Did you try your hand at market reading from last week’s eletter? If not, and you’re still unsure, you can paper trade.

Go to www.racingpost.com, Cards, Today’s Cards and ‘Show all racecards for this meeting on one page’.

Once you have done that, either take a screenshot, or note the time and Betting Forecast.

155 Curragh BETTING FORECAST 7/4 Empire State, 5/2 Isle Of Innisfree, 9/2 Wartime Hero, 8/1 Invincible Karma, 10/1 Recon Mission, 12/1 National Guard, Staycation, 14/1 Mr Coldstone.

The next day, look at the results at www.racingpost.com and look for any price movements.

I use a table:

I dismiss Empire State as the difference between the Betting Forecast and bookies odds is negligible. Karma interests me, with a 3-point difference, and Stay would interest me if that horse’s odds dropped to 9/1, or better yet, shorter.

On checking the results, how did the highlighted horses perform?

For those who cannot follow the live racing, www.oddschecker.com does post odds very early in the day. You might want to record how morning market readers get on.

This is your strategy for Maiden races, Novice races, and any other races this Flat season where it is hard to measure form (long absences from the track, for instance).

Do experiment too with some summer Jumps racing.

Bye bye Stoke, West Brom and… Swansea?

Swansea will be getting the prayer mats out this weekend and hoping that the Southampton goalkeeper plays with a blindfold. The Swans need Southampton to concede 10+ goals and the Swans need to win in order to stay up in the Premiership.

The Swans new manager Harry Houdini says this is a real possibility and is feeling confident. The domestic football may be drawing to a close, but the World Cup is barely a month away.

The clash of the century kicks it all off on 14^th June. Call me cynical, but Russia hardly have a taxing opening match versus Saudi Arabia. You can hear Putin in the background: ‘Get the Faroe Islands! No? Andorra? How about Gibraltar for the opening match? They haven’t qualified? Who’s left?’

I’ll be looking at the World Cup a lot nearer to kick off. Check out the markets yourself at your friendly bookmaker. I do like to look at past history in order to look for patterns, particularly in the Group Stages.

Do teams go for goals in their first two matches and then tighten the ship in their remaining matches?

Group markets can also offer some some great value.

Plenty of investigation to do! Have a great weekend and do try out the market reader strategy.