Hey guys
Once again I just wanted to say thanks for grabbing the latest free NTF guides. I know there is a lot of racing guides being pushed at the minute so I appreciate you taking the time have a look at my ones.
I always try and offer up something different to the masses, because I'm sure you, like me, get bored of the same old same old dropping through your inboxes.
I also wanted to tell you a bit about myself and NTF as a whole, I don't want to be another faceless racing site, offering up false promises and spouting off the usual clap-trap. That stuff doesn't interest me and I've no intention of aligning myself with that crowd.
I'll be brief though (or try to be), I'm sure you've all got plenty on (and I've also got to go and walk the dogs shortly!).
So...
Who am I?
My name is Ben Aitken and I run NTF, just me on my own, running the ship as a solo flyer, as I have from the beginning (2009/10 season).
I'm a mid-late 30's Scotsman (emphasis on the late 30's!!!) living in Yorkshire with my wife and my three retired greyhounds. For the record none of them raced, we got them all from a rescue centre in Fife. Funny story about the two girls in our pack (Min & Lou), when they were in training they went for a time-trial, the traps opened, the other 4 greyhounds bolted out as expected, Min & Lou just stayed in their traps!!
Instant retirement!! Smart girls some may say. All told we've had six retired greyhounds. if you are looking for a rescue dog I'd thoroughly recommend a grey.
*keep reading by the way as at the end you will see what happens when your greyhound gets hold of something it shouldn't!
What is NTF?
The main NTF website is free to all and regularly updated with informative and in-depth blog articles and other racing info.
I look at racing from primarily a statistical view-point although that is mixed in with my own race-reading skills, which have been developed over many years (I was sneaking into the bookies in my home town of Elgin, North East Scotland, from the ages of 14/15, the rules in the independents were pretty lax back then!).
Every Tuesday of the National Hunt season I produce a popular 'What we learned from the weekend' blog post which pretty much does what it says on the tin! It's filled with trends, stats and pointers from the weekends racing just past and has become a very popular post for my many long-term followers.
There are also numerous other free posts that I produce, most statistical based although there will also be such items as horse notes/patterns and horses to follow sprinkled throughout.
How did it all start?
I've been a racing fan for a very long time, the first memory of racing was when my Grandad came to pick me up to look after me for the day and said to my mum 'I'm getting my hair cut today so we'll be there for the afternoon'...but we didn't go to the hairdressers, we went to the bookies!! Amazing! I was hooked right there! Thought it was fascinating! From there I became enthralled in the Grand National and then,
as mentioned already, I started sneaking into the bookies at an early age, well not sneaking as such, they pretty much welcomed me in!
I then went to study Graphic Design when I left school (after a stint working in the local bakery, where I would spend my morning break studying form and my lunch break placing my bets!) and that's where I started taking my punting serious, for the main reason that I had unlimited access to a computer and the internet so I could study the form, trends and stats like never before! Magical.
Still managed to pass my Graphic Design course but guess what? I pretty much used horse racing as my subject matter, EVER TIME! A ready made excuse for when the tutor came round to check my work... "On the Racing Post site again Ben?" "Of course, I'm doing research for my project!". Glory days!
True story - for my final end of year project I designed the full graphics for a made up bookie! Called it 'Eclipse Betting'. designed posters, flyers, logo's, the whole works. Even designed my own betting slips. I'll say it again; Glory Days!
It worked though, I was so deep in trends and stats and form and replays... that it transformed my betting no end. The Graphic Design qualification is a waste but my time spent on the course definitely wasn't!!
I wasn't fully there just yet though and when I got a 'proper job' (not in graphic design, I must add) I was still fully immersed in the racing world and I was continually looking for alternative analysis methods and different ways in to analyse a race.
That's when I discovered the Dosage Method.
Now I'm not going to go into that here, I don't want to bore you and the fact is I now don't use the method, it's run it's course with me, I'm done with it.
However, it does play a pivotal part in the NTF story as in 2009 I wrote a racing trends book called...
Narrowing The Field - Using the Dosage method to win at National Hunt racing
It was published by High Stakes Publishing and released in October 2009.
And I'll tell you what, it was damn hard work to write but it was a great experience!
Not only that, it allowed me to set up my first Blog to support the book.
A blog that turned into a website, which then evolved into the current NTF website.
So I'm now at the ten year mark of doing NTF on a full time basis...and it's been a quick ten years, I tell you that.
But it's been awesome, loved every minute of it and I've met some great people along the way.
And what's more, I still love running the website. Writing the analysis. Digging into the stats. Uncovering trends. Pinpointing horses and the conditions under which to back them.
There is absolutely nothing I love more than finding a horse with a strong performance pattern to it's profile, something I'll often highlight in the blog or in the free emails I send out.
I'm doing it for my own personal betting anyway.
I'm a constant and furious note-taker when watching the races live and when re-watching the replay's, often numerous times.
My wife regular finds scraps of paper round the house where I've jotted something down, I think it drives her mental, but you know...that's her problem, not mine!! 😉
And that's me, constantly with my head buried in trends, stats, replays, form...anything I think will give me, and NTF readers, an edge.
But I better stop there, I realise I've taken up more of your time than I intended (sorry about that!) but I just wanted to let you know more about NTF and, indeed, me, Ben Aitken.
I hope you enjoy and profit from the free guides and I also hope you stick around for the regular updates on the Free Blog, they are now back into their regular groove and there will be a new edition every Tuesday of the National Hunt season.
By the way, before I go, remember I mentioned we have greyhounds and remember I mentioned I wrote a race trends book?
Well this is what happens when one of your greyhounds gets hold of the very first copy of that book...
