We recently did a post looking at who is the best football tipster, which provoked quite a bit of interest and debate among you, our visitors.
So we thought it would be a good idea to have a look at who is the best horse racing tipster.
We have reviewed hundreds of horse racing tipsters here at Honest Betting Reviews, subjecting each one to a live trial here on the site. It’s a very competitive category with some elite talent to choose from.
Below we take a look at the best of this talent in our list of our all-time top 15 horse racing tipsters, based on their long-term performance.
Top 15 All-Time Best Horse Racing Tipsters
Okay, let’s move on to looking at our all-time top 15 horse racing tipsters. These are the tipsters who have done well not just in the short term, but produced exceptional profits over a number of years, proving their mastery of tipping over the long term.
This list is based on our extensive testing and research, carried out over the last seven years of running this website. Who has come out on top? Check below to find out!
Please let us know if you think there are any we have missed off this list that deserve to be on there.
15. Sporting Life
The Sporting Life is one the longest-running tipping services in the UK, having previously operated as a newspaper but now running solely online.
Their main racing tipster for quite a few years was Ben Linfoot who ran their Value Bet column, but now they have a team of tipsters including Mark Howard and Tony McFadden providing ante-post tips, Chris Day with weekend tips and David Massey with tips during the week.
The Sporting Life’s overall tipping record is excellent, with over 3,800 points profit made since 2003 up until the time of writing. A good portion of that has come from horse racing and a large share has also come from golf.
What’s more, the tips are free which is great and they don’t tend to suffer from the same incredible pressure as tips from the likes of Hugh Taylor and Pricewise.
You probably won’t make quite the same profits as following some of the other tipsters on this list with the low volume of bets, but the Sporting Life is still a solid tipping service and is worthy of a place on this list in our view – particularly as it’s free.
14. Steve Lewis Hamilton
Another name synonymous with horse racing tipping is Steve Lewis Hamilton, who is one of the old pros who has been around the game for many years and has established a deserved reputation as an honest, successful professional punter.
Perhaps a testament to his roots in the pre-internet days of tipping is the fact that Steve still provides his tips via a phone line. Now whilst we would ideally prefer Steve to provide his tips via e-mail or a website log in, it should not detract from the quality of his tipping or his record over the years.
His main “Private Service” generated over 650 points profit between 2008 and 2014 at a return on investment of 35%, which is an exceptionally high rate of return. That was supplemented by his “Exchange Service,” which has made over 250 points profit since its inception in 2009 at a strike rate of over 50% and an ROI of over 20%. So all in all you are talking about 900 points of profit over a seven year period, which is most commendable.
Steve is also one of the few tipsters to subject himself to live proofing on both television and to a major newspaper study. A few years ago, the Observer ran a year-long investigation to see if gambling could be a legitimate form of investment and whether the average punter could make a profit following his tips.
Well the answer to the two questions of the Observer study was in the affirmative, big time. Steve amassed 113 points profit, or £11,345 to advised £100 stakes at a return on investment of 48%. The Observer adjudged it “a master class in tactical, value betting” and dubbed Steve “Britain’s foremost professional backer.”
Steve has also appeared on BBC and ITV features on gambling, proving each time his effective betting skills and doing his public profile no harm. All in all, he comes across as honest and successful, which is rare in the world of tipping. For consistency achieved over a long period, Steve ranks alongside the best in the game and is deserving of a place in the top five in our view.
Secrets of his success: In Thoughts and Secrets of Successful Punters, Hamilton says he forms tissues which are basically his own view of the prices horses in a race should be. To do this, he first reduces races to contenders and non-contenders. Then “it is down to form study and looking at how the race will be run, the conditions and who it will suit and then allocating prices based on this.” Interestingly, he says with the advent of Betfair, you have to be aware of a price that is considerably higher than it should be – it may be due a reason that isn’t general knowledge. If he and trusted colleagues “agree on a price and it’s twice that on the exchanges, then the alarm bells start ringing.” Again, it looks like a combination of hard work and forming your own prices are the key to successful punting.
