The Protege System – Final Review
After carefully reading this system, I was excited by its potential. It is based on some good fundamentals and ideas where you are only concentrating on horses that are connected to those who are continuously successful in investing in top quality thoroughbred horses and training the best horses and winning the most prize money.
The theory is that these people will always have their protégés, which are going to be initially un-exposed but be of high quality and can be a star in the making. These horses will start out by winning maidens and conditions races at big prices and then go on to win even bigger prizes.
The author of this system lays out everything in a clear and concise manner. He tells you exactly what races to bet in and gives you a defined list of Trainers and Owners etc and recommends that you use this exact list with some other criteria to pick your selections for the day. Picking the selections is quite easy and straightforward and you cannot really go wrong with it as it is black or white; its either a selection or its not.
The problem is that there can be a lot of selections in one day. For example on a Saturday or on a big days racing there could be more than 40 selections but on a midweek day or a Sunday if racing is generally of a poor standard, there maybe only be 3 or 4 selections but there will be some selections almost every single day. At first, it will be very time consuming but as you get to become familiar with all the trainers and owners etc, you will actually be able to pick selections quickly and automatically without consulting the list. The great thing is that you can do this the night before or even 2 or 3 days before if you wish (but doing this means that some of your selections will end up being non runners). So although it can take up a bit of time, if you plan ahead you can make time to sit down and pick out your selections well in advance. You can also place your bets on Betfair using Betfair SP the evening before the days racing so it is practical if you work during the day.
While I was testing out this system, the author released an adapted version. The reason for this is that he had received feedback saying that punters either didn’t have the time or were not comfortable backing so many selections. The new adapted version is based on a more selective approach and largely reduces the number of selections. Based on last years flat season it actually increased your profit percentage and return on investment. It made an overall less profit than the original system but as there were 900 less selections over the entire season with this new system version – you would have made more per selection for a lot less time and hassle.
If you are reading this – im sure it is because you have read advertisements that this system has made over 700 points to SP over the 2008 flat season and 1100 points to Betfair SP. Now the way the system is designed this can be checked; the author cannot hide or manufacture results. He gives you more detail of the previous results included with the system and you can go back and check them out and any results that I have looked at – I can verify as true.
Now here comes the part that you are waiting for – with the amazing profits this system made over last year’s flat season – how successful has this system been for me this year? The answer is – Not very successful I am afraid. Im sure you have anticipated this as you are no longer receiving emails and post advertising the great profits the system is making. After receiving an advertisement on May the 7th 2009 saying that the system has made 73 points already from May 1st to May 7th I then started testing on May 8th and recorded results based on betfair SP until June 30th 2009. Im sorry to say that the system actually lost 154 points during this time this is despite some great winners at a betfair sp of 54, 36, 32 , 23 ,22 and 21. It also had numerous occasions where there horses placed 2nd with huge odds of 30 or 40 but with the sheer number of selections you probably would hope to be hitting these winners. But there were some occasional cases where you could get a winner at 6 or 7 to 1 but still make a loss on the race as there were 7 or 8 selections in that race. Even if you take into account the fact that the system made a profit of 73 points in the first week of May – it is still a loss of 81 points over 2 months.
On the up side! The new more selective version actually broke even between May 8th and June 30th and there is still potential there for good profits. In the month of June the more selective system would have made you 23 points based on 191 selections for the month. Again based on that first week in May before I began testing, it may have made a small profit in May as well.
My final thought is that this system seems to underline the statement that past results do not indicate future results. It worked tremendously well over last years flat season but seem to be failing miserably this year. Just because certain trainers and owners etc had some fantastic amount of winners last year at big prices – it does not mean that this year they will have the same success.
My thinking is that this could easily turn around again in July and there could be potential that it could have a great summer but I would be very wary as even backing at £10 a point the losses could mount up before you find that big winner.
Therefore I could only recommend using the more selective approach, which will be included with the main system if you purchase it. It is so much easier and quicker to operate and there will be plenty of days with no selections and it is less risky. Last year from June to November by using the selective system you would have made over 500 points but what the last 2 months have proven is that by using that as a basis, it does not really give any indication that the same will happen this year.
It is really for you to decide if you want to go by the incredible results the system produced over 7 months last year versus the poor results over 2 months this year. If you do decide to buy – I hope that things turn around for you and you have more luck with it than I did.
Rating: 2/5 – The system may have some merit but in my opinion it is not reliable enough to use in the long-run and is one to avoid.
