On Wednesday I had a situation where my pre race opinions affected my in play decision making. Over the years you obviously pick up knowledge of horse racing - you just can't help it - but I try not to let it influence my in play decision making too much - depending on the type of race.
In the 13.50 at Hexham (4m Hcap Chase) I had formed a pre-race opinion about the J. Ewart trained Snuker and layed the horse in running at about 11.0. It wasn't a bad decision really as the horse went out to around 55.0 but I decided not to hedge out completely, deciding only to reduce my liability, even though he never looked completely beaten.
I had it in my head pre-race that he wasn't going to win and I probably looked 'too hard' to find fault with him in running.
It is not a mistake or a loss I make very often. My last loss of this nature was in the first week of November (£150.00).
Anyway I pushed on and managed to reduce the loss on the day to something respectable. It was a pity because I had virtually a 100% trade record out of the 18 markets I traded in properly. However, even without Snuker, the day was never going to be more than mediocre as real opportunities were sparse.
In hindsight it was a competitive, small field race, that I might have left alone.
