In 1998, I created a program called Parlay Magic. You see, in NSW there was a bet type called Parlay. IAS calls this bet type Yankee. Unfortunately, TABs in different States call a bet Parlay which isn’t a parlay. When I refer to a Parlay it will be as stated here and here only. A Parlay is simply a combination of all up bets spread over four races. Here are the combinations. A Parlay always costs eleven times your bet.
ONE FOUR HORSE ALL UP
FOUR THREE HORSE ALL UPS OR TREBLES
SIX ALL UPS OR DOUBLES
Mathematically, the result of a Parlay is betting 60% of your money for your first set of bets into each of the next legs. You need $110.00 to cover the above bets for a ten dollar unit so 60% of $110 is $66. If you had a $5.00 winner you would now have :
$110 minus $66 = $44 plus your $66 X $5 dividend =330 +44 = $374.00
You now bet 60% of this, $224.00, on your next leg which wins at say $3.00.
$374 minus $224 = $150. $224 x $3.00 = 672 + 150 = $822.00
On the third leg you will bet 60% of $822, $493.00 and this wins at say $4.00
$822 minus $493 = $329. $493 x $4 = 1,972 + 329 $2,301
On your fourth and last leg you bet 60% of $2301, $1380. Maybe it won at $6.00
$2,301 minus $1,380= $921. 1,380 x $6 = $8,280 + 921 = $9,201
You can clearly see that if the fourth leg selection had failed, you would still have $921 in your Bank, a profit on the series of $811 after we allow for our initial outlay. Also, had we lost both the third and fourth legs we would still have $329 from our winning double on the first and second races, a profit of $219.00. None of our winners were outside the top four in our betting, so the result is a real possibility. I once personally made over $7,500 from a $55 parlay in 1999.
So what is the difference in using the parlay manually or instead using the TAB? Tablimited, allows you to use win bets or place bets but not each way bets. It also specifies that all bets be at the same meeting. Most of us would want to use our best chances on a given day and these might be spread across three or four meetings. On April the 10 th, our selection plan Saturday Flyers had bets in four races.
The first of these was at Caulfield, Rinky Dink, which won at $7.00
The second bet was at Eagle Farm, Rojah Silver, which won at $10.00
In Perth there were two selections in one race. Plea Bargain and Noble Touch which won at $5.80.
Then at Caulfield there was Tall Timbers which won at $3.70
Using our formula above and a starting bank of $110 we would have $66 on Rinky Dink.
$66 X $7.00 = $462.00 + $44 (the balance of our starting bank) = $506. Our next bet is 60% of $506, which is $303 leaving $203 intact.
$303 X $10 = $3030 + $203 =$3,233.00 Our next bet is 60% of $3233, which is $1,940, leaving a balance of $1,293.00. Because we have two selections in the next race we simply split our stake. We have $970 on each horse. If we wanted to we could have dutch bet the two horses to get the same return. For this example we’ve simply split.
Our result is $970 x $5.80 = $5,626 plus our balance of $1293. We now have $6919.00. We invest 60% of this on our next horse, $4151 leaving $2768 even if we lose.
Tall Timbers won, so $4,151 x $3.70 = $15,358.70 +$2,768 = $18,126.70 or a profit of $18,016.70 for the day. If only it happened everyday.
The above was a rare example as Saturday Flyers often has just two or three bets per day. If this is the case you could simply place the first day’s bets and carry on the next week. Can you see the potential here? I use Parlay Magic with multiple dutch bets using up to three or four horses in each leg. I also use the Parlay Magic program to roll parlays one after the other to maximise my chances. You see, the hard part about parlays is that to do really well, you need to get four results in a row. Any two winning races in the four is usually enough to make a small profit, three is nice and four is a bonanza.
In a series of ten races you get seven possible parlays.
Races 1,2,3,4 Races 2,3,4,5 Races 3,4,5,6 Races 4,5,6,7 Races 5,6,7,8 Races 6,7,8,9 and finally Races 7,8,9,10. There are many other combinations of course but you have to stop somewhere.
Here’s the initial Parlay Magic screen on July 28 th 2004. I have selected $110 as my Bank and Parlay Magic has entered this into every series so my seven planned series requires $770 altogether. I’ve pressed the recalculate button and the box on screen tells me my first outlay, which is in Sandown Race 3. In this race I have used my top two rated selections, Moksha and Papa Demus and saved my stake on Evil Master, the $2.50 favourite. Using the dutch bet program, I had $25 on Moksha, $15 on Papa Demus and $26 on the favourite. Moksha won and paid $6.62 for a return of $165.50. I divide my outlay of $66 into this and get a dividend of $2.51. I enter this into the Parlay Magic Screen.
In Balaklava Race 3 we bet our first four rated horses and saved our stake on the fourth of those which was paying $2.00. We had bets of $12, $45, $40 and our saver was $95.00 on Ownership which drifted in the betting, and we ended up with a $2.50 dividend. $2.5 X $95 = $237.50. We divide by our total bets of $192 and get $1.23 so we actually achieved a small profit.
We have entered the dividend and pressed recalculate which now shows us $143 for series one, $75 for series two and $66 for series three or $284 in total to be wagered on Warwick Farm Race 3. In this Race our top selection is an odds on favourite so I invested the lot on Turandot, which unfortunately lost. Here’s the new Parlay Magic picture. Notice we have entered a zero in the result box.
Our bets are now $57.50 for series one, $30 series two, $26.50 series three and $66 for our new series four.
At Eagle Farm I have four horses rated as chances and will make a small profit with a winner. My second rated horse wins and our return is just $234 for the $180 outlay, a dividend of $1.30 but a return and that is the key. Every time you get a return, you increase your chances of a complete winning series.
