Hey
I always try and offer up something different to the masses, because I'm sure you, like me, get bored of the usual stuff dropping through your
inboxes...
I also provide weekly Handicap Sleeper notes on the FREE NTF Blog, the latest copy going live on Tuesday... you can pick those up HERE>>>
But to the main reason for this email...
I 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...
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 right from the start (2009/10 season)... which seems like a lifetime ago now!!
I'm a mid-40's's Scotsman living in Yorkshire with my wife and our retired greyhound. For the record, we didn't race her... but turns out she was a damn good racer! She won something crazy like 20 of her 40+ races... but she's now a sofa-monkey... spending her days dreaming of past glories...
All told we've had seven 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?
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... especially in the relative backwaters of NE Scotland!)...
Every Tuesday of the National Hunt season I produce a popular '3 to follow 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...
During the flat season that Tuesday post switches to the 'Handicap Sleeper Notes'... which again has
proven to be extremely popular over the past few seasons...
There are also numerous other free posts I produce, mostly statistical based, although there will also be such items as horse notes &
patterns and horses to follow sprinkled throughout the year...
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 absolutely
didn't go to the hairdressers, we went to the bookies!! Amazing!!
I was hooked right there and then! Thought it was fascinating! He also used to run a football sweepstake at his bowling club, which I
used to help him with... well sort of help him... I was probably more of a hindrance... but it was great fun all the same...
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 with open arms! Probably because I was still 'learning my trade'... which, naturally, was easy money for them!!
I then went to study Graphic Design when I left school (after a stint working in a local bakery, where I would spend my morning break studying form and my lunch break placing my bets! I used to see local football celebrity Stevie Paterson in Ladbrokes most days! You should read his autobiography... Oof! A talent wasted was that boy...) and it was whilst studying Graphic Design that I started taking my punting REALLY 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... loved it...
I 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 was a waste but my time spent on the course (Graphic design course AND sometimes racecourse!) 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...
So I'm now at the 16 year mark of doing NTF on a full time basis...
...and it's been a quick 16 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 members/readers, an edge...
But I'll stop there, I've probably 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 recent Handicap Sleeper Guide 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 (of Weekend Handicap Sleeper Notes) every Tuesday of the Flat/Summer season...
By the way, before I go,
remember I mentioned we've had numerous greyhounds over the years 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...