13. Tom Segal
No account of the top racing tipsters in the game would be complete without mention of Tom Segal, aka Pricewise from the Racing Post. Gaining his education at the same school as our editor in chief Dan (a coincidence you may ask?), Tom Segal has amassed an army of loyal followers after years of successful tipping in the Racing Post.
Much in the same way as Hugh Taylor and Laurence Lambourn, such is Mr Segal’s popularity that it is very tough to make a profit from his tips. As soon as the tips are released, prices crash to a fraction of their advised level, particularly on long shots. It wouldn’t surprise us if the bookies pay a premium to the Racing Post to get the tips a few minutes early so they can cut the prices in advance of the avalanche of money that will shortly descend on one of Pricewise’s selections.
Although the Racing Post don’t publish a detailed record of Tom’s results, whenever he has been proofed to other publications he has consistently made a profit at a return on investment of over 20%. Few who have followed his tips for an extended period would question how good the Racing Post’s tipster-in-chief is.
It is also arguably a tougher job that Segal has than most other tipsters as he is expected to tip in the big races as part of his job in the Racing Post to satisfy punter demand, so does not necessarily have free reign to select only the races he wants to tip in.
But there is certainly a great thrill from following one of his juicy 20-1 tips at one of big race meetings and cheering it home alongside thousands of fellow punters who have also faithfully followed Pricewise’s tips in that morning’s edition of the Racing Post.
Secrets of his success: In The Secrets of Pricewise: The World’s Number One Tipster Revealed, Segal talks quite a bit about the value of trainers and jockeys being underestimated by punters. Talking about master trainer John Gosden, Segal comments “If Gosden is running a horse in a Royal Ascot handicap that’s only won a stupid maiden at Southwell or somewhere, people will say ‘that one’s got an awful lot to find on the form book.’ Yes, it might have an awful lot to find on the form but it’s also trained by John Gosden. He’s got 150 horses, he’s won this race countless times before and he knows exactly the level of horse he needs to win it again. So for Gosden to be running it is a tip in itself. You might get 10/1 about a horse when it should really be a 5/1 shot.” Commenting on jockeys in Thoughts and Secrets of Successful Punters, he asserts “I strongly believe they are the most important factor in any race after the ability of the horse.” Finally, much like just about all of his colleagues on this list, Tom says he watches past races many times over to find his selections.
12. Laurence Lambourn
He may look slightly sinister in this photo, but rest assured that Laurence Lambourn is a renowned and highly respected tipster – and seems like a thoroughly decent chap in all the correspondence we have had with him. A former senior computer operator with Lloyds TSB, Laurence turned to professional gambling about 20 years ago. He set up the website Equine Investments in 2003 and over the next 10 years amassed over 1,000 points profit at an ROI of 30%.
In 2013, the tipping service was switched to a performance-based service as quite simply the tips had become too popular and it was virtually impossible to make a profit. Much in the same way as with Hugh Taylor’s tips, as soon as tips were released, prices would absolutely plunge, making it quite frustrating for subscribers to the service.
The idea of the performance based subscription was to split subscribers into two smaller groups – one that would receive tips on a daily basis (or most days anyway) and the other just on weekends and during festivals, where prices would hold up better.
Since going to this model, the service has continued its excellent form and continues to produce the same very high ROI and the problems with prices have been mitigated to a certain extent, particularly with the weekend/festival group.
Much like Hugh Taylor, Laurence’s great strength is his level of consistency. He has never had a losing year since the service began, managing at least 15% ROI every year for the last 13 years.
Those who have been in since the beginning and backed at £100 per point would be over £100,000 in profit now, presuming they had been able to obtain somewhere close to the advised prices. Not bad going for a few minutes work each day.
Such excellence does come at a price though. The current subscription cost is £825 per cycle, with each cycle being 30 points of profit – so if you were betting at £100 per point that would be £3,000 of profit.
