PROLOGUE(TLDR): I’m one of the many PCT 2020 NOGOs. My naivety and hubris made me embark on a beautiful but testing journey that took me 816km(507mi) from the sandy shores of the Atlantic Ocean through the heart of the Pyrenees crossing France, Spain and Andorra to finally arrive at the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The hardest 23 days I’ve ever done didn’t so much test my body but shake my mind. After the report follows an extensive gear section including a cottage gear jacket which is the first of its kind. But first some facts and stats to put it all in perspective.
What: The Haute Route Pyrenees (Pocket Guide Version)
When: 1st - 24th of September 2020
Total Time: 22 days and 22 hours (includes one zero)
Distance: total: 816km(507mi) / daily average: 35,6km(22,2mi) / daily max: 45,78km(28,45mi)
Vertical Gain: total: 49336m(161864ft) / daily average: 2153m(7063ft) / daily max: 2880m(9449ft)
Route: Map with waypoints of the HRP
Photos: 77 Pictures
Gear: Spoiler: 10.75lbs including a mirrorless zoom lens camera setup
Instagram: I’m posting photos with additional info on how climate change is affecting the Pyrenees. Surprise…it's quite severe. Follow along to find out more.
Strava: My daily itinerary including some clutch camp spots
Conditions: Daily highs at the start were around 23°C(73,5°F). Daily lows towards the end were around 6°C(43°F). Coldest nights were around 2°C(35,5°F). Very mild overall. Mostly sunny. Some days completely foggy, especially at altitude. A few outliers that brought in heavy winds coupled with rain. It hailed for a few minutes once. Luckily missed all the snow which started falling a couple days after I passed certain sections at the end of my trip.
Additional information: The HRP is an unofficial route which crosses the Pyrenees and can be hiked either West- or Eastbound. The trailheads are Hendaye, France (Atlantic Ocean) and Banyuls, France (Mediterranean Sea). The HRP has some sections in common with the GR10, GR11 and GR12. There is a Cicerone guide available. I chose to follow the Pocket Guide route by Paul „Whiteburn“ Atkinson. His guide keeps higher and crosses more Cols (passes). For every difficult section and Col Paul usually has an alternate which is easier and passes through more valleys for additional resupplies that should be considered in bad weather. At this point I have to thank Paul, who put an incredible amount of time and knowledge into his guide and provides it to us completely free of charge. Thanks Paul! If you are ever in Hamburg I’ll buy you a beer. I chose to do the whole route without any alternates and stay high. On his website you can find GPX files for all sections and PDFs for both directions with detailed route descriptions and resupply options.
For navigation I only used GAIA Premium with all French and Spanish IGN maps downloaded. This would eventually bite me in the ass. But more on that in Chapter 3 of my report.
The trip report will not be structured by days but by sections between resupplies.
Feel free to skip any part. I know this trip report is way too long and I guess it’s more for me to remember. But maybe you’ll find my journey interesting enough or use it as a reference for your own future Pyrenees hike.
If you have any comments or questions, ask away.
TRIP REPORT
Chapter 0: Hamburg - Hendaye
Wait, doesn’t the HRP start in Hendaye? Yeah well, bear with me for a minute. The adventure started before I even arrived at the trailhead. I wanted to reduce my carbon footprint a bit and chose to take the train down to Hendaye from Hamburg, Germany. The whole journey should have taken 14,5 hours instead of 5 hours by plane and a quick bus ride. Well, the German and French train companies had other plans and decided it would take me 30,5 hours instead.
I had been waiting inside my train in Hamburg for 30 minutes before the conductor announced that the train had some defect and would not be taking me down to Paris. Good start… I quickly rebooked my journey to Paris but had to rebook my train from Paris to Hendaye directly in Paris.
F*ck it. Let’s give it a shot. Little did I know that the train down to Hendaye had already been cancelled by the French.
The next train thankfully took me to Paris. While trying to find the metro station some guy on his bike abruptly stopped and started talking to me in french and pointing at my back. Once it was clear that I was oblivious to what he was saying he thankfully switched to English. He asked me if I was an ultralight backpacker and showed me his X-Pac pack on his back that a friend of his had made. I was carrying an X-Pac pack I made as well. So we got to talking and I told him that I was going to be stranded in Paris for the night and didn’t have a place to stay yet. He generously offered for me to stay with him and his mom who he was visiting. We exchanged numbers and decided to meet up later as I had to rebook my ticket for the next morning.
The three of us spent a lovely evening having dinner and talking about all things life. Thanks Ulysse for approaching a stranger on the street. I appreciate your friendship very much and I hope we get to hike together soon! Hiking and ultralight has yet again proven how well it connects people.
The rest of the “approach“ went smoothly and I arrived the next day at 12:30pm in Hendaye.
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Chapter 1: Hendaye - Lescun - Day 1-5
Before starting I obviously had to take a dip in the Atlantic Ocean. The water was lukewarm. Would the water be as pleasant on the Mediterranean Sea three weeks later? I wasn’t sure if I’d find out… After being quite excited for the trip something shifted two days prior to leaving Hamburg. A tight feeling in my chest settled in. I lost all excitement. I didn’t want to go anymore. This feeling would not go away for the first couple of days out on trail. I never had that problem before on any of my other multi-week trips…
My pack was way too heavy. Last year my kit was hovering around the 7lbs mark but after adding a few luxuries and finally settling on a proper camera it was more around 10lbs. Doesn’t make a big difference to me. But I really screwed myself on the food I took for the first few days. Unfortunately, I’m really lazy when it comes to planning my food for trips so I went no-cook. I went to the grocery store an hour before it closed the night before leaving for Hendaye. I just grabbed some stuff I thought I’d like not looking at the g/Kcal food lists I actually had from past trips. I grabbed two heavy-ass glass jars containing PB and Hummus. What was I thinking!?! Glass jars…
I thought the food I bought would last me 3 days… It lasted 6.
Okay, let’s start walking!
Starting at 2pm, I left Hendaye behind me pretty quickly. The vert didn’t wait to introduce itself. Right away you do some steep ascents on forest roads and then out of nowhere you are bushwhacking through some thick brush. The vegetation is very lush and green in the Basque Country. Water was scarce though and my 2 litre capacity was depleting rather quickly in the heat. The first time I managed to find water was around 7pm from a kettle pond. I threw in two of my Micropur tablets and continued the ascent up to Larrun. For the first time I was close to 1.000m(3.300ft) above sea level. After the descent south of Larrun I found a nice meadow. I imposed one restriction on myself for this hike. No night hiking like I usually ended up doing. I just didn’t want to miss anything.
The night was mild and clear. I decided to cowboy camp. A decision I regretted due to all the horses with bells around their necks grazing around me. Whenever I heard a bell come closer I’d jump up and look around me. I was scared shitless of being trampled to death. That would not be the only night I was accompanied by that fear but the last I cowboy camped…
The next two days were more of the same, occasionally passing through a little village of ancient stone-walled houses. I met a dutch hiker, Gun, who was carrying a ÜLA Catalyst. He was a bit skeptical regarding the ultralight approach. I shared my troubles getting into the hike and not being in the right mindset. He knew the feeling and said I should give it a couple more days and hopefully find my groove. I was skeptical but what was the alternative? The logistics of getting back home were more complicated than continuing on. But I think the main reason I went on at that stage was because I had shared my plans of hiking the HRP with so many friends and family… I couldn’t admit defeat, especially since I was in good shape, doing 40km(25mi)+ days right from the get-go.
Lost in conversation, we made some navigational errors but eventually arrived at a decent flat spot to pitch our mids (he was carrying a Duomid). I was happy for the company and I think the main reason I had trouble getting into the hike was the thought of being out there for three weeks… alone. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done more hikes solo than with friends but at that point in time I wanted to share the beautiful, fun and hard times with somebody, and I knew the hike I had planned would have a minimum of that. That night was only one of two in which I camped with someone else…
The next morning Gun and I said our farewells and I grinded on. Yes, it was a grind these first couple of days.
I passed more bells than I cared to hear. I kept thinking this must be the soundtrack of the Basque Country. Ha, how wrong I was. It was the soundtrack of the Pyrenees! I’m not sure if I saw more shepherds or hikers during my trip.
Despite my mental state during the day I was a very happy camper when I decided on my camp spot for the night. Five stars! I sat there, watching the sunset, overlooking the peaks of the Basque Country… smiling. Is this what I needed to turn it all around?
I was actually kind of looking forward to Day 4. Lots of vert and climbing my first minor peak at 2000m(6560ft) above sea level. But Pic d’Orhy would not come easy. First I had to tackle a pretty steep climb and scramble up some ridges. I was exhausted and during a tough scramble looking down a cliff I encountered a german couple who were day hiking and had just come from Pic d’Orhy. It was quite funny how I just started blabbing on without pause as soon as I had people to talk to. They were lovely and after sharing my hiking plans they gave me all the food they had left. I appreciated the fresh apple the most. Thanks Kati and Michi!
Day 5 was the day everything finally came together and I started to feel the trail. After descending down to Refugio Belagua I had a quick Tortilla (the first thing I bought after starting in Hendaye).
The following section will always stay with me. The sun was breaking through the leaves of a magical forest that opened up to a pine tree splattered granite landscape. It was one of the most beautiful sights I got to experience up to this point in my life. My enormous grin just wouldn’t leave my face. No chance. Arriving on the top of Col d’Anaye and looking over my shoulder I knew I didn’t want to be anywhere else in that moment. Crazy how nature’s beauty can totally change your perspective.
On the descent to Lescun I used my 6th and final Micropur tablet of the trip. It seems my confidence went up in every department in these hike defining hours.
After a quick road walk I arrived in Lescun.
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Chapter 2: Lescun - Gavernie - Day 5-9
Lescun is a cute little village with a small super market that has a pretty limited selection. I quickly stocked up for the next stretch to Gavernie and got in another one and a half hours of hiking. I was never really sure where I would camp the following night. My itinerary usually evolved during the day depending on the terrain and the miles I managed. I got to a Cabane (unstaffed shelter) which was being used by a shepherdess I scared to death when I looked inside. I apologized and asked her if she’d mind me camping on the meadow next to the Cabane. She didn’t and I was glad when another shepherd arrived a few minutes later to hopefully rid her of any fear that was left about some weirdo arriving unusually late to camp right next to her.
I left early in the morning and embarked on a day that was dominated by clouds and fog. I managed to get above the fog for ten minutes which opened up the view to mountain peaks piercing through a plush white blanket of clouds. It didn’t feel like something real at all.
At Ibon de Estanés I passed a fellow ultralighter with a simple hola. I think he was wearing a KS Liteskin pack. Still kicking myself for not introducing myself.
Down in Candanchu I had my first proper town food. A very average Pizza. I’m only mentioning Candanchu as it’s one of the many deserted ski resort villages which look extremely off-putting and depressing during the summer. Funny to think that these sterile artificial places only come to life a couple of months a year. And seeing how climate change doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, will surely suffer in the years to come and maybe turn into permanent ghost towns.
While eating I requested the weather forecast from my dad, a hobby meteorologist. Since he was tracking me online through my Spot he always provided me with very accurate predictions for the next few days. I was always in the know and trusted his expertise. Who needs an InReach if you have your own personal weatherman?
After some road walking I once more climbed into the familiar fog. Due to the lack of views I started to jog down the occasional descents. No point to linger. Trying to fall asleep I just thought to myself how many beautiful landscapes I probably missed due to the fog. But you win some you lose some.
I was completing one week on trail the following day.
I’ve been cruising up to this point and getting a bit cocky. I was already calculating that if I keep up my current pace I will probably finish in 18 days instead of my roughly projected 21 days.
Little did I know that the “real“ Pyrenees were just about to start.
And I was definitely not prepared for what the HRP had in store for me that day.
Heading up to Col d’Arrious I had one of a few conversations with a shepherd. They are quite interesting people and come from all walks of life. Arriving on top of the pass the wind hit me hard. I quickly put on my wind shirt and headed down to Refuge d’Arrémoulit where I had a serrano sandwich with an omelette. While I was enjoying the view of the neighbouring lake a Bonelli eagle passed 15m(50ft) over my head. A rare sight. Could life get much better? I’m not sure, but it could definitely get much worse...
After my break I started to gain elevation again and headed over Col du Palas only to be greeted by a huge boulder field. Keep in mind, there is no trail at all at this point. Occasionally there were a few Cairns scattered around which didn’t really help to define a clear path. After scrambling down for a bit I had to head up those boulders to Port du Lavedan. This is where I made my first major mistake of the trip. I was kind of eyeballing the direction and not really checking GAIA. Well, due to my navigational error I missed the pass by a good 10m(33ft) and climbed up a small ridge I thought was the pass. Once on top I looked over to the other side I had to descend.
“WHAT THE F*CK!?! What the hell is this Whiteburn guy thinking to send people over this crap without advising them to bring some climbing equipment. No, don’t blame him, what where YOU thinking following some made up route from a guy on the internet. JESUS CHRIST. This is f * cked!“
I looked back - yeah no chance I was going back down the way I came. Not much better than what lay before me. Whiteburn mentioned that this section had three major Cols increasing in technical difficulty. This wasn’t one of the three but I thought it was the first and the thought scared me shitless. How was I going to survive the other two IF I made it down this one alive!?! Adrenaline rushed through my body. Focused like I’ve never been before I slowly moved my hands towards some slightly protruding rock to find any grip. Then looking for a decent foot hold. It took me a good five minutes of intense sweat to go down the worst part. I wasn’t going to do something like that again anytime soon, I thought to myself.
Well, I totally would. Kids, triple check your navigation before deciding to climb some stupidly steep ridge.
Not long after the worst part I saw the pass I was supposed to take a couple meters to my right. I was alleviated and angry for making a mistake that could have ended quite badly.
Those five minutes had depleted my energy to zero. I was shaking. That day I had my second shortest hiking day of the whole trip.
After a good nights sleep I was ready to tackle the three technical Cols of that section: Col de Cambales, Col d’Arratille and Hourquette d’Oussoue.
The experience from the day prior boosted my confidence substantially which made those cols a breeze to do and made me enjoy the wide mountain landscapes a lot more. I took my usual hour brake in the early afternoon and washed my shirt and socks. After the last col I tried to get as close to Gavernie, my next resupply. I ended up staying in my first Cabane of the trip which was just a simple rectangle stone hut. Nothing inside. I wanted to get up as early as possible and break down camp quickly so I could arrive early in Gavernie and not lose too much time in town. I managed to arrive around 10am the next day.
