LAY BACK WITH BETFAIR: FORM & MOUNTING YARD ANALYSIS WITH TRAV & NICK NOONAN

Racing has been in the Noonan family’s blood for generations.

David Noonan was a stud manager and trainer in the early 90s, and days at the races through those years came with a pair of keen youngsters in tow.

Sons Nick and Travis were born into racing, and the passion has grown into careers spanning nearly every aspect of the sport.

From race calling, to mounting yard analysis, to punting and form, the brothers have become trusted and respected voices on racing across radio, tv and print.

“We were definitely born into racing, it was not something we chose necessarily.” Travis said.

“Dad was a stud manager for a fair period of time in the early 90s. He dealt with At Talaq who won a Melbourne cup in 1986.”

“During that time mum worked at Pat Hyland’s stables. That made sure we were involved in racing from a very early age.”

“I asked mum, and she said I watched my first race at about 6 weeks old.”

Brother Nick shared a similar perspective.

“I was keen on footy when I was younger. When I got to 14-15 with footy at two o’clock I decided I’d rather watch the races.”

“I half remember going to Mornington when I was three or four and we had a winner,” he added.

The brothers reflected on moments from their early days that further fed their drive.

“I would have been five when the Sunline/Northerly rivalry happened around that 2001 spring. I remember watching those with real intent,” Travis said.

“It was never a question we wanted to own horses and race in our family colours with dad. Our first win was on Cup day but at Echuca.”

“In the early days I was a big Elvstroem fan. I went to the Australian Cup when he beat Makybe Diva. And also Lonhro’s Australian Cup the next year,” Nick added.

“I was really in love with the horses we owned and would travel around for their races.”

The brothers have travelled different paths through the sport, with Travis cutting his teeth as a race caller which is where his biggest passion lies.

“I’m a free agent for hire,” he joked.

“I’m still race calling which is a massive passion of mine. I think I’ve reached a point where I’m competent at it. But getting opportunities in Victoria is very hard.”

“Over the past two years I’ve done a lot of form analysis for RSN, doing major race days and jumping on air.”

“Those jobs can also be few and far between. You might be very busy one week and not so much the next.”

“I had a really good grounding at Racing.com as well,” Travis said.

For Nick, time spent at the track with his old man gave him a keen eye for horse presentation. This grew into mounting yard analysis which goes hand-in-hand with form.

“Growing up and going to track work, early days I thought I was going to be a trainer. But assessing and learning off Dad, how horses present, and how they look in their prep. So, I started going a bit more through racing.com and was filming the yard and got talking to people and it went from there,” Nick said.

“I have landed a bit of a role with RSN as well. Form wise I do a bit of Tasmanian form with Racing.com. I do a bit of mounting yard stuff on Wednesday and Saturdays to my subscribers.”

“I tried to return to footy which didn’t go to plan so gearing up big time for spring.”

When it comes to assessing form, both brothers use their professions to enhance their punting and vice versa.

“I approach a meeting I’m calling in much the same way as if I was doing the form. For a Victorian meeting it might be five-six hours of form. Not necessarily all at once. I use form king racing and some punting form stuff. I cross check it with replays and my personal thoughts. Things I might like about runners,” Travis said.

The brothers spoke about the balance between the use of data and what your eye is telling you.

“The value in data comes in interrogating the data. Don’t take a rating at face value. This runner produced a high rating because the fast tempo allowed him to rocket home. Can he do similar off a slow tempo? I don’t subscribe to data or the eye being more right than the other. You really need both. The successful ones are definitely using both.” Travis said.

“I use punting form. I look at the data and see that ‘ok it’s gone fast here’, so I watch a replay and think ok he was held onto the whole time, or he was never in it,” Nick added.

“You do need to watch the race and sometimes on a replay you don’t even need data. But pretty much everyone I know mixes both,” Travis said.

“I don’t think people should take a bet purely off a rating without watching a replay.”

“The edge now comes because the market is so heavily weighted to the rating of the last run.”

“It’s another valuable tool. And you can learn so much from BSP’s, late market moves and where the late money goes. I love the BSP feature most. I am generally against favourites, and I’m usually trying to find some of that value. You frequently find something that is $21 on the corps and it has a $36 BSP,” Nick said.

“There are definitely times I see a horse in the yard and think “This can’t win” So you take the option to lay it on the Exchange.”

“Yard is relative to price as well. If it has a negative and it’s $3 it’s a lay. But at $6 it might still be a back.” He added.

“The gulf between good tipping and good punting is huge. You need to know how to bet properly, not just tip the result,” Travis analysed.

“The value is the key. The amount of options you have are extremely important.”