And if you want to join the service, you have to go on a waiting list as it is currently full. Places do become available, but you normally have to wait a good few months.
For consistently excellent results over a hugely long period – getting on for 13 years now – there is nothing to quite rival the achievements of Equine Investments.
If you can afford the subscription fee and don’t mind a bit of a wait to join the service, this comes highly recommended.
Secrets of his success: In the highly educational Thoughts and Secrets of Successful Punters, Laurence says he uses the Racing Systems Builder database to generate his positive and negative factors about horses, which he then uses to get the shape of a race. Like Hugh Taylor, Laurence spends hours studying videos of past races. From there he estimates his true odds for the contenders and looks for any horse that is priced 30% or more above his true odds as a potential selection. On advice for us punters, Laurence says “it’s all about the prices. Perhaps try and come up with prices for your fancies and stick with them. If the prices don’t appear then leave the bet.” Sounds like good advice to us from one of the very best in the game.
11. Hugh Taylor
It is difficult to argue with the record of At the Races tipster-in-chief Hugh Taylor. Since he began tipping over twelve years ago, Hugh has managed a whopping 3,324 points profit at a return on investment of over 30%.
That works out at 255 points profit per year on average. And that hasn’t been achieved in just one or two great years and then some blank ones. He has managed to make at least 60 points profit each year since he started tipping, with his best year being 2009 when he racked up a mind-boggling 500 points profit. Last year he made 281 points profit which was an excellent effort.
What one has to bear in mind with Mr Taylor is that the vast majority of his tips are one point win bets, with the occasional one point each-way bet. So there is no crazy staking system to make the results seem better than they actually are.
There are generally just one or two bets per day as well, so we are not talking about a service that requires a huge turnover to generate its profit either.
This is quite simply just a well-oiled value-finding machine. Going on for over twelve years at nearly a 30% ROI is something even the great hedge fund managers in the City could only dream of.
Now sadly there is a small snag to all this brilliance: it is damn hard to make money following Hugh’s tips – as we found out in our own review of Hugh Taylor Tips! Even Hugh acknowledges this himself, saying that you should only back his tips if you can get 80% of the advised price.
Secrets of his success: Hugh says the main tool he uses to analyse form is Computer Timeform, commenting “it remains an excellent guide to the merits of past performances and it provides a very good overview of a race in terms of ratings as well as the interpretative comments on each horse’s past performances.” In addition Taylor says he also uses the Query feature of Raceform Interactive for statistical purposes, but that his most potent weapon is studying videos of past races. In fact he has an archive of 6 months worth of races stored on DVD – so no shortcuts to success for Mr Taylor it seems!
10. Bet Alchemist
As mentioned above we place great importance on a tipster’s longevity and one that has stood the test of time very well is the Bet Alchemist.
Run by a chap called Nicky Doyle, the service has been running since 2012 and the total returns stand at just over 640 points profit. That would be just under 80 points profit per year, or around £4,000 profit at £50 stakes.
It is actually possible to beat the advised prices as they tend to quote generally available prices rather than best price, which is not something all tipsters do.
In our own trial the Bet Alchemist made a nice 38 points profit at a return on investment of 26%, which is more than respectable.
Where the service really comes into its own is around the big festivals, particularly Cheltenham, where Nicky has a penchant for picking out big-priced winners at prices of 25/1, 33/1 and more.
It’s quite a simple service to follow too with most of the bets coming at weekends and the bigger race meetings.
All in all then there’s a lot to like about the consistency and reliability of the Bet Alchemist, one well worth adding to the portfolio.
9. Racing Intelligence
Coming in next in our rankings is a service that is a little different to most of the other tipsters on this list and that is Racing Intelligence.
That’s because the tips don’t come from studying form, stats, trends, or any of the conventional means normally used by tipsters. Instead they come from an “insider” who works at one of the UK’s top bookmakers. This insider gets to see where the smart money is being placed and then passes that information on to members.
