Terry Burke's life-long study of form and knowledge of how racing operates make this a thought-provoking book which intelligent punters will find invaluable. Whether you are aiming to make a living from backing horses or simply want to increase your profits from the bets you strike, this book will tip the odds in your favour.

Chapter headings and content:

Tool No.1 Don't Try to Pick the Winner
How to react when you first look at a card. The importance of assessing whether a bet is advisable before any consideration of analysing the runners.

Tool No.2 See Horses as Individuals
Horses are more than names on a race card, and their characters more than the form-figures and ratings. Knowing their key characteristics and needs puts you ahead as a punter.

Tool No.3 Find a Beatable Favourite
Why it is essential to oppose favourites and how to identify the ones to oppose.

Tool No.4 Understand How Your Brain Works
Why your subconscious is better at working things out than your conscious mind, and how this can be used in your betting.

Tool No.5 Use Statistics Sparingly
Why most racing statistics should be ignored, but which ones should form the basis of your betting.

Tool No.6 Assess the Jockey As Well As the Horse
Why the jockey should be as important as any other factor in your analysis of any horse's chance in a race.

Tool No.7 Use the Official Ratings, but Ignore the Weights
How to separate the issues of weight carried and ratings, and why the latter is much more important.

Tool No.8 Prepare to Back More Losers Than Winners
All punters back more losers than winners, even the most successful. Long-term profits come after accepting that and ensuring that you bet at the right prices.

Tool No.9 Concentrate Your Betting on Key Courses
Selective betting is often advised in the form of restricting bets to certain types of race. Here is an argument for focusing your betting on certain courses instead.

Tool No.10 Begin Each Race Assessment by Studying the Trainers
The trainers rather than their horses should be the starting point with each race you tackle. An explanation of why this is so.

Tool No.11 Know Why You Are Placing Each Bet
Why it is important to reflect on why you are striking every bet, and how stakes should be adjusted accordingly.

Tool No.12 A Checklist for Form Study
Advice on how to order your study of the form for a race, with a full checklist of the issues to cover.

Tool No.13 Adjust Your Order of Form Study for Different Types of Race
Three examples of a recommended order of study for different types of race - a two-year-old 5 furlong turf race in May, a 1 mile turf handicap for three-year-olds and upwards in August, and a two-and-a-half mile handicap steeplechase in October.

Tool No.14 How to Cope with the Losing Runs
Eight tips on how to live through the inevitable losing runs.

Tool No.15 The TV
The value of watching race re-runs and four things to look for when doing so. (Pace, Draw, Horses' Running Styles and Attitudes.)

Tool No.16 Watch the Horses, Not the Jockeys
Why our attention is drawn to the jockeys in a race rather than the horses, and why this is something to be avoided.

Tool No.17 How to Read the Results
Advice on how to create a mental picture of how a race developed from stage to stage through reading the full Raceform results carefully. Tips on what to look for.

Tool No.18 Simplicity
My own betting strategy reduced to four simple rules. The need for simplicity and clarity in developing your betting.

Tool No. 19 Embrace Uncertainty
Why the uncertainty seen as such a drawback in racing is in fact its chief attraction and how it should be used to make money.