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Forget form - pick today’s Durban July winner on intuition!

Published by charl on July 31, 2010

IN this week’s Racingweb Newsletter, CHARL PRETORIUS writes that he is aware of the perils of horseracing’s so-called “gut feel” - the emotion experienced by a horseplayer when he randomly comes up with a ‘good thing’ from somewhere within his framework of knowledge and racing experience.

Even so, he advises that punters should pick Saturday’s Durban July winner relying almost purely on personal intuition.

Read on…

I believe I can safely argue that the Durban July is part of the fabric of South African society and that the 113-year history of the great race has left marks in the collective memory of the nation, however small.

If there was such a thing as a real ‘guarantee’, I would offer that in stating that every reader of this article can remember at least one July winner from the last 20 years. (Many will recite the last 10 winners off the cuff!)

I would go even further by saying that every reader knows a grandfather, a grandmother or an aunt who, at this time of year, will dig up a personal July memory and bug you with it! Even individuals with no more than a passing interest in racing can tell you something about the Durban July.

Have you ever heard a relative or a friend from an older generation say this:

“Your late grandfather got this tip one day. It was July 1971, I clearly remember. His friend at work told him to bet on Mazarin. I think the jockey was Bennie Hayden. But grandpa couldn’t get to the bank in time. He wanted to put 5 pounds on Mazarin, it was lot of money those days you know…!”

Not all of those facts recalled will be correct, but the point to understand is that the names and characters around the Durban July are entrenched in the collective subconscious of a significant section of our population. It will be that way for many generations to come. It will most probably survive South African horseracing itself!

What are the implications of this pshyco-babble for the punter who wants to pick the right horse in the 2010 renewal of South Africa’s greatest race today?

Perhaps these quoted passages from US-based racing expert Bill Peterson will explain to you what I am aiming at:

Intuition is the ability to make decisions based on subtle information that is not readily available to the five senses. Some people say it has something to do with the occult, but many other wise and learned people say it is your subconscious, a normal part of your mind that picks up on things your conscious mind doesn’t and then introduces that information in the form of a sense, feeling, mood, hunch, or whatever you wish to call it.

For instance, when you are looking at a race and using numbers and facts from past performances a lot of the decision making is pretty automatic, but there may be a time when you look at a race and get a feeling about a horse and keep finding yourself drawn to that runner even though you don’t know why. That is your subconscious mind trying to send you a message.

The subconscious mind is very powerful, according to researchers, and may control up to 90% of our daily thought processes. It is a part of the human mind that developed over thousands of years to take on the tasks that would e too much for the conscious mind so that the conscious mind was free to do the rational thinking.

(http://petersonspicks.com/)

Do you know, readers, that there are horseplayers in the US (and probably elsewhere too), who are employing hypnosis and transcendental meditation to access the vault of their brain which contains stored racing information.

Here’s a further interesting extract from the website www.deeptrancenow.com:

Stats can help you greatly in races where one or two horses have clearly much better past performance than the rest of them, but observing the horses can help you to get the information about the condition and the mood of the horse just before the race and even if you consciously do not know how to read the signals that horses are giving, your unconscious mind and supply an amazing amount of information and sometimes in very interesting ways.

The way this has worked for me is that sometimes just before the race, a song would begin playing in my mind which happened to have key words that related to a horse in the upcoming race. For example, I may hear an old song about a girl called “Cinnamon” in a race where the horse by the name “Cinnamon Toasted” was about to race - and win the race. To you, Intuitive information can come in many other way - you may have a gut feeling, or have an image of a winning horse, or someone may say something, but whatever happens, you’ll just know which horse to bet on.

(www.remote-viewing.com/slideshow/index2.html)

- Go to the link above, follow the brief instructions. It will take you only one minute.

NOTE: WHEN YOU CLICK YOU WILL SEE A SCREEN WITH SOME WRITING AND A SMALL IMAGE ON IT , ALSO A ‘NEXT’ BUTTON.

READ IT, CLICK NEXT UNTIL YOU GET TO THE FOURTH (4TH) SCREEN. PAUSE NOW!

It reads:

‘I am told that I will be shown a photo in exactly one hour and that I am to record my remote viewing perceptions on paper now.’

BEFORE YOU CLICK ‘NEXT’ ON THE SLIDE, CLOSE YOUR EYES FOR A FEW SECOND AND SCRIBBLE DOWN ON PAPER THE IMAGE THAT COMES INTO YOUR HEAD.

ATTACH A COLOUR OR COLOURS TO THE IMAGE, WRITE THEM DOWN AND THEN CLICK ‘NEXT’. (Force yourself to concentrate for just one minute, do the exercise and you might be surprised by the outcome!)

Studies on the power of the subconscious in predicting future events are coming up with interesting results. Research in the field of RV (Remote Viewing) shows that even individuals with no considered ‘psychic powers’ have been able to draw accurate predictions of specific future events from states of meditation or deep concentration concentration. (Remote Viewing, Or RV is the gathering of information, operating within a pre-specified protocol, from distant targets using intuition rather than the intellect or the usual 5 senses)

Most will consider this a load of absolute hogwash. Yet don’t write it off too quick. US Intelligence has already spent in the region of $20 million to determine potential military application of psychic phenomena. If in your entire betting history, you’ve won big on a “hunch”, or a “gut feel”, you’ve experienced an aspect of pseudoscience first-hand!

It is called “pseudo-science” because the results are not conclusive. Based on some research figures, however, this means that probably 60% of you will win a bet on your July gut feel today. The other 40% will have the same strong vision of one horse winning, but they will be wrong.

Ok then, all of the above is simply my way of saying that due to our vast treasure of shared Durban July memories, coupled with even basic knowledge of the current race conditions, there is really no need to study form for today’s race.

Here’s another guarantee: All of you reading this already know which horse you will bet on today! You haven’t made an in-depth study of the form, have you, but one name has been milling around in your mind for a few days now!

Right?

Even as a collective mass, we can’t all pick the winner instinctively. Only roughly 60% of us will be able to match intuition and deeply ingrained personal experience with the actual race form.

Those who can do that today will win, and feel extraordinarily powerful and wise.

No need to “thank your lucky stars”, or praise the “stroke of luck” after the race. At the time they cross the line, you will know very well how you selected your winner!

Cheers until next time!

PS: Oh, by the way. I have this gut feel about a horse in the July today… Lizarre. Number 15.

Headline photo is of Lizarre, in full cry

*PLEASE ACCESS YOUR TABONLINE TOTE ACCOUNT VIA THE RACINGWEB TOTE AND PLACE A BET ON THE ONE DURBAN JULY RUNNER WHOSE NAME KEEPS COMING BACK TO YOU. GIVE IT A SHOT! YOU HAVE AN ABOVE AVERAGE CHANCE OF WINNING! CLICK HERE AND BACK YOUR FEELING!

RACINGWEB’S EXPERTS SELECT:

Charl Pretorius: LIZARRE, FORT VOGUE, BOLD SILVANO, RIVER JETEZ

Alec Hogg: BOLD SILVANO, RIVER JETEZ, ANCESTRAL FORE, RUSSIAN SAGE

Rob Zackey: RIVER JETEZ LIZARRE, ANCESTRAL FORE, RUSSIAN SAGE

SUBSCRIBE TO RW NEWSLETTER: Click here.

RACINGWEB WEEKEND PODCAST WITH CHARL PRETORIUS AND ROB ZACKEY: Click here.