After this result we have $210 to bet and series one is now complete. Looking across the top we have current bank, returns and total bank. Because of our one loser and poor dividends we have made just $3.00 on our first series.
Our next bet was at Sandown Race four and we bet three horses, including Bella Jinsky and our return for $210 was $684 or a dividend of $3.26. Our next bet was $478. Looking at the opposite picture you can now also see the returns for series two which is a profit of $29. We bet three horses in Belmont Race 1 and our top rated horse won at $4.40 for a return of $1025. Dividing by our $478 outlay we get $2.14.
Our third bank has ended with a profit of $95.00 so nothing spectacular yet.
In Balaklava Race 4 I bet only our top rated horse Bellona and it won at $2.40 closing series four and giving us $808 to bet in the next race. On the bottom of the Parlay Magic screen you can see total outlays of $2,967 and returns of $4,143, a profit now of $1,176.
At Warwick Farm I bet my top horse Binaway and the next two horses, Kings Touch and Don Raphael were rated equal second. My bet is $576 on Don Raphael, the eventual winner and the return is $3,168 for a dividend of $2.69
Note that the outlay is now only $656 because we are now on our final series of bets. Series six closed with a profit of over $1,500. Unfortunately, we lost the next race at Eagle Farm and we are left with a mere $98 on our next race, Sandown Race 5. Fortunately, our top three rated horses are showing a good return and we have $46 on Birak Attak which pays over $13 on IAS. Our $618 return represents a dividend of $6.30, which is our last entry in the Parlay Magic program.
You can see our final results with our bets totalling $3,722 and our returns $6,934. Our profit for the day is $3,212 which is a good day’s work. Only two of our series resulted in four winners but several had doubles and trebles. At the very least you can have fun and on the right day you can make a good profit. I am happy to bet more than one horse per race because the best results are achieved with four winning races, no matter how small the dividends, and with a good run of dividends you can win a small fortune on a single series.
You can also, if you wish, bet each way or for place only, if that suits you. The main thing is that you divided your return on each race by your outlay on that race and enter the result of that calculation. If you have an incomplete series on one day you can also save that file and reopen it on your next betting day.
You can print out your results and this is what we got for this one.
Parlay Magic: Report created on 28th July 2004
Series 1:
Opening Bank: $110
Bet 1: $66
Return on this bet: $165.5
Bet 2: $125.5
Return on this bet: $154.5
Bet 3: $143
Return on this bet: $0
Bet 4: $57.5
Return on this bet: $75
Series 2:
Opening Bank: $110
Bet 1: $66
Return on this bet: $81
Bet 2: $75
Return on this bet: $0
Bet 3: $30
Return on this bet: $39
Bet 4: $35.5
Return on this bet: $115.5
Series 3:
Opening Bank: $110
Bet 1: $66
Return on this bet: $0
Bet 2: $26.5
Return on this bet: $34.5
Bet 3: $31
Return on this bet: $101
Bet 4: $73
Return on this bet: $156
Series 4:
Opening Bank: $110
Bet 1: $66
Return on this bet: $86
Bet 2: $78
Return on this bet: $254.5
Bet 3: $184
Return on this bet: $394
Bet 4: $310
Return on this bet: $744
Series 5:
Opening Bank: $110
Bet 1: $66
Return on this bet: $215
Bet 2: $155.5
Return on this bet: $333
Bet 3: $262
Return on this bet: $629
Bet 4: $482
Return on this bet:$1296.5
Series 6:
Opening Bank: $110
Bet 1: $66
Return on this bet: $141
Bet 2: $111
Return on this bet: $266.5
Bet 3: $204.5
Return on this bet: $550
Bet 4: $411.5
Return on this bet: $0
Series 7:
Opening Bank: $110
Bet 1: $66
Return on this bet: $158.5
Bet 2: $121.5
Return on this bet: $327
Bet 3: $245
Return on this bet: $0
Bet 4: $98
Return on this bet: $617.5
Total Opening Bank: $990
Total Current / Final Bank: $4202.5
Total Bets: $3722
Total Return: $6934.5
Return Per Opening Bank Dollar: $4
You’ll notice some figures from our example have been rounded. There’s nothing wrong with the net result though. The total opening bank is not correct as we had only seven series for $770. Parlay Magic allows you to set various combinations; on a double all up the outlay is actually $990. The week of September 20th to 25th was good for Winform and Parlay Magic. The best return for the week paid over $9,000 on Tuesday the 21st. On Wednesday of that week I made $1557 but lost $800 on Thursday and $900 on Friday.
C PLAN WORKOUT
As an experiment, I decided to run through the C Plan on the same basis as above. I figured that with a strike rate of 50% winning races, I had as much chance of a good run of winners as a long run of losers. The level stakes profit was good and the Money Factory workout was better but when I ran through the results using Parlay Magic, the results were extraordinary. The profit on turnover came to better then 30% and the initial outlay was only $110 per race for a total profit over the three months of $14,975 or approximately $1,247 per week and this is only betting Monday to Friday.
Here we risk no more money than betting level stakes at $110 per race but when we get a run of winners we can get an excellent return. It is the opposite of loss chasing and really, it is only a good option when our strike rate is near 50% or more. To make a profit parlay betting with a strike rate of say 33% as per the A Plan, for example, would result in too few good runs of winners to make it worthwhile. On low strike rates a parlay bet is for spare money only.
At this stage, I might point out that to operate most of these plans you do need to be watching the races and observing the expected dividends. That might seem to some to be too much work or it might also be the case that you simply can’t spare the time because you are still working. If this is the case then I think you might have to consider analysing the form instead. You can do this the night before and then simply adjust your selections in the morning if that is necessary because of scratchings and track conditions.
I guess the point is that, one way or the other, you have to commit some time and energy to Racing if you want to make a go of it.