Now typically we would be skeptical of any claims like this of having “inside information” but the results actually backed up those claims very well in our own live trial, when they made a superb 192 points profit at advised prices and 76 points profit at Betfair SP (BSP).
Looking at the long-term results they compare with the very best, with over 1000 points profit made at advised prices if backing each-way and 500 points profit at Betfair SP.
That profit has come at a return of investment (ROI) of over 12% at advised prices and over 10% at BSP, with a strike rate of 37% if backing each-way. It has also been very consistent, regularly making over 100 points profit per year.
With top quality results like these then, Racing Intelligence might go about things a little differently to other services on this list, but it should not be overlooked if you are looking for one of the best horse racing tipsters out there.
PLEASE NOTE: no new memberships to Racing Intelligence are currently being taken (as maximum membership numbers have been reached).
To put your name down on a waiting list should places become available, please email Matthew Walton direct at matthew@matthewwalton.co.uk with the subject “HBR Member – Racing Intelligence.”
8. USA Racing Tipster
Despite the popularity of racing in America, it is perhaps something of an oddity that there aren’t more top tipsters specialising in US horse racing. That may change now that racing is being legalised in many US states, but for the time being there is something of a dearth of them.
However, we have managed to find one that stands out and that is a service known as the USA Racing Tipster. We have been following the tips for a number of years now and can vouch that it is a top quality tipping service. For our live trial it has made just over 90 points profit to date.
The total gains for the service overall now exceed 390 points profit at advised staking (or 490 points profit at level staking) with over 51% ROI at advised stakes and 56% ROI at level stakes.
Those ROI figures are some of the highest we have come across in any sport, not just horse racing. That is over a nearly three-year period so is clearly no fluke either.
Sometimes in life – and particularly in tipping – people can become victims of their own success and that has unfortunately been the case here to some extent. Prices tend to get hammered after being sent out as members rush to grab the odds, meaning it is tough to match the advised prices. A good spread of bookmaker accounts is vital if you want to follow this service, as well as the ability to act very quickly once tips are sent out.
That doesn’t mean you can’t still make a profit from this service even if you don’t always obtain the advised prices however – it just means you may end up with slightly less profit than the official results.
In any event you can’t fault the tipster for the exceptional results achieved. At the moment they don’t have a website, but if you are interested in joining, please e-mail us at info@honestbettingreviews.com and we will provide details of how to sign up.
7. Racing Consultants
One of the first tipsters we reviewed here on this site back in 2015 was a service called Racing Consultants.
It did very well in our initial trial, making 135 points profit at advised prices at a return on investment of 34%.
Since that time it has continued to go from strength to strength and the total profits now stand at over 1,000 points. That puts it up there in an elite band of tipsters.
The tips are provided by Rory Delargy, who racing enthusiasts may know from the Irish Daily Star where he is a writer, or from Timeform Radio and William Hill Racing Radio where he has been a commentator. Another tipster, David Massey, used to also be involved in providing tips but it has been just Rory since 2017 and the results have remained just as good, if not better, with him as the sole tipster.
All the selections come with detailed write-ups and you can see that Rory really knows his stuff and spends many hours on form study.
It has clearly paid off for him and makes Racing Consultants one of the premier tipsters out there.
6. Always Back Winners
We like a service with a catchy name and this one gets straight to the point! Always Back Winners is a service that has been running since 2015 and focuses on flat racing, both on the turf and all-weather.
The tips are provided by a chap called Gary, who is an ex-owner and is privy to certain information regarding so-called ‘triers,’ (or horses that have been set up to perform well on certain days) which has resulted in many notable successes. He believes value selections at odds of 8/1 plus will win out in the long term over backing short priced ‘lumpers.’
This approach has proved very successful for Gary, with the total profit since starting up now standing at over 1015 points.
