When everything lines up for the class/form horse it is time to get your betting boots on.

A quote from Guest sometime ago I believe.

Well done to all those who filled their boots today with these 2 `sitters`.

Barney,

I guess you are one of them.

I was clearly wrong with regards Spirit Leader.

Its funny, many moons ago one of my methods was following fillies/mares in form.

Spirit Leader and La Landiere have clearly shown that its not a bad method is it ?



**** the ability rating and the class/form picture don`t look to bad after today ****

Cheers,

a lasting cheltenham memory for me, I am sure will be, The delight at having the form of 500 good horses in the one Paper, well done to the RP for their cheltenham form guide on monday.

DETERMINED
You may have been wrong about SL, but it says much about your own spirit that you were prepared to give it a go. The pre race discussion on this thread this week has been excellent, and you deserve a lot of the credit for that.
If I may raise the issue of weight again, SL's win today was far from the first time that class has triumphed over weight difference, and those who attributed her Pierse hurdle defeat to the weight carried, would need to ask themselves some questions,considering she won a
better race today, carrying 1lb more, than she did in defeat then.

Epiglotis/JIB

Another excellent day for the basic VDW approach. Ignoring the hunter chase:

2.00 - Mutineer, c/f, lost;

2.35 - Baracouda, c/f won;

3.15 - Best Mate, c/f, won;

4.35 - c/f? Guest thought Exit Swinger, I thought Vol Solitaire, but clearly a no bet race, as posted before the off;

5.10 - Le Coudray, c/f, lost;

5.45 - Spirit Leader, c/f, won. (And, I think, the c/f clearest of the 2nd c/f on ability of the whole meeting.)


Determined

I guess from your most recent posts that you hadn't read by 5.40 the post by Guest in December to which I drew your attention earlier.

You might also want to take a look at the Southwell race I mentioned.

JohnD - How do you make the County Hurdle a better race than the Pierse hurdle that Xenophon won?

The fact is Spirit Leader won in much better class last time and was consistently in form, so dropped in class today she was a form horse, the class/form horse in fact after non runners.

As others have noted the class/form combination helped narrow the field of vision from hundreds of horses over the 3 days to just a handfull of likely winners. From 10 races I bet in I got 5 winners, 3 2nds, 2 3rds and 3 unplaced staking on 13 horses. Over the week from Sunday I have backed the winner in 6 races from 12 and made a nice profit all due to the letters and articles written a very long time ago by a very generous unknown man going by the name of Che Van Der Wheil.

I have once more tried to draw attention to some of those factors that remain unseen by most VDW enthusiasts via my evaluations for this years festival. Short of writing a detailed essay on all the factors to take into account, I don't see what more I can offer. And as I have said many times I will never spell out what I have picked up from reading VDWs courses on winner finding.

Back in January I think, I said I was remaining silent on the board until Cheltenham when I would return with selections I fully expected to win and show a good profit. Much discussion took place in that time on the thread and I won't deny that on the odd ocassion I was tempted to make comment on one or two postings. I didn't though because I set the target for myself so that I could prove my points via winning selections in action at the highest level. Hopefully at the same time I proved the need for patience and temperament, two factors without which all else is render useless in the long run.

The last 3 days have provided some incredible racing to savour and several all time greats were on display in my opinion. However, when I come to evaluate a race with these horses in the future, my opinion will carry little weight. The facts in the form book will rule my evaluations just as VDW said they should. The puzzle is how to assemble these facts into a usable method of selection.

I hope everyone enjoyed the festival as much as I did.

Guest

Well said. There will be several contributors to this thread who have much for which to thank VDW, both generally and specifically in relation to the Festival.

And, equally important, we've also much for which to thank you. Some of us had struggled with VDW for years with only partial success. Others have come to his work more recently. But, irrespective of how far we are down the road individually, I'd be prepared to bet that we are all much further down it because of the time and trouble you've taken to provide insights to those willing to put in the hard work it takes to make progress.

guest, mtoto,fulham,statajack,johnd,determined, barney, crock,all,....i too would like to echo fulhams comments, since joining this board,the wealth of knowledge and ongoing discussion on van der wheils methods will benefit all members,keep up the good work,

Fulham - Thanks for your kind comments. I'm just glad some people feel they have gained something from the posts made.