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Chapter 3: Gavernie - Bernasque - Day 9-12
Gavernie is a little mountain town that is the hub for a lot of hiking loops in the area. It has a small outdoor shop you could definitely get a pack or shoes if you have trouble with your equipment.
I headed straight to a restaurant. I needed to charge my power bank to 100% and that would probably take 3 hours. With a quick 30min charge during my pizza break in Candanchu it had survived 8 days without charging.
I got to talking with two hikers that were sitting at the table next to me. They had started the Cicerone version of the HRP 33 days prior from the Mediterranean Sea. From what I could gather the Cicerone version is more in line with the alternates Whiteburn suggests for the Pocket Guide version.
After writing some post cards and stocking up on food at the small super market I had a big steak with fries and a fried egg.
I left Gavernie at 2pm with renewed energy. After the steep descent down Hourquette d’Alans the valley is accompanied by a nice stream that leads into the Lac de Gloriettes dam. Many of the turquoise lakes in the Pyrenees are actually reservoirs or hydroelectric power generators. It takes a bit away from the magic sometimes.
Right around Gloriettes a drizzle started to build. The fog from the days prior was back. And you know when you miss that moment when you should have put on your rain jacket but instead hope that it stops to rain? Yeah, that was me.
Completely soaked I looked at my map to make out potential campsites for the night. I made out a Cabane I should reach right around sunset.
Too bad it was being renovated and bolted shut. Luckily I saw Cabane des Aires a half hour up ahead on my route. I picked up the pace and moved on. I would regret my decision on many levels in the hours to come. I should’ve just set up my tent…
I was hiking a bit above 2000m(6550ft) and the fog was getting thicker to the point that I could only see what was 5m(17ft) around me. Combine that with mostly grassy trails and you have a navigational nightmare on your hands. I was looking at GAIA non-stop and still getting off-course. It was getting pretty cold. I managed to arrive just in time before it got dark.
Exhausted I put on my headlamp to check out the little stone hut. Something moved in my peripheral vision. I moved my head back to where I thought I saw something.
“OH COME ON! REALLY!?“
A freaking mouse. I really didn’t want to deal with these little pests right now. I shooed the thing outside. As the huts’ steel door wouldn’t close I built a barrier out of wood pallets and a nose from a snowboard (how the hell did that get there?). The sleeping area was in the back of the room and thankfully half a meter elevated from the floor. I set up for the night, put my food right next to me and left the rest of my gear on the table. After climbing into my quilt I scanned the hut for unwanted critters again. F*CK! The mouse had brought a friend along… I conceded right then and there. There was no way I was keeping them outside and the night was about to get worse.
When I went to charge my phone nothing happened. I unplugged and plugged my phone back into the power bank a couple of times. Nothing. I was using a micro USB cable with a Lightning adapter. After testing the cable on my headlamp the culprit was obvious. I never trusted 3rd party accessories for the iPhone before. Why did I take this little piece of shit anyway?
My phone was at 7% battery and I had no way to charge it. How was I going to navigate out of this thick fog? I only had one choice: wake up early and head back down the mountain to an Auberge 6km(3,7mi) away and hope that someone was willing to sell me their cable. For that to happen I needed a phone for navigation or clear skies. I knew the general direction but there were so many turns and lakes separating me from my destination that I would likely get lost pretty quickly, especially without any visual orientation. I guess physical maps weren’t such a bad idea right now.
The night was obviously terrible. I was on edge hoping for my phone to survive until the next morning and the two mice were having a serious domestic fight all night long. I kept following them around the hut with my headlamp. I spent most of my headlamp battery during the trip looking for mice. Thankfully they stayed away from my food.
After barely sleeping I woke up the next morning to unchanged weather conditions. F*ck. Too afraid to check my battery during the night I unlocked my phone. 4%. Yes! I can make that work. I just need 40 minutes to get to the road that will take me to the Auberge. I packed up as quickly as I could and headed out praying for no further navigational f *ck ups on my end and more importantly a kind soul willing to part with their charging cable.
I lost the trail a couple of times but eventually managed to get to the road with 1% left.
Arriving at the parking lot of the Auberge I saw a young couple getting ready to head out for a day hike. I told them of my dilemma and hiking plans. I probably looked quite pathetic. But thankfully they had a spare cable. They weren’t willing to take my money though. Damn was I relieved. I hiked up the way I came and I started blabbing the same way I always did on this trip as soon as I had company.
This iPhone adapter debacle could have cost me a day or two. It scared me enough that I will probably always take separate brand name cables for the rest of my life.
Even though the new cable had given me some much needed mental energy the next climb up Col de la Sede took the energy right out of my legs. This was probably the most exhausting climb of the whole trip for me. No trail, just 60-70% degree slopes of grass for 400m of elevation gain.
Looking back, this was probably the hardest day physically for me. On top of the pass I had to cross some steep scree that made me slide down with every step and sharp rock just waiting to cut up my ankles. After that it got a bit less technical for a few kilometers, but the ascents didn’t stop.
At Lacs de Barroude I had a decision to make. Take the alternate down to Parzán for some easy hiking on the GR11 or head east another 10km (6.2mi) with 900m(3000ft)/-1050m(-3450ft) of vert for some technical ridge walking. I was completely depleted and it was already 4pm. At the same time I wanted to complete the prettiest and hardest route possible. Three snickers later I started climbing up the ridge anyway. Sometimes I’m just too stubborn for my own good. For the first time that day I wasn’t walking in complete fog. The clouds still gave me pause. I didn’t want to be caught in a lightning storm as there was no easy or quick way off the ridge. Half way through I started hearing thunder. I couldn’t place it though and didn’t see any lightning. I picked up my pace as much as you can while scrambling up and down a ridge I guess. For the night I was betting on a green spot on my map that looked rather flat looking at the elevation lines. I just had to get there. The ridge walking got more technical as I progressed, but the clouds stayed tame. I moved north off the ridge and got to my planned camping spot.
My bet had paid off. Five stars! My favourite camp spot of the trail overlooking the heart of the Pyrenees. It was the first and only night that was completely silent as well. No bells, no mice, no nothing. I slept like a baby.
But not even good sleep could restore my energy after Day 10’s events and very steep and technical off-trail hiking. And Day 11 had more of that in store for me.
Climbing up Port d’Ourdissétou on one of the rare maintained trails of the day I noticed that I couldn’t keep this up for much longer. I needed a proper break. I decided to take a zero at my next resupply in Bernasque. That was still one and a half days away though. Luckily the second half of the day was a bit easier until a late climb up Port d’Aygues Tortes and the descent down to Cabane Prat Caseneuve. After my last, rather unpleasant, Cabane experience I actually wanted to avoid all further ones. But Prat Caseneuve was a very nice one with a second storey and proper mattresses. My fear of bedbugs made me sleep on the floor, to the great bewilderment of the Frenchman I was sharing the Cabane with. I was realizing that the Gavernie-Bernasque section was probably the hardest of the whole HRP.
The next morning we got up at 6am and I headed out at first light. Sleeping inside to get up early was the right choice as I had a very hard day ahead of me. I was going to tackle two of the highest and most technical cols of the HRP: Col des Gourgs Blancs and Col Inférieur de Litérole. Both just under 3000m(9850ft). I had heard horror stories about Litérole from other hikers on trail and in online forums. Especially descending the east side, which I was going to do. I didn’t buy it though. The crap I had already done to this point was hard to top, in my opinion.
It was a very pretty day and after passing another storage reservoir I headed up Col des Gourgs Blancs. Navigating through huge boulders, following scattered cairns and scrambling up scree had become second nature. I was cruising through one of the hardest hiking the Pyrenees has to offer. Heading down I could see Lac du Portillon, another reservoir. I took a 45 minute lunch break at Refúge du Portillon and talked with some locals about barefoot ultramarathon training and dream races. The sun was warming up my cheeks. On to Col Inférieur de Litérole!
The climb up was steep and I made one bad choice in circumventing the snowfields by climbing further up some steep scree. Every step I took I triggered a rock slip. I tried heading down as quickly as possible. That was not fun at all. I continued on the edge of the snowfield. The last climb up Litérole was easy enough. Looking down the other side though I understood what everyone had been talking about. Daaaamn that was steep. It didn’t manage to faze me anymore though. The HRP had made me quite confident. I found my way down with a quick glissade into a scree field. What followed was the longest boulder hopping adventure of my life. Pure fun. I headed down the Remuñe valley. That’s where I took my favorite picture of the whole trail. After a long descent I hit the road that would take me to Bernasque. I asked two Spaniards from Barcelona for a ride. With our masks on and disinfected hands we headed down into the valley.
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Interlude: Zero in Bernasque - Day 13
Bernasque is a picturesque village in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees. Its village centre consists of beautiful stone buildings and a wide selection of hotels and restaurants. Two outdoor shops which offer everything you’d desire makes Bernasque a fully featured mountain hub for tourists.
After saying goodbye to my ride I headed to a one star hotel. Mid September is the end of the summer season for most Pyrenees tourism. That was my hotels last day and so they organized another hotel a few minutes away for my second night. I had to buy groceries for the next stretch to Arinsal as my zero was going to be on a Sunday and I wanted to head out early on Monday.
I checked the news for the first time on my trip. Crazy how things can change in such a short time. When I went down to Hendaye the Covid numbers had been consistently low for a few months now. But France and Spain’s numbers were exploding again. Over 10k new infections a day in France alone. I found the French and Spanish much more responsible than the Germans though. Everyone was wearing a mask in public. In Germany people were demonstrating in masses against the Covid measures of the government. Without masks and social distancing…
I had a big dinner and went to sleep. I was looking forward to my zero. No hiking would surely do me good. A day before arriving in Bernasque I started having a bit of pain in my right outer knee as I was going down technical terrain for a prolonged period of time. It was knee pain I hadn’t experienced before, so I had trouble placing the cause. I used the day to stretch myself a bit more and applying KT tape. During the first half of my trip I consistently rolled out my feet and did the Viranasa pose which I think was a big factor for staying mostly pain free.
Besides my knee flaring up I had to take care of my trail runners (Topo Ultraventure). After 200km(125mi) I first looked at my sole and saw that the Vibram lug on the right heel had unglued half way. Now, after 400km(350mi), the lug was only hanging by a rubber thread and the left heel lug was half way unglued as well. At a souvenir shop I found shoe glue and glued the two lugs back onto the sole. The tread in general was already very smooth and two holes were opening up where my big toes meet the balls of my feet. In hindsight I should have just chosen a new pair of trail runners from the huge selection on offer at the two outdoor stores.
The rest of the day consisted of eating, laying in the sun, eating, sleeping, eating, you get the idea…
The last bus of the season headed up the mountain that Sunday. As I wanted to leave at 6:30am the next morning and didn’t want to wait around for a hitch I had to book a 25€ shuttle back to trail.
Chapter 4: Bernasque - Arinsal - Day 14-17
The next morning I arrived back on trail a bit before 7am. Civil sunrise had not arrived yet. I guessed I would have to do a few minutes of night hiking after all. 6km(3.7mi) in, I arrived at the half way point of the HRP.
The day went by smoothly heading over one of the highest cols of the route, Col de Mulleres. The rest of the day had a lot of vert and turquoise lakes in store. Around 4pm though I started to feel my right knee again. The light pain soon turned into severe one. F*CK… I was happy to be hiking again, grooving through the trail, enjoying the views and now this?!
I wasn’t surprised though. Of course there was some issue to rise up when I was doing anything between 4000-6000m(13123-19685ft) of accumulated vert every day.
The pain didn’t subside. Maybe I had applied the KT tape with too much stretch? I removed it. It got minimally better. Could just as well been placebo.
I went up my last climb of the day, very nervous that my knee would end my hike. Half way up I met a German hiker named Andreas. A fit and experienced hiker. He had started the HRP (Cicerone Version) but after a few days switched to the GR11 as he started to feel uncomfortable with the terrain and passes that he had to hike through. I understood him completely. We exchanged a bit of food and camped together. That was the second and last time I would camp with another person. Before sleep I devoted a bit more time than usual to stretching.
The pain was gone in the morning. But all the little niggles I had had on this trip had gone away after a good night’s sleep. I didn’t trust my pain free knee yet.
After half an hour the pain came back in full force.
Panic hit me full force. The pain and my fear of not being able to go on consumed me. And I had no idea what the hell was wrong with my knee.
Going down into Salardu, I called my dad. I vented my frustrations and asked him to look up my symptoms for me as I wasn’t getting an internet connection. He started reading out a diagnosis of what seemed to be the cause of my pain. IT Band issues. I had only heard about it. Alright dad, how do I fix it? I can’t quit now. No way.
He tried to explain to me some google images and a youtube video he was watching. I guess I was being crewed over the phone. After cheering me up a bit I got my usual weather fix. Thanks dad!
In Salardu I sat down in the shade and started to brutally roll out my outer thigh with my trekking pole. I kept that up for five minutes. Afterwards I got up and carefully took some steps.
Magic! The pain had subsided significantly. Okay, let’s see how long this lasts.
I picked up my pace again and did 1000m(3280ft) of vert in a span of two hours over 10km(6,2mi). My knee was doing fine. Not good, but fine. I set up camp beside a lake just before sunset. Not a minute later it started to rain. The first drops hitting my tent in the Pyrenees. After 15 days.
With my new phone-taught skills I kept my knee pain in check so it wasn’t bothering me any longer. Occasionally I had to stop on a long downhill section and do some extra work with my trekking pole though. Day 16 I passed my biggest waterfall on the trail. Quite the sight.
I’m still annoyed with myself for passing on a camp spot that day which would have been in the Top 3. I took a gamble thinking the next lake would have an even better spot. It didn’t. Still beautiful though.
Checking GAIA before sleep, I knew I had to do some negative vert in the morning. Not something I ever look forward to. Especially not with my knee issues in the mix.
I only had one objective for Day 17. Get to Arinsal in time to resupply and call my grandmother in brazil for her birthday.
The day was marked by a lot of vert and constantly thinking about food. Hiker hunger had set in after a week on trail and daydreaming about grocery shopping had become my main pastime.
Around 5pm and some decent views later I got to Arinsal in Andorra.
​
continued in comments