In our nine month live trial of Always Back Winners they returned a highly commendable 105 points profit at a 21% return on investment and with a 42% strike rate.
Since our trial was completed they have continued to churn out the profits, with another 150 points profit added to date.
They also like to do £1,000 to £10,000 challenges, whereby 2.5% of the bank (or 1.25% EW) is risked on each bet. On three occasions – in 2015, 2017 and 2020 – they have hit the £10k target which is quite exceptional.
So this tipster probably qualifies as an “unsung hero” and deserves much more acclaim than it has got. Certainly Always Back Winners merits being ranked up there as one of the top racing tipsters out there.
5. Back Lucrative
When talking about the very best tipsters out there, there are only a handful that have managed to amass over 1,000 points profit in their careers. Even fewer have managed to break through the 1,500 point barrier, but one such tipster is Back Lucrative.
Run by a chap called Michael Carr, Back Lucrative have been tipping since 2013 and are one of the most respected names in the business. Their total profits stand at 1547 points made, which equates to £15,470 at £10 per point or £77,350 at £50 per point.
We conducted a live trial of Back Lucrative and they finished with a total return of 180 points profit for their “Value Tips,” which is top class tipping.
Michael at Back Lucrative is constantly innovating and has set up a number of spin-off services. Two of those are Flat Flyers and Hidden Winners. We ran live trials of both and Hidden Winners in particular did well, amassing 61 points profit at advised prices.
One of the aspects of the main Back Lucrative service we like is there is a minimum profit guarantee, whereby if they don’t make 100 points profit over the course of the first year of membership, they will refund membership fees. Can’t say fairer than that really!
We don’t many (or any) services that offer such a guarantee, so Back Lucrative should be applauded for that and for their long-term results over the course of coming up to 10 years now.
4. The Outside Edge
The Outside Edge is a tipster from the Betting Gods network of tipsters and the picks are provided by a guy called Darren. He summarises his strategy as liking “to take a two-pronged approach which is why I send two sets of tips each day. I send my first few tips the evening before – this is where I capture value in the markets. I then send a second round of tips in the morning of racing where I look at market trends to grab some final value for you.”
That approach has worked very well for him so far, with a profit of over 600 points made since he started tipping in December 2019.
The average monthly profit has been very good at just under £200 per month to £10 per point stakes and there has been a good winning monthly ratio to date. The performance was also strong during our live trial of the service, during which it made 269 points profit.
In terms of the return on investment, that has been decent at over 9% whilst the strike rate is solid at a shade under 30%. Those are more than respectable figures to have sustained over the course of more than two years.
If The Outside Edge can keep those kinds of numbers going over the long-term then they may well be promoted higher up this list.
3. Hanbury Racing
A relative newcomer to this list compared to some of the longer-running services in these rankings but one that has caused quite a splash since going live in 2020 is Hanbury Racing.
It is based at the Mega Tipsters platform and has a penchant for picking winners at huge odds of 100/1 and more!
The total profit to date stands at just over 1,300 points profit, which equates to over £13,000 profit at £10 per point stakes. The strike rate is respectable at 19% but the return on investment (ROI) has been exceptional at 43%.
The tips are provided by a guy called Richard Hutchinson, who you can see from his write-ups really knows his stuff when it comes to horse racing. He won the Tote Ten To Follow Jumps competition 2020 and has even had a runner in the Grand National.
During our own trial of Hanbury Racing it lived up to its billing, producing a very handsome return of 238 points profit at a return on investment (ROI) of 27%. They managed to bag a 100/1 winner during our trial, one of the biggest winners we’ve ever had in a horse racing trial here at Honest Betting Reviews.
It’s been a fantastic couple of years as a tipster for Hanbury Racing and if they can keep up results like those it may well move up even higher in our rankings.
2. Loves Racing
At number two in our list is a service that could easily win the award for best-named tipster. Loves Racing is run a chap called Brett Love (see what he’s done there?) but it’s not just in the name that this tipster is a winner.