I take it you also had a profitable festival, so well done there. From past correspondance and your posts on the thread, I'm pretty sure you now have a good understanding of how VDW was establishing form and how he balanced out this form with class.

Fulham,

here hear!!

your right about the hard work I am almost in real time now, instead of always looking back. VDW was a genius, oh how it must be to work forward.

Guest,


your still the daddy!!!!!!

dont leave it so long next time.

Guest
LOGIC. Perhaps you can prove me wrong?

A big thank you to all who posted the VDW ability ratings, it helped a lot.

Thank you Guest, by having the ratings I could follow what you were doing. I have to say my rating gave similar horses. Your examples showed how you worked, and there IS a difference between being out of form, and not a form horse. The main difference between us is you are happy to take a smaller return on investment. Of course there is still the weight thing, we will have to agree to disagree on that. I did go back and read the post as Fulham suggested. If I understood it, it did make sense as far as Spirit Leader. It will help me work out the examples. I have to say it made me rethink SL, I was wrong about her at Newbury (being too small) so I thought what if I'm wrong again. I backed her as she was the only horse in the race that had a rating, the ratings I borrowed from VDW. I also had to back Baracouda when he went to 5/2, thought that just about covered the doubts. I was pleased Best Mate won so well, a real champion. All in all a great meeting with some fabulous races.

Again thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread. I don't see how anyone can say the thread doesn't say anything, or hasn't moved on over the last year or so

Be Very Lucky

Guest,
Firstly congratulations on a highly successful Cheltenham Festival.
Secondly and most importantly my sincere thanks for the time and effort you have put into this thread.Studying your posts in conjunction with the letters and the examples old and new to which they refer has taken my understanding of VDW forwaed in leaps and bounds. Your efforts most certainly have not been in vain as Fulham and others have confirmed.I still have work to do but plenty of reference material to work with.

Thank You

Graham

Guest, Mtoto, Fulham , Determined, John D, and everyone who has contributed over the festival period I would like to give a big thanks to.
I feel I have probably learnt a lot more in the past few days than in months before.
You have certainly broadened my horizons in my thinking of the workings of VDW and helped to clear up some of those niggling little details that I couldn't.
Well done all, Mike.

JIB - I must say I made it long odds on that someone would comment on the amount of favs that won at the festival this year. All I can say is that yesterday I had to place some bets in bookmakers I hadn't been into for a long time. Being Gold Cup day it was particularly busy and all the old faces were still there.

When I returned to collect my money around 5.00, I hung around to watch the 5.10 race won by La Landiere. During this time there was much discussion between punters and staff owing to the fact that they had no money to pay out the many winning bets on not only Best Mate and Baracouda, but also the Foxhunters winner and shortly to be the mare. Most of the regulars were in high spirits at this thought with one declaring that the shop would have to cease trading this week.

The shortfall mean't I'll collect my money from another branch, but I left with a smile because I have seen these regulars betting patterns over the years and it's short odds that they will give any money gained this week back over the next few days or weeks. The difference is I know why VDWs methods made the horses I backed a good investment and why they will continue to make me money. The regular bookie contributors were just following the favs.

So, John don't take that as a self slap on the back, just the point that I know what you are getting at but it only applies to those betting in a haphazard fashion.

JohnD - Well if Xenophon had gone for the County hurdle you might have agreed, but then again maybe not. I continue to say that I base my balancing of form and class on what the facts in the book say and not opinion, especially not the handicappers opinion. The Pierse hurdle and the Tote Gold trophy are better class RACES than the County Hurdle, but that doesn't take into account the class of HORSES in the respective races. Until one accepts or better still proves this distinction that VDW made to themselves, the class/form picture will continue to be fuzzy.

By the way JohnD, with all due respect I think the asking questions of ones self should start with yourself if you really think weight played no important part in VDWs selections. It is literally spattered all over his bets especially in handicaps and it is both simple and logical and what's more it works. Not rules just a guideline though.

Guest

To underline your point to JIB, Ladbrokes' spokesman, Sean Boyce, is quoted in today's Post as follows:

"Have we lost money [over the Festival]? Yes. But, what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts and a lot of the money will go straight back into circulation" (page 14, column 1).

A realistic appreciation of the situation by a firm that has been around a very long time.