About Turf Deli

Introduction

Turf Deli provides detailed form guides as well as light hearted articles of questionable sanity.

There are no claims of easy money, get rich quick schemes or stock image photos of grey haired retirees relaxing and enjoying a sound financial future.

There is also no selective memory when it comes to publishing results.

Everything is available, for free, for better or for worse for every meeting covered for over ten years of operation.

What is provided is argumentative, critical and of course, extremely opinionated form analysis for the serious form students, broken up with witty banter galore for the casual Spring Carnival Punter.

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A Brief History of Time – and Turf Deli

Turf Deli commenced back in 1999, in the murky depths of last century, where people spoke in a strange language called Analogue, and dial up internet access was cutting edge.

This website was started out of utter desperation because of the lack of analytical racing information available.

Newspapers provided the only race commentary. The best that was normally available was generic copy and paste comments on each runner that was as informative as ‘Keep Safe’ and even sometimes bravely went as far as ‘Have To Improve’ or ‘Hard To Beat’. With hard print publishing deadlines days before hand, it often meant that come race day, the race commentary available was out of date, bland, generic and really close to useless.

The other options were tipping services that charged exorbitant amounts for what seemed like just a list of numbers with no reason or explanation - and even less explanation when you tried to review any sort of results history to make your own judgements.

So we started up the website based on the way we did the form. Analysis and criticize, work out how the race is likely to be run, how the track is likely to race, who is going to be suited, who is not, and look for reasons why a horse can’t win, rather than trying to give every horse a chance.



What We Do

We rigorously avoid the over hyped unbeatable horses touted by radio, TV and the newspapers. No horse is unbeatable (insert BLACK CAVIAR exclusion clause here…)

We prefer to tag horses as a bad bet or not likely to win rather than declare one-out good things.

We prefer to find horses at backable odds and really there is no fun in backing $1.50 favourites even though they make your winning strike rate look oh-so-impressive.

We actually point out that certain short priced horses are unlikely to win. Do you ever read anything critical of the favourite's chance in a newspaper form comment ?

Betting on the racing is about taking a calculated risk. So what is provided is an argumentative and critical analysis of a horse's chances, which is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Yes, we do get it wrong sometimes - we admit it. We also get it very right sometimes – and gloat endlessly about it.

What is more important is that an opinion is formed that quite often will vary from the status quo.

Since the boom of the internet detailed form analysis has become more readily available and there are now literally dozens of websites providing race previews and selections. But we are unique – because none of the others are coloured blue. And none of the others highlight the sense of humour that only a punter can have.

We are also committed to keeping all our content free, having a full history of results available, and being open and transparent. Any punter knows to approach tipping services with a degree of caution and yet continuously new services pop up with questionable reporting methods or results, or paid services that charge exorbitant amounts – and just as quickly disappear. Even some of the larger websites when you look closely at the results you can find tricks in reporting to make the results look better than they are.

Finally, the punt is also about having some fun. You don’t need to invest huge amounts, you can have an interest stake and hope for a big collect. You have to approach betting with a sense of humour. There is a lot of room for a laugh, so there are plenty are ramblings here for the casual reader who only attends Spring Carnival, as well as the more serious racing fan.

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What we Provide

Turf Deli is for racing fans of all ages and all levels, from those once a year Spring Carnival lawn picnickers, to those who open the morning paper straight to the racing results to see if they got the quaddie at the Dapto dogs last night. That sentence sounds so very dated. Let's go for - those who check their iphone TAB app first thing in the morning to see if they landed the quaddie at the South African gallops overnight ?

We run a Spring Campaign every year, commencing in August, and ending in November for the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival covering all of the feature meetings during that time. Commencing in 1999, we are now into our difficult teen years of operation and hopefully will hit puberty any day now.

During our Spring Campaigns we send out our weekly newsletter on the day before the race meeting. These will include detailed critical form for the main race of the day, selections for all races, along with suggested bets, and maybe a silly word or two if the moment takes us in the form of one of our Spring Racing Previews. It is a great way to fill in some time on a lazy Friday arvo at the end of the working week.

You must Sign Up to our mailing lists to receive the weekly newsletter via email before race day.


For the casual punter :

We aim to de-mystify the world of horse racing (much in the ilk of World’s Greatest Magic Tricks Revealed and other high quality programming). The weekly newsletters are full of plenty of whimsical observations about a day at the races and on the punt which anyone who attends can relate to.

Plus there is a set of tips you can follow for the day - or at the very least stand back and mark off the results and see how we went if you like to play school teacher. Using the weekly betting portfolio of suggested bets even the most cautious first timer can experience the thrills’n’spills of quinellas and trifectas like a pro.

The track guides for each course are full of totally useless nonsense tinged with the slightest element of factual advice to make sure you make the most of a day at the races.

Check out some examples :

Everything you need to know about going to the races during Cup Week in our Flemington track guide.

Our weekly newsletter having a look at the 150 years of the Melbourne Cup.

Having a good day out in the Betting Portfolio at Stakes Day 2010

For the seasoned punter :

For those who know how to read a form guide, our tips are backed up with opinions and discussions. We actually back up our thoughts on a race with a detailed and very critical analysis of each horse's chances. Even if you don’t’ follow the tips, or agree with the analysis, the critical summaries of the main race of the day is a useful tool for keeping on top of the form.

Plus our Horses To Follow section includes a list of ones to watch as well as a most useful archive of track racing conditions on feature race days going back over ten years. This content is unique to this website and not available anywhere else.

The Results Summary tracks how the tips are going - we have nothing to hide.

Check out some examples :

Making PINKER PINKER 1st W=$20.30 our Best Roughie and potting the chances of short priced favourite HELMET in the Cox Plate 2011.

Finding SANGSTER 1st W=$14.80 as a confident top pick and each way bet of the day in the VRC Derby 2011.

A sensational over all Spring Campaign 2010 .

There are over 10 years worth of tips and feature race previews in the Form Guide archives so have a look and judge for yourself.

If we have not convinced you yet, how about just bloody well signing up anyway – it’s free and you have nothing to lose.

To join the free punter's mailing list Punting Gurus , simply fill out the form on the Sign Up page.