I
Sometime between 1846 and 1848 drew the scene en graiselle in pencil and crayon, heightened with chalk. It’s a largish work, one metre by two metres – a heroic scale for a “heroic” subject, executed by the French artist Charles Méryon (1821-1868) and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1848. Thence it passed on to the artist’s closest friend, Antoine-Édouard Foleÿ (the two were stationed together at the French naval base in Akaroa on Banks’ Peninsula), a member of the Paris Positivist circle of the philosopher Auguste Comte, who left it to his son. The drawing was purchased in Paris by New Zealand-born British art collector Rex Nan Kivell, who smuggled it back to London, rolled up in the leg of his trousers, as the Second World War broke out. Eventually this magnificent curiosity entered the National Library of Australia as part of the Rex Nan Kivell collection from 1959 until 1967 when it was presented to the New Zealand Government by visiting Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. In December of that year Holt would go on a fateful ocean swim and never be seen again.
Now in the collection of the Turnbull Library, Wellington, the title of the work, The Death of Marion du Fresne at the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, 12 June 1772, leaves very little ambiguity about the subject. The Breton-born explorer and navigator Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne anchored his ships, Marquis de Castries and Mascarin, in the Bay of Islands from May to July 1772, late in the reign of Louis XV. This was the first significant social interaction between Europeans and Māori, and at first relations between the two were cordial enough, until suddenly they weren’t. According to the story – particularly from what another French explorer, Dumont d'Urville, was able to find out from local Māori during his 1824 visit to the Bay of Islands on the Coquille - Du Fresne was killed by Māori of Ngāti Pou iwi beneath a Pōhutukawa tree at Te Hue Bay before being ritually consumed by several local chiefs for his mana.
Méryon attempts to reconstruct the event, rather fancifully and through a fictive scrim of overweening classicism. True to the tropes of the Picturesque, the scene is set up like a stage. In the background Du Fresne’s ships are anchored in the bay. In the mid-ground a French sailor takes a stroll with Māori wahine, a reminder that sex often paid for European goods in early New Zealand, and short-term marriages to Europeans for material gain would become an important industry in some Māori communities. Unfortunately, this also had the unforeseen consequence of unleashing a number of venereal diseases which the indigenous tribes had no experience of or resistance to.
In the foreground, a scraggly Cordyline, looking like a refugee from a Dr Seuss book, defines the left wing of the stage with its perky, calligraphic line. The right wing is a pātaka, a storehouse for perishables raised on stilts to protect it from the ravages of the Kiore, the native rat, and preserve their tapu. Méryon’s interpretation of a pātaka is decidedly at odds with reality, resembling more a ramshackle Roman temple out of a Piranesi engraving than anything he would have seen in New Zealand. Essentially Méryon has put in the barest of essentials to let the viewer know that this is a pā, a Māori village. The effect was calculated to appeal to the contemporary vogue in French art for exotic and decadent scenes with the plentiful bared breasts and poised, theatrical violence.
The Death of Marion Du Fresne (detail)
To the left of the pātaka, in front of a palisade and draped backcloth, Du Fresne presides over a déjeuner sur l'herbe of Māori chiefs, warriors and wahine. In front of them is a pile of Māori and European goods for trade. Méryon has depicted his countryman as a dignified and noble hero of the Enlightenment in profile as one might find on a coin. He is the calm, still focal point of the drawing’s universe. On the other hand, Méryon seems like he can’t quite make up his mind how to depict the Māori participants. Some resemble classical figures as one might find in the paintings of Nicolas Poussin in academic postures fitting Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Noble Savage model, or supine like an odalisque by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Others seem the worst racial and pantomime stereotypes, particularly the rat-faced chap theatrically sneaking back to the pātaka while his tribesman, suggestive of something from the orientalist paintings of Eugène Delacroix, is paused mid-delivery of the dolorous blow with a club to Du Fresne’s powdered scalp while a comely young wahine distracts the Frenchman with what looks like a kākāriki, a small, green, native parakeet. A young, barefoot boy sailor, about the age Du Fresne was when he first went to sea, turns to flee.
The fancy ten-dollar word for this little exercise is ekphrasis, the Greek word for description, a literary description of a work of art.
II
Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne’s exact birthdate is unknown, but he was baptised on 22 May 1724 in at the walled port of Saint-Marlo, Brittany, on the English Chanel coast. The son of a merchant, in 1735, still a boy, Du Fresne joined the French India Company ship Duc de Bourgogne as honorary sub-lieutenant, which is the beginning of the trajectory that lead to his death at the bottom of the world. During the messy War of Austrian Succession – a complicated episode which managed to drag in all the European powers over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the Habsburg territories - he commanded privateers out of Saint-Malo, rising to the rank of temporary captain in 1745. After the ill-fated Battle of Culloden it was he who sailed to Scotland to retrieve Bonnie Prince Charlie. He then served in the French royal navy until taken prisoner by English forces in May 1747.
When the war ended the following year, Du Fresne served on several French India Company ships, sailing to the Indian Ocean and China. With the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1754, he found himself a consultant for a proposed landing by French forces in Scotland. With much cunning and daring do, he spent two years in naval operations outsmarting the British blockade of Brittany and in recognition of his skill and bravery he was promoted to fireship captain in 1759, and made a Chevalier of the Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis, the immediate predecessor of the Légion d'honneur. After all that excitement returned to trading in the eastern seas, conducting hydrographical surveys of Mauritius, and for a time was harbourmaster of capital, Port Louis. He also traded in the Seychelles and India, and participated in the peculiarly colonial vice of land speculation.
The liquidation of the French India Company caused Du Fresne considerable financial bother and when in 1771 the opportunity arose to voyage to the Pacific on a trade and exploration mission sponsored by the French government. This was in no small part sparked off by Captain James Cook’s first Pacific expedition aboard the Endeavour which had returned that year, with the hope that if there was a new continent to be discovered to the south of New Zealand, the hypothetical Terra Australis Incognita, it should be claimed by France, not Britain. Du Fresne was provided with two naval ships, the twenty-two-gun Mascarin and the sixteen-gun Marquis de Castries. The first directive of the mission was to return, like an overdue library book, the Tahitian Ahu-toru to his island home. Ahu-toru had been brought to France in 1768 by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. Lionised in Paris and becoming something of a celebrity, this brave voluntary Polynesian explorer of Europe had been sent to Mauritius to find passage back to Tahiti, the “New Cythera” of the Pacific.
Du Fresne and his ships sailed forth from Port Louis on 18 October 1771. This proved most opportune as an epidemic of smallpox had broken out in Mauritius. Unfortunately, the disease also killed Ahu-toru. After picking up supplies at the islands Bourbon and Madagascar, since the Tahiti was no longer part of the mission, Du Fresne decided to try and recoup some of the expedition costs by heading for Cape Town in South Africa to begin their search for the Southern Continent in the high latitudes of that hemisphere. On the way he discovered the south Indian Ocean islands of Marion, Prince Edward, and the Crozets. After a stopover in Tasmania where he was the first European to explore and interact with Aboriginal Australians, the mission set sail across the Tasman for New Zealand.
They sighted Mount Taranaki on 25 March 1772, giving it the name Pic Mascarin (not realising that Cook, who had been through on the Endeavour in 1769, had already named it Mount Egmont after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, a former First Lord of the Admiralty. Sailing north on 15 April they landed at Spirits Bay. Two days later strong winds severely damaged the ships, losing a number of anchors, so they limped south-east and on 4 May reached the drowned valley complex of the Bay of Islands, anchoring first to the south of Okahu (Red Head) Island and then off Moturua Island.
The French had some idea of what to expect. In 1769 a previous expedition let by Jean François Marie de Surville of the Saint Jean Baptiste had visited the area, though had ventured no further south than Doubtless Bay and hadn’t left a positive impression on local Māori as, following the theft of a small boat, De Surville’s men had retaliated by the razing of a kāinga close to shore, and the kidnapping of Ranginui, a Ngāti Kahu of rank. He would die at sea three months later.
Du Fresne and his men spent a leisurely five weeks exploring the Bay and making repairs to the ships. They set up camps – one on the mainland as a quartermaster’s store and communications base, a tent hospital for sailors stricken with scurvy on Moturua, where gardens were also planted, and one inland in the forest to hew masts and spars for the ships. They were also able to visit distantly scattered pā to trade, able to communicate by means of an extensive Tahitian vocabulary put together by Bougainville and Ahu-toru, sufficiently close to te reo Māori to be comprehensible, and despite the occasional nuisance of what the French regarded as petty theft (Māori concepts of property and reciprocity being very different to those of Europeans), prospects appeared very pleasant and relations friendly. On 8 June Du Fresne was even welcomed at a special pōwhiri in his honour by Te Kauri, chief of Te Hikutu hapū, and four white feathers placed in his hair, denoting chiefly status. This charmed Du Fresne, already an enthusiastic student of the culture, greatly.
What the Frenchman didn’t realise was that despite tranquil appearances, he and his crew had arrived at an extremely fraught moment in Bay of Islands history. They were sitting on a powder keg.
By the middle of the eighteenth century the Bay of Islands was like a scaled down Māori Mediterranean, populated by diverse hapū with modestly-sized territories scattered around the coasts and further inland. Apart from the hapū to the north and south of the bay, most of these communities shared whakapapa. Ngāti Miru and Te Wahineiti occupied Te Waimate which stretched from the Kerikeri coast to the Waitangi River. Ngāti Pou inhabited Taiamai, the southern part of the Bay from Kawakawa and extending west. Ngare Raumati controlled Te Rawhiti, the coast and remoter islands of the Bay’s southeast. North and south of the bay were the territories of the various hapū of Ngāpuhi, and they had ambitions.
Around 1775 the Northern Alliance of Ngāpuhi hapū descended on the Bay, conquering Te Waimate. Two decades later the Southern Alliance took Taiamai. Ngāpuhi cemented their absolute dominion of the Bay over subsequent generations, beginning with a ferocious, but ultimately unsuccessful attack on Rawhiti in around 1800, and an overwhelming victory in 1826.
The Northern Alliance invasion a mere two years in the future, tensions were running high. The presence of the French was destabilising in that precarious environment. Less than a week after the pōwhiri, Du Fresne and the fishing party he had gone ashore with were attacked and killed. A second party was attacked the following day and four hundred armed Māori attacked the hospital camp on Motorua, but were turned back by the overwhelming firepower of French blunderbusses. In all, twenty-seven of the French died: two young officers, M.M. de Vaudricourt and the volunteer Pierre Le Houx, the second pilot Pierre Mauclair from St Malo, the steersman Louis Ménager from Lorient, Marc Le Garff, also from Lorient, Vincent Kerneur of Port-Louis, Marc Le Corre of Auray, Thomas Ballu of Vannes, Jean Mestique of Pluvigner, Pierre Cailloche of Languidoc, and Mathurin Daumalin of Hillion. What we know of that fateful day comes from the accounts of two officers, Jean Roux and De Clesmeur.
