My background

It was hard to believe back in 1983 the impact that my first ever computer - the revolutionary Sinclair ZX81 - was to have on my future career. It co-incided with my growing fascination of horse racing and the mathematical challenge of selecting winners, which in truth proved much more thought-provoking than the maths taught in my home town of Darlington.

Whilst the limitations of the ZX81 were obviously, er, limited and indeed primitive in todays world - I soon realised that the computer was a perfect aid for punters - and horse racing an ideal sport to be computerised - with its huge database of results and statistics.

My first computer program to pick winners was picked up by BBC Radio Cleveland who broadcast my three best bets of the day on their breakfast show and attracted a lot of interest at the time. Following a successful week of 12 winners out of 15 the news spread nationally and The Sun were quickest off the mark with a story about The Computer Kid of Darlington. I supplied them three tips which they printed in the paper on page 3 (!) - AND ALL WON !! The next day I was front page headlines in The Sun. That led to numerous TV and radio appearances, a trip to Australia and still being called The Computer Kid some 24 years later !!.

In the many years since then I have been lucky enough to continue to combine my horse racing and technology interests - working for the Racing Post, Sporting Life, attheraces and the quickly pulled-up The Sportsman amongst others.

I've maintained my private computerised handicap over the years - and continue to refine and improve and look forward to sharing my daily thoughts with you on this new blog. Hopefully, plenty of topical chat - a race a day to discuss and a profitable series of bets. I'll be cross-referencing my bets daily against Betdaq and hope to provide a strategy that can be profitable for us all.