Mr Love comes from a family of horse-racing professionals – mainly on the bookmakers side however – so was already closely involved with the sport. When his own career as a professional footballer was cut short by injury, Brett decided to take up the family profession. His role though was on the other side – that of professional gambler.
He has shown an exceptional talent for it too, being particularly adept at picking high-priced winners in large handicaps. There have been numerous 50/1 shots landed by Mr Love in such contests.
Whilst Brett started off just providing his tips to a group of private clients, he became a public tipster in 2017 and has been taking the bookies to the cleaners ever since, making over 900 points profit in total.
In our own trial Loves Racing performed very well, making 84 points profit at advised prices. Since our trial ended it has continued to excel, adding another 160 points profit with plenty of high-priced winners.
One of the specialisms of the service is in festivals like Cheltenham and Royal Ascot, where Brett has a very strong record and really focuses hard on producing additional profits for members.
It’s also a simple service to follow with bets normally coming just at weekends or those big festivals, meaning it’s less work to follow than some other tipsters. All in all Loves Racing is a top tipster with plenty to like – or love – about it!
1. The Bookies Enemy
At the top of our rankings of the best horse racing tipsters is The Bookies Enemy. This is a long-running service that has established a formidable reputation, particularly in recent times with over 300 points profit made in 2022, with a return on investment over 40%.
The name “Bookies Enemy” is well-earned, with the tipster Gary having been a professional punter – and giving the bookies a good hiding – for over 20 years now.
Why does it achieve such high acclaim from us? Well it ticks every box in terms of what we look for in a tipster.
First and foremost the returns have been exceptional, with over £22,000 profit made to £25 per point stakes since joining the Betting Gods tipster platform in 2017, with considerable profits made before that at their own private tipping service.
Secondly the strike rate is rock solid at 19%, which when coupled with a return on investment (ROI) of 15% are some of the best stats you will see from a tipster over the course of five years.
Thirdly the consistency has been excellent, with a high ratio of winning months and every year so far having been profitable.
Fourthly it is a reasonably simple service to follow, with just a few bets per day and tips normally posted the evening before racing, with plenty of time to get the bets on.
The Bookies Enemy also performed very well under our live trial, making over 104 points profit in a three month review.
So there really isn’t much more you could ask for from a tipster than to produce these kinds of results over such a sustained period. The Bookies Enemy comes strongly recommended and fully deserves his place at the top of our rankings.
Factors We Looked At
In compiling the above list, we took into a consideration a range of factors, including:-
Return on investment (ROI) – this is a useful yardstick for judging tipsters against each other, telling you how much they would return from every £100 (or dollars, Euros etc) staked. In horse racing anything over 10% is good, whilst over 20% is considered top notch.
Strike rate – also known as win rate, this tells us how often the tips produce a return. The strike rate in horse racing is generally lower than in football as the odds tipped at are higher. A higher strike rate means losing runs tend to be shorter and the bank can be maintained more easily.
Profit/loss (P/L) – usually expressed as points or units, this gives us the raw figures of how much profit or loss a tipster has made.
Betting Bank growth – if you started off with £1,000 bank for example, how much has it grown in a year – has it doubled, trebled or even more perhaps?
Longevity – most important of all is whether a tipster can perform over the long run. Any tipster can do well over a short period of time, but that could just be luck. To be sure a tipster actually has an edge over the bookies you want to see they can produce profit over the course of many years. The longer the tipster’s record is, the more sure you can be that their success isn’t just down to luck.
So those are the key factors we look at when judging a tipster, but not the only ones by any means. We take a broad view, combining all of these factors and others to determine who the best tipsters are.
Conclusion
So there you have it, our complete guide to the top horse racing tipsters out there. Please let us know if you think there are any we have missed.
Like this post on the best horse racing tipsters? Well you may also like our guide to free horse racing tips, which contains a list of top free tips you can get hold of now.