It has never been entirely clear what the trigger was. The Northern Alliance invasion effectively disrupts the thread of oral history. The French were already bulls blundering around in the china shop of Māori tikanga and protocol, and their ongoing presence both created political, cultural and economic issues for local iwi and carried with it the spectre of a permanent French settlement. Some claim that they had violated tapu by fishing in Manawaora Bay where the bones of the dead were cleaned prior to interment, or where the drowned corpses of members of a local iwi washed up in Te Kauri’s Cove (now known as Assassination Cove).
This story, appearing in the 1960s, seems rather unlikely. Supposedly the French had been at the tapu beach for seventeen days, assuming they were still in distant Ngāti Pou territory, but in fact in Te Kauri’s lands, just below the pā. Discrediting this is the fact that Te Kauri was well known to the French, having dealt with them on multiple occasions and having been on their ships. It seems altogether more likely that this was a gambit by one hapu or other to acquire muskets, or a response to the French being perceived to have claimed Motorua. Following the pōwhiri for Du Fresne, Māori made a nocturnal raid on the Moturoa hospital camp, taking muskets, uniforms and an anchor. The French took two of the culprits hostage against the return of the stolen property, one of whom accused Te Kauri of having been involved. Du Fresne ordered the men released, but this even alone would have caused Te Kauri significant loss of mana in a scenario where the French were already, unwittingly, being used as pawns in a competition for status among local hapū. Later an armed party of Māori, presumably Te Hikutu, challenged the French, but utu was restored with an exchange of gifts.
In all that time there was no mention of tapu, but parties of Māori had been seen by French sentries prowling at night around the hospital and lumber camps, and visiting chiefs showed a great deal of interest in the French muskets and blunderbusses. These visitors went so far as to ask for a demonstration which was satisfied by Jean Roux, Ensign of the Mascarin, shooting a dog. Those would have been powerful incentives for any enterprising chief. French weapons and resources would have dramatically changed the balance of power in the area as British muskets and the easy carbohydrates of potatoes were for the following generation.
Following the attack on the hospital camp one of the local chiefs told Roux that Te Kauri was responsible for killing Du Fresne. Soon longboats of armed French sailors arrived to confirm that Du Fresne and the others had been killed, apparently lured into the bush and ambushed. Despite it being the small hours of the morning, according to Roux’s account he claims to have recognised Te Kauri in the darkness and ordered him shot. In the days that followed, the French came under persistent attack as more Māori reinforcements arrived. The French abandoned the hospital camp, which was raided and razed to the ground. As they retreated to Moturoa, the French were still close enough to see that the warriors wore the clothes of Du Fresne and his fellow sailors.
That night Māori attacked the Moturoa camp, this time to general fire from the French. The next day another 300 or so Māori joined the attacking force, bringing it to around 1500 fighters, whom the French charged with 26 of their own soldiers, seeing them off with technological superiority. Gallic pride having taken sufficient battering, the French attacked Te Kauri’s pā, being met with a rain of huata. Te Kauri’s allies fled in their waka. Some 250 Māori were killed, including five chiefs, and many French sustaining serious wounds.
On 7 July, investigating a month later, Roux found Te Kauri’s pā abandoned, the cooked head of a sailor on a spike, and some human bones. Julien Crozet, Du Fresne’s second in command, and the captain of the Marquis de Castries, Ambroise-Bernard-Marie le Jar du Clesmeur secured their ships, to which the French withdrew, fighting off small sporadic raids. In order to complete repairs on the ships, Crozet and Du Clesmer ordered a counter-attack to clear the area of the lumber camp, instigating reprisals resulting in a further 250 casualties among Māori.
These events left a profound scar on the French psyche. Before they departed on 12 July for the Philippines, they buried a bottle at Waipoa on Moturua, containing the arms of France and a formal declaration of possession of “France Australe” in the name of France, but left firmly of the view that Māori bore no resemblance to Rousseau’s “noble savage” and the dangers posed by them warranted against any attempt at colonisation. And yet they would attempt to do just that, and seventy-two years later a French artist, familiar with New Zealand and its French colony at Akaroa on Bank’s Peninsula.
III
Charles Méryon (1821-1868) is possibly not so well known a name these days as he deserves to be, but is generally regarded as the finest French proponent of the etcher’s art in the nineteenth century. He was born in Paris, a bastard, the illegitimate son of a travelling English doctor and a dancer with the opera. Méryon was raised by his mother until he enrolled at the Naval School at Brest in 1837, eventually embarking of a tour of duty around France’s possessions in the South Seas on the corvette Le Rhin.
Like William Blake, as a boy Méryon claimed to have seen troops of angels around him. A brooding, melancholy sort, quick to take offence, Méryon was already an accomplished draughtsman when Le Rhin arrived in New Zealand in 1842, resulting in a remarkable series of pencil drawings of the landscape. It was around then that his mother, suffering from a mental affliction, died. Ostensibly Le Rhin’s mission was to protect the tiny French settlement of Akaroa on Banks Peninsula as Britain moved to consolidate control of the archipelago.
Akaroa (“long harbour” in the Ngāi Tahu dialect), founded in August 1840 by French settlers, is Canterbury province’s oldest township, lying 84 kilometres at the end of a winding and precipitous route southeast of Christchurch. At around just over 600 people, sixty percent of the houses are holiday homes. It retains a strongly French flavour in its architectural style, the street names, and the occasional tricolor. On the Rue Lavaud is a modern statue, intended to represent Méryon, but erroneously depicting him as a stereotypical painter at easel and wearing a smock and beret.
By the time Le Rhin arrived, its mission was largely irrelevant. Three months before the settlement had even been founded (the French whaler Jean-François Langlois being under the mistaken impression he had purchased Banks Peninsula from Ngāi Tahu), two Ngāi Tahu chiefs, Iwikau and Hone Tikao (John Love as he was better known to Pākehā), signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Ōnuku on Akaroa Harbour. It had been Pākehā involvement in Te Rauparaha’s 1830 raid on the area, leading to direct intervention by the British, which lead to the Treaty process in the first place.
Méryon’s drawings of Akaroa, and the etchings made from them, are fascinatingly detailed, and those made of the Māori village at Ōnuku clearly reveal the elements, in their original organisation and with a Romantic eye for nature, that make up the more Classical composition of The Death of Marion du Fresne.
Charles Meryon, Greniers indigenes et habitations a Akaroa, presqu'Ile de Banks (1860)
On his return to France, while only 25, still a lieutenant and with only a tiny inheritance, Méryon left the navy with the ambition of becoming an artist. It was only then, however, he discovered that he suffered from Daltonism, a hereditary form of colour blindness that causes confusion of greens, reds, and yellows, leading him to enter the atelier of the engraver Eugène Bléry, under whose tutelage he acquired the technical skills of etching. Méryon supported himself with hack work, when not copying the etchings of Dutch masters like Renier Zeeman and Adriaen van de Velde, eventually going on to produce the celebrated series (though never published as one) Eaux-fortes sur Paris from 1850 to 1854, consisting of twenty-two etchings, collected together with the rest of the artist’s oeuvre in the Victorian art critic Frederick Wedmore’s catalogue Méryon and Méryon’s Paris (1878) in an edition of 129.
It is the studies of Paris, it’s glories and squalor (even as George Haussman was tearing it down and replacing it with boulevards for Napoleon III) that are the noblest fruit of his abilities, though there are some nice illustrations of the wooden houses of Bourges, around 240 kilometres from Paris.
What Méryon might have accomplished had not material and mental struggles not shortened his life, will never be known. His work failed to find broader appreciation, despite the admiration of no less than Baudelaire, Gautier, and Victor Hugo, and he was forced to sell his etchings (when he could sell them) for a pittance. The poverty and disappointment played heavily on his mind, even as his supportive friends, the etchers Félix Bracquemond and Léopold Flameng, became successful.
As Méryon’s own reputation slowly increased (Dr Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, who cared for Van Gogh in that artist’s final weeks at Auvers-sur-Oise, was a fan) he declined into paranoia, fearing imaginary enemies at every turn, believing his friends stole from him or owed him money. When the English surgeon etcher Francis Seymour Haden visited to purchase a set of the sur Paris etchings, Méryon’s chased him through the streets of Paris, seizing back the etchings and accusing the startled Englishman with wanting to plagiarise his work.
Eventually he became completely delusional. he started digging up his garden looking for dead bodies, eventually taking to bed and brandishing a pistol at anyone who attempted to see him - and was committed to the infamous asylum at Charenton Saint-Maurice on 12 May 1858.
His stay in Charenton, the French Bedlam, restored him to some lucidity, and was released for a time, resulting in some of his most visionary and peculiar work. It is evident that his mind travelled back to the Pacific from time to time, resulting in the striking Tourelle de la Tixeranderie, Ministere de la Marin (1865), depicting the offices of the French Admiralty, while in the sky above, a surreal flotilla of Polynesians in canoes race against horse-drawn chariots, tiny like the staffage of a landscape painting. These efforts exhausted him and he briefly returned to Charenton in late 1866. He was released again in 1867 so that he could visit the Exposition Universelle at the Champ de Mars and Ile de Billancourt, where some of his etchings were being exhibited.
At this great world’s fair, only the second to be held in Paris, with 50,226 exhibitors (15,055 from France and her colonies, 6176 from Great Britain and Ireland, 703 from the US, and even a representation from New Zealand) the likes of Jules Verne and Vincent van Gogh thrilled to such sights as the hydraulic elevator, reinforced concrete, and a recreation of the reliefs of Borobudur in the Java.
Alas, on the day Méryon visited, the weather went bad and a violent thunderstorm struck, terrifying the fragile artist out of his wits and shattering what remained of his sanity. He was once more committed to Charenton, never to emerge. He came to believe himself the second coming of Christ incarcerated by the Pharisees, and grew obsessed with the notion that there was insufficient food in the world for its population. To that end he began designing bedroom furniture that looked more like torture devices, for the express purpose of preventing sexual intercourse that might lead to reproduction, and refusing to disadvantage the poor by taking scarce food from their mouths, stopped eating. He starved himself to death in February 1868.
IV
What a strange image The Death of Marion du Fresne is, so surrounded by death and tragedy. It brings together so many elements of New Zealand’s complex relationship with France, and one wonders what Du Fresne or Méryon would have made of later chapters of that history – the liberation of Quesnoy by New Zealand troops during the First World War, the New Zealand government sending a hastily refitted navy frigate, the HMNZS Otago, into the waters off Mururoa in protest at nuclear testing, the bombing and sinking of Greenpeace’s ship Rainbow Warrior in the port of Auckland by French military intelligence’s Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure in 1985 Indeed, we might wonder what future stories the drawing will play a part of in years to come.
Andrew Paul Wood
Source
Great artwork in link

