So said John Wayne, all the way back in 1934 (apparently, he says after a quick Google search).

I’m pretty sure that ‘The Lucky Texan’, the film in which Wayne muttered these immortal words, was not a Hollywood take on the day to day action of some fella’s betting portfolio. But believe me, the phrase could very accurately have been used to describe the last week or so.  It has been ridiculously quiet at times.

Perhaps you are more acutely aware of a lack of action when you’re struggling and running at a short term loss.  It certainly feels that way.  I felt the pinch most last Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday when tipster after tipster declared they had no interest in the day’s racing fayre and were therefore keeping their “powder dry”.

Naturally we don’t want our tipsters to be forcing bets. Doing so is a ruthlessly efficient way of finding a shortcut to the poor house, but I have to confess I do get a little impatient at times, especially when I’m not winning any money!  A combination of low quality racing and poor ground conditions mean that at the moment value is about as scarce as intelligence in BT Sport’s football punditry team.

Yep, it’s all a bit of a grind at the moment.  Not much action, and what action there is proving to be unprofitable.  I guess these are the times that we have to go through and endure if we’re to enjoy it when the good times are a-rolling.  But bugger that philosophical view – I want some profit and I want it now!

AH Edge: Staked 44pts, -5.303pts, ROI -12.05%, ROC -8.83%.

Racing Service C: Staked 13pts, +3.135pts, ROI 24.11%, ROC 3.13%.

Football Service 1: Staked 19pts, -0.77pts, ROI -4.05%, ROC -1.54%.

Jason James: Staked 82pts, -0.951pts, ROI -1.15%, ROC -0.47%.

MVS (Lite): Staked 35pts, -8.833pts, ROI -25.23%, ROC -9.51%.

MVS (Multiples): Staked 59pts, -18.42pts, ROI -31.22%, ROC -4.6%.

Northern Monkey: Staked 57.5pts, -18.988pts, ROI -33.02%, ROC -23.73%.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 28.166pts, +13.866pts, ROI 49.23%, ROC 18.48%.

Racing Service A: Staked 26.25pts, +3.75pts, ROI 14.28%, ROC 6.25%.

Racing Service B: Staked 63pts, +15.137pts, ROI 24.02%, ROC 7.56%

January to date: ROI -2.54%, ROC -1%.

Just how wedded are we to our PCs/laptops/tablets, etc?  The days of actually having to put your shoes on, or at least not mind going out in your slippers, to go and put a bet on down the bookies feels so long ago now that they could be pre-war!

In the meantime, as I’ve come to realise this past week, we have become so dependant on our screens that it’s not funny.

My laptop finally did what it’s been threatening to do for about three years – go kaput.  It served me well,to be fair.  I remember buying it from PC World when the Manchester riots were just taking a hold, which a quick Google check has told me was back in the summer of 2011, so not far off seven years ago.  I hate to think how many bets I’ve put on using the darned thing since!

Anyway, it’s demise left me bereft.  I managed to commandeer my son’s for placing bets at least, but there was no way I was getting it for any longer than the minimum necessary.  I could have used my fatherly authority but I hate to think how that might have ended; probably with him not having a serviceable laptop either.

I’m very aware that there are a fair number of you who have emailed me over the past few days, so huge apologies for not getting back to you and bear with me as I’m in the process of getting back to you all now.

In the meantime, there have been one or two portfolio changes for 2018.  I’m bringing in Racing Service C, which has a lot going for it.  Strong performance, SBC ‘Hall of Fame’ member, long track record, and advising bets almost exclusively in bigger races.  Of course bigger races have stronger markets.  Stronger markets mean your bets aren’t so abhorrent to the bookies, and so bringing this service into the fold makes a lot of sense.

On that note, my aim for 2018 is to maintain my accounts and hold on to BOG.  I was pretty happy with my efforts on this front through 2017, but keeping the status quo is going to grow more and more difficult.

The other “newbie” is actually an “oldie”.  I get so many questions about how I follow Morning Value Service (Lite).  Many seem very interested in the methods suggested by the SBC whereby we back selections in multiples, so that’s what I’m going to do alongside my current strategy of backing each selection as a single.  It will be interesting to find out how it all goes.

So without any further ado, here are the results up to last Saturday.  I’m still in the process of catching up with all the results since the second worst thing to Armageddon hit – having to get a new laptop…

AH Edge: Staked 22pts, -3.116pts, ROI -14.16%, ROC -5.19%.

Racing Service C: Staked 4pts, -1.5pts, ROI -37.5%, ROC -1.5%.

Football Service 1: Staked 6pts, +1.835pts, ROI 30.58%, ROC 3.67%.

Jason James: Staked 42pts, -3.367pts, ROI -8.01%, ROC 1.68%.

MVS (Lite): Staked 16pts, -3.583pts, ROI -22.39%, -3.98%.

MVS (Lite/Multiples): Staked 30pts, -13.17pts, ROI -43.9%, ROC -3.29%.

Northern Monkey: Staked 28.5pts, -6.962pts, ROI -24.42%, ROC -8.7%.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 17.333pts, +11.541pts, ROI 66.58%, ROC 15.38%.

Racing Service A: Staked 14.25pts, +15.75pts, ROI 110.52%, ROC 26.25%.

Racing Service B: Staked 31.5pts, +6.112pts, ROI 19.4%, ROC 3.05%.

Total: ROI 12.5%, ROC 2.39%.

So was Father Christmas generous to you this year, then?

I’ve got to admit, I love Christmas.  You might think that with two kids, the joy of it all comes from seeing them happy, but nope.  It’s all me, me, me.  Give me a bit of booze, good grub and a few prezzies and I’m a happy man.  Sod the kids.  Christmas – the time for receiving.

We actually went away again, down to Devon for 10 days, and as always, it was really nice to get away from it all.  This year though, I did continue betting.  Didn’t really feel like much of a chore so why not?

Anyway, I’m back home now and the results have been brought up to speed and tallied up for the month.

The figures show a solid month with an ROI of 11.18% and ROC of 5.15%.

The top performer for December ended up being Jason James thanks largely to 22 points being picked up with three winning bets from three on the 27th including one at 10/1.  Lovely stuff!

Football Service 1 had a strong month too, although my figures actually do Stewboss a disservice.  For some reason, I didn’t get the emails covering bets over the Christmas period and having subsequently seen what I should have bet on, I missed out on about three points profit (to advised prices).  So what was a really good month could have been exceptional.

The other major contributor to the pot was Racing Service B who came good with a couple of big wins in the second half of the month.

The only tipster to have a bit of a stinker was Pilelist Racing but losses are only leant, I’m sure.

AH Edge: Staked 60pts, +4.289pts, ROI 9.14%, ROC 7.07%.

Chasemaster: Staked 17pts, +5.55pts, ROI 32.64%, ROC 5.55%.

Football Service 1: Staked 26pts, +7.84pts, ROI 30.18%, ROC 15.69%.

Jason James: Staked 89pts, +46.875pts, ROI 52.66%, ROC 23.43%.

MVS Lite: Staked 46pts, -2.75pts, ROI -5.97%, ROC -3.02%.

Northern Monkey: Staked 64.875pts, -1.71pts, ROI -2.63%, ROC -2.13%.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 24.638pts, -12.357pts, ROI -50.15%, ROC -16.06%.

Racing Service A: Staked 35.75pts, +3.45pts, ROI 9.65%, ROC 5.17%.

Racing Service B: Staked 58pts, +31.2pts, ROI 53.79%, ROC 15.6%.