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When the sun sets, the Moonee rises in Australia

22 September 2022 Peter Webb Comments Off

At this time of the year on Friday evenings, or Friday mornings depending upon which parts of the world you’re in. We enter a new period in the racing calendar. At Moonee Valley in Australia they start scheduled Friday evening meetings and we open with a bang with a Group one race and various other group racing this Friday. 

For me it marks the end of one Betfair trading season and the beginning of another. 

A setting sun

In the UK since May I’ve been going all guns blazing to do my best on the UK racing and we’ve also been spoiled with a lot of high profile quality racing and the evening racing. But as we go through September all of the flat turf courses begin to cease of the all weather courses begin to come online. And we sink into the winter. 

I realise that some people like flat racing, some people like jumps racing. People like different markets for a variety of reasons and for different markets there are different people and strategies. After all, a betting exchange is a diverse place full of opportunities to find. But the sheer quantity of markets that we have available to us in the summer means that this is the time of peak earning potential for me. 

The very first time I went through this cycle, Winter seemed to like a bitter disappointment. There was less racing smaller fields lower prise money fewer peaks and it just appeared to me that my earnings were going to drop. Which is exactly what they did. 

However, on the discovery of Australian racing, I began to realise that the end of September marked the opening of another peak period. It was similar to the UK summer racing. Apart from it was right around the other side of the world in the land of the great barrier reef. So the evening racing starting at Moonee Valley allows me to head towards a new peak, but just in a different geographic location!

Moonee Valley rising

We’ve already had some group racing taking place in Australia, but as we head into October some of the big racing really begins to start. The signal for me is when we get the Group One racing at Moonee Valley on a Friday evening. We still have races like the ‘Everest’ to come. But also, and more importantly, the Melbourne Cup which takes place traditionally at the beginning of November. 

Of course this is logical, because while we begin to suffer poor weather and cold temperatures in the UK things are just beginning to warm up in Australia. This can act as a nice supplement to my trading when the UK begins to turn down somewhat. Of course, one of the big problems that you have is Australian racing takes place overnight. 

There is no easy way to get around that particular problem because, obviously, it’s in a completely different time zone in a completely different part of the world. But there are a number of mitigating factors. 

Australian racing schedule

Most of the racing that takes place during the week isn’t particularly strong. You find that the Australian racing peaks on a Saturday, like most sports in the UK and the rest of the world. But there is also a minor peak Wednesday when better quality racing makes its way onto the card. But it’s seasonal as well. 

We have a nice uplift o activity on the run-in to December and then things die off a bit before returning again in February. That more or less sees us through to the start of the flat turf season in the UK. So it makes for a nice supplement to the UK racing even if the time with the racing takes place isn’t particularly helpful.

Trading Australian racing

Over the many years that I’ve been actively trading on Australian racing I’ve been able to take forward basic strategies that I’ve used in the UK use them in Australia, but that has also allowed me to transplant that knowledge and capability to automation.

Lots of the Australian racing takes place just after midnight and goes on into the early hours of the morning UK time and you can usually catch the tail end of the card just as we are beginning to wake in the UK. 

Where I don’t feel the urge to get up in the middle of the night to actively trade, I can just let automation do it for me. That’s one of the huge benefits of automation, the ability for it to be active in markets that you can’t be active in, or perhaps on this occasion don’t want to be active in. Trading software like Bet Angel, of course, is full of these features and has made it easy for me to translate ideas into fully automated trading strategies that I use in Australia.

However on a Friday nights from now until March you will also catch some racing taking place at Moonee Valley and perhaps a couple of other courses scattered around. So that does give you an opportunity to get a taste for Australian racing. Even if you’re working on UK time. 

It’s important to note however that Australian racing does trade differently to UK racing so it’s worth familiarizing yourself with that until you decide to commit to actively trading it seriously. Overall volumes are much lower than the UK, so rate at which the market matches bets is also different. But that’s fine, you just have to adjust your trading style.

Summary

I’ve been successively trading in Australia for a number of years and I find it a very useful supplement to my lesser activity in UK markets during the winter. I pulled out some very good results from Moonee Valley in the past and from Australian racing in general. But it very much depends upon the nature of the card, the quality of the racing and the types of races.

That said it’s probably something you should explore. Especially around the peak races and peak season.