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Long time no see. It’s been a fair while... Welcome newcomers and hello again followers. I am back. I shall be posting regularly again however it will be on Mondays, Wednesday’s and Fridays. I’ll gladly increase the postings if they become popular like they have previously.
And now, without further ado...
Just the 3 today
If you have been following these Sheets you would usually be reading right now how these Sheets will be locked in a .zip file and will need a password to access them. There will be two passwords to access the sheets. The first one will never change however the second one will. This second password can only be retrieved through a PM.
If you run into problems inputting the password then that is most likely down to the way the password has been constructed. The passwords are designed to not be easily ‘Copied & Pasted’ and will occasionally include special characters/symbols so please input the password manually as you see it and DO NOT COPY AND PASTE IT
If you are struggling to access the sheets please PM and refrain from asking on this post, thank you.
I apologise in advance if I do not get to your PM in time.
I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do. Please further read here for more on how I bet
Today I have done my sheet/s at Huntingdon, Lingfield, and Sedgefield.
You can find all meetings here.
Your first password is ZXJpY3RoZWJhbmFuYQ== (Click link and Decode)
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM. Again I apologise if I do not respond to your message before race start.
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will reflect this and gain you some results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a Combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Just because a horse has a combined score of 100, does not mean it will be the best. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process and I do not always pick the highest score!
The rating I use and rely on the most is the HF-Rating
*Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses CS rating in a race are way below 100 and average around 50-65 I tend to not place any bets on that race but may choose to Dutch the race. *
A lot of my betting is done by Dutching the races. The Dutching Calculator will always be pre-filled in correlation to the sheets however it is open to you to alter the Stake, Horse and it’s odds (if they have changed).

