as this signifies you have considerable skin in the game and are prepared to back your judgement. The reason for this is that there's a lot of people who wish to make a living from this game, and those that do, well they back their judgement, not unlike any other business owner. Please note, this education suits only those who wish to win by backing winners, which is the historical nature of gambling on horses.

Boot leather or computers ?????