• For example just removing horse selections from its pre-filled cell/s, will remove its odds and stakes etc or perhaps swapping or adding a horse in the selections column will automatically grab its odds, what stake to use etc.*

The Dutching Calculator has been designed to be user friendly.
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horses A-rating and HF-rating rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and eliminate any outliers. You can then focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
One could happily use these Sheets to find the outliers and lay them. I find sometimes you’ll come across a false favourite and it’s these that can make you decent profits with laying.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting me, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process.
Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me or if you’re not a drinker, then how about donating me a coffee. as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly improve on.
Disclaimer Gambling can be a great pastime or to some it can be a source of income when approached with the correct mind and skill-set. Please don’t gamble money you don’t have and know when to take a step back. If your having a naff day then leave it as that. STOP. Call it a day and DON’T CHASE YOUR LOSSES. For whatever reason you wish to post these ratings sheets on a forum or website or anything else. Please PM me first. I’m happy to show support elsewhere but don’t take lightly for others stealing my work. If I see this happen I will stop posting.
THESE SHEETS HAVE HIDDEN MARKERS WITHIN SOME OF THE SHEETS TO IDENTIFY THEM AS MY OWN WORK SO DON’T ATTEMPT TO COPY AND PASS THEM AS YOUR OWN.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!
EDITS - Editorial mistakes and updated links.

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Welcome newcomers and hello again followers. I shall be posting regularly again however it will be on Mondays, Wednesday’s and Fridays. I’ll gladly increase the postings if they become popular like they have previously.
And now, without further ado...

• All 3 Meetings today.
• 35 Races provided
• 302 Horses analysed

If you have been following these Sheets you would usually be reading right now how these Sheets will be locked in a .zip file and will need a password to access them.
There will be two passwords to access the sheets.
The first one will never change however the second one will. This second password can usually only be retrieved through a PM, however today it will be retrieved the same way the first password is.
If you run into problems inputting the password then that is most likely down to the way the password has been constructed. The passwords are designed to not be easily ‘Copied & Pasted’ and will occasionally include special characters/symbols so please input the password manually as you see it and DO NOT COPY AND PASTE IT
If you are struggling to access the sheets please PM and refrain from asking on this post, thank you. I am more than happy to lend a hand in any way.
I apologise in advance if I do not get to your PM in time.
I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do. Please further read here for more on how I bet
Today I have done my sheet/s at Thurles, Ayr and *Exeter. *
You can find all meetings here.
Your first password is ZXJpY3RoZWJhbmFuYQ== (Click link and Decode)
Popular followers who are reading or skimming past to get the second password will usually be met with this link.
Click here to retrieve the Second Password
As I said at the beginning today’s password will be posted in the same format as the first password. If you are struggling then use the above link and I shall reply.
Your second password is RnVuZGF5U3VuZGF5 (Click link and Decode)
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link.
Please send me a PM.
Again I apologise if I do not respond to your message before race start.
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will reflect this and gain you some results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a Combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Just because a horse has a combined score of 100, does not mean it will be the best. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process and I do not always pick the highest score!
The rating I use and rely on the most is the HF-Rating
*Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses CS rating in a race are way below 100 and average around 50-65 I tend to not place any bets on that race but may choose to Dutch the race. *
A lot of my betting is done by Dutching the races. The Dutching Calculator will always be pre-filled in correlation to the sheets however it is open to you to alter the Stake, Horse and it’s odds (if they have changed).

• For example just removing horse selections from its pre-filled cell/s, will remove its odds and stakes etc or perhaps swapping or adding a horse in the selections column will automatically grab its odds, what stake to use etc.*

The Dutching Calculator has been designed to be user friendly.
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horses A-rating and HF-rating rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and eliminate any outliers. You can then focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
One could happily use these Sheets to find the outliers and lay them. I find sometimes you’ll come across a false favourite and it’s these that can make you decent profits with laying.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting me, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process.
Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me or if you’re not a drinker, then how about donating me a coffee. as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly improve on.
Disclaimer Gambling can be a great pastime or to some it can be a source of income when approached with the correct mind and skill-set. Please don’t gamble money you don’t have and know when to take a step back. If your having a naff day then leave it as that. STOP. Call it a day and DON’T CHASE YOUR LOSSES. For whatever reason you wish to post these ratings sheets on a forum or website or anything else. Please PM me first. I’m happy to show support elsewhere but don’t take lightly for others stealing my work. If I see this happen I will stop posting.
THESE SHEETS HAVE HIDDEN MARKERS WITHIN SOME OF THE SHEETS TO IDENTIFY THEM AS MY OWN WORK SO DON’T ATTEMPT TO COPY AND PASS THEM AS YOUR OWN.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Glad to be back!
Following on from my previous posts, I’m happy to announce I’m back. These sheets are in some ways protected now. You will find out that in order to get these sheets it will not be as straightforward like last time. In order to access the sheets you will need a password.
This password will change daily and can only be obtained through PMing me here
I apologise that this is laborious and apologise in advance if I do not get to your PM in time.
These sheets have gained a great amount of feedback and a fair few of you have PMd requesting my picks or what races to watch out for. Thus every now and then these sheets will now include this.
This is not to say that every pick I have posted on today’s sheets is what I’m betting on today. Admittedly I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do.
My picks include a single and and a cheeky EW Please do your own follow up research to confirm your own selections and by no means am I an expert 😂.
Today I have done my sheet/s at Perth, Sandown, Leicester, and Goodwood.
You can find all meetings here
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will reflect this and gain results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a Combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and eliminate any outliers. You can then focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting me, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process.
Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me or if you’re not a drinker, then how about donating me a coffee. as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly imrpove on.
Disclaimer For whatever reason you wish to post these ratings sheets on a forum or website or anything else. Please PM me first. I’m happy to show support elsewhere but don’t take lightly for others stealing my work. If I see this happen I will stop posting.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Treating you all to 5 Meetings today. Hope these bring you in some pennies.
That’s 35 Races!
Today I have done my sheet/s at Redcar and at Ayr and at Down Royal and at Lingfield and at Haydock.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process. Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly imrpove on.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!
EDIT. HAYDOCK LINK WAS REMOVED. REPOSTED A FRESH ONE.

Todays Cards
Treating you all to 3 meetings today!
Today I have done my sheet/s at Lingfield and at Wolverhampton and at Chelmsford City.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results
I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my election process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.
Happy Racing everybody.

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Long time no see. It’s been a fair while... Welcome newcomers and hello again followers. I am back. I shall be posting regularly again however it will be on Mondays, Wednesday’s and Fridays. I’ll gladly increase the postings if they become popular like they have previously.
Pretty buzzing from yesterday so why not I treat you to Saturday!
Results were fair yesterday. A couple of outsiders I couldn’t have predicted, but the sheets again proved their worth. Hope we all had a decent day!!!
And now, without further ado...
All 6 Meetings! 42 Races provided 342 Horses analysed
If you have been following these Sheets you would usually be reading right now how these Sheets will be locked in a .zip file and will need a password to access them. There will be two passwords to access the sheets. The first one will never change however the second one will. This second password can only be retrieved through a PM.
If you run into problems inputting the password then that is most likely down to the way the password has been constructed. The passwords are designed to not be easily ‘Copied & Pasted’ and will occasionally include special characters/symbols so please input the password manually as you see it and DO NOT COPY AND PASTE IT
If you are struggling to access the sheets please PM and refrain from asking on this post, thank you.
I apologise in advance if I do not get to your PM in time.
I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do. Please further read here for more on how I bet
Today I have done my sheet/s at Kempton, Fairyhouse, Lingfield, Wetherby, Warwick, and *Newcastle. *
You can find all meetings here.
Your first password is ZXJpY3RoZWJhbmFuYQ== (Click link and Decode)
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM. Again I apologise if I do not respond to your message before race start.
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will reflect this and gain you some results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a Combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Just because a horse has a combined score of 100, does not mean it will be the best. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process and I do not always pick the highest score!
The rating I use and rely on the most is the HF-Rating
*Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses CS rating in a race are way below 100 and average around 50-65 I tend to not place any bets on that race but may choose to Dutch the race. *
A lot of my betting is done by Dutching the races. The Dutching Calculator will always be pre-filled in correlation to the sheets however it is open to you to alter the Stake, Horse and it’s odds (if they have changed).

• For example just removing horse selections from its pre-filled cell/s, will remove its odds and stakes etc or perhaps swapping or adding a horse in the selections column will automatically grab its odds, what stake to use etc.*

The Dutching Calculator has been designed to be user friendly.
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horses A-rating and HF-rating rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and eliminate any outliers. You can then focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
One could happily use these Sheets to find the outliers and lay them. I find sometimes you’ll come across a false favourite and it’s these that can make you decent profits with laying.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting me, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process.
Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me or if you’re not a drinker, then how about donating me a coffee. as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly improve on.
Disclaimer Gambling can be a great pastime or to some it can be a source of income when approached with the correct mind and skill-set. Please don’t gamble money you don’t have and know when to take a step back. If your having a naff day then leave it as that. STOP. Call it a day and DON’T CHASE YOUR LOSSES. For whatever reason you wish to post these ratings sheets on a forum or website or anything else. Please PM me first. I’m happy to show support elsewhere but don’t take lightly for others stealing my work. If I see this happen I will stop posting.
THESE SHEETS HAVE HIDDEN MARKERS WITHIN SOME OF THE SHEETS TO IDENTIFY THEM AS MY OWN WORK SO DON’T ATTEMPT TO COPY AND PASS THEM AS YOUR OWN.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!

Todays Cards
Aren’t you all lucky?! Today I haven’t done one or two meetings. I have only gone and done the quintuple! 36 RACES ANALYSED
Today I have done my sheet/s at Doncaster and at Musselburgh and at Epsom and at Lingfield and at Chepstow.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results
I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my election process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.
If you like and appreciate my work donate me a beer and I’ll happily keep it up.
Happy Racing everybody.
EDIT : Shoutout to u/thrungus for the 🍺.

This is a repost from one I made already on horseracing
Just testing the waters and seeing who would like to see a daily post of selections/tips produced by my own ratings system I devised with excel.
Provides a ranking on top horses dependant on their earnings and secondly provides my own rating on how well they could potentially perform.
This is for UK and Irish horse racing.
I am in no means a part of any affiliate program nor do I have my experience in this industry. It is merely two hobbies I enjoy, statistics and racing.
In my sheet it will be provided with a dutching calculator indicating what my bet on the exchange would be.

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Welcome newcomers and hello again followers. I shall be posting regularly again however it will be on Mondays, Wednesday’s and Fridays. I’ll gladly increase the postings if they become popular like they have previously.
I hope you all have had a lovely weekend and managed to beat the bookies.
Here we have...

• 3/3 Meetings today.
• 21 Races provided
• 191 Horses analysed

If you have been following these Sheets you would usually be reading right now how these Sheets will be locked in a .zip file and will need a password to access them.
There will be two passwords to access the sheets.
The first one will never change however the second one will. This second password can usually only be retrieved through a PM, however today it will be retrieved the same way the first password is.
If you run into problems inputting the password then that is most likely down to the way the password has been constructed. The passwords are designed to not be easily ‘Copied & Pasted’ and will occasionally include special characters/symbols so please input the password manually as you see it and DO NOT COPY AND PASTE IT
If you are struggling to access the sheets please PM and refrain from asking on this post, thank you. I am more than happy to lend a hand in any way.
I apologise in advance if I do not get to your PM in time.
I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do. Please further read here for more on how I bet
Today I have done my sheet/s at Kempton, Ludlow and *Wolverhampton. *
You can find all meetings here.
Your first password is ZXJpY3RoZWJhbmFuYQ==
(Click on the link, Type the links title into the box provided, and Click Decode)
Popular followers who are reading or skimming past to get the second password will usually be met with this link.
Click here to retrieve the Second Password
As I said at the beginning today’s password will be posted in the same format as the first password. If you are struggling then use the above link and I shall reply.
Your second password is Xz0tfl86KyFpMk1vNkg= (Click link and Decode)
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link.
Please send me a PM.
Again I apologise if I do not respond to your message before race start.
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will reflect this and gain you some results
Finally, included in the sheets, are 4 new additions to accompany and improve on the Ratings.
They are : -

• NP Tip - this will acknowledge whether or not he the Horse has been tipped by the Papers.
• TpSpd - this will acknowledge the Top 4 Horses based on their potential Speed Rating.
• T2J - this will acknowledge the Top 2 best performing Jockeys in the Race.
• T2T - this will acknowledge the Top 2 best performing Trainers in the Race.

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a Combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Just because a horse has a combined score of 100, does not mean it will be the best. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process and I do not always pick the highest score!
The rating I use and rely on the most is the HF-Rating
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses CS rating in a race are way below 100 and average around 50-65 I tend to not place any bets on that race but may choose to Dutch the race
A lot of my betting is done by Dutching the races. The Dutching Calculator will always be pre-filled in correlation to the sheets however it is open to you to alter the Stake, Horse and it’s odds (if they have changed).

• For example just removing horse selections from its pre-filled cell/s, will remove its odds and stakes etc or perhaps swapping or adding a horse in the selections column will automatically grab its odds, what stake to use etc.*

*Included within this workbook is an empty copy of the Dutching Calculator titled *Dutching Calculator D.i.Y (Dutch it Yourself). Please feel free to use it. **
The Dutching Calculator has been designed to be user friendly.
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horses A-rating and HF-rating rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and eliminate any outliers. You can then focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
One could happily use these Sheets to find the outliers and lay them. I find sometimes you’ll come across a false favourite and it’s these that can make you decent profits with laying.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting me, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process.
Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me or if you’re not a drinker, then how about donating me a coffee. as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly improve on.
Disclaimer
**Gambling can be a great pastime or to some it can be a source of income when approached with the correct mind and skill-set. Please don’t gamble money you don’t have and know when to take a step back.
If your having a naff day then leave it as that. STOP. Call it a day and DON’T CHASE YOUR LOSSES.
For whatever reason you wish to post these ratings sheets on a forum or website or anything else. Please PM me first. I’m happy to show support elsewhere but don’t take lightly for others stealing my work. If I see this happen I will stop posting.**
THESE SHEETS HAVE HIDDEN MARKERS WITHIN SOME OF THE SHEETS TO IDENTIFY THEM AS MY OWN WORK SO DON’T ATTEMPT TO COPY AND PASS THEM AS YOUR OWN.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

LINKS UPDATED
So sorry I missed yesterday’s meetings like I had planned on posting. Hopefully these will be a daily thing again.
Todays Cards
Today I have done all Meetings 28 RACES ANALYSED
Today I have done my sheet/s at Doncaster and at Cork and at Salisbury and at Downpatrick.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and only recently been sharing and posting these on Reddit. I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback and donations, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process. Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly imrpove on.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!
EDIT. Original links were down but have changed file host and links are back online

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Only 3 Meetings today
Gaining a great amount of feedback and quite a lot of you have PMd requesting my picks or what races to watch out for. Thus these sheets now include this.
This is not to say that every pick I have posted is what I’m betting on today. Admittedly I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do.
My picks include a single and and a cheeky EW Please do your own follow up research to confirm your own selections and by no means am I an expert 😂.
Today I have done my sheet/s at Carlisle and at Salisbury and at Bath.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process. Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly imrpove on.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!

Todays Cards
Today I have done my sheet/s at Market Rasen and at Epsom.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results
I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my election process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.
If you like and appreciate my work donate me a beer and I’ll happily keep it up.
Happy Racing everybody.

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Welcome newcomers and hello again followers. I shall be posting regularly again however it will be on Mondays, Wednesday’s and Fridays. I’ll gladly increase the postings if they become popular like they have previously.
I have sadly missed several days of posting and I can only apologize. I should be back on form of regularly posting again.
And now, without further ado...

• 4/5 Meetings today.
• 27 Races provided
• 240 Horses analysed

If you have been following these Sheets you would usually be reading right now how these Sheets will be locked in a .zip file and will need a password to access them.
There will be two passwords to access the sheets.
The first one will never change however the second one will. This second password can usually only be retrieved through a PM, however today it will be retrieved the same way the first password is.
If you run into problems inputting the password then that is most likely down to the way the password has been constructed. The passwords are designed to not be easily ‘Copied & Pasted’ and will occasionally include special characters/symbols so please input the password manually as you see it and DO NOT COPY AND PASTE IT
If you are struggling to access the sheets please PM and refrain from asking on this post, thank you. I am more than happy to lend a hand in any way.
I apologise in advance if I do not get to your PM in time.
I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do. Please further read here for more on how I bet
Today I have done my sheet/s at Wetherby, Fakenham, Southwell and *Chelmsford. *
You can find all meetings here.
Your first password is ZXJpY3RoZWJhbmFuYQ== (Click link and Decode)
Popular followers who are reading or skimming past to get the second password will usually be met with this link.
Click here to retrieve the Second Password
As I said at the beginning today’s password will be posted in the same format as the first password. If you are struggling then use the above link and I shall reply.
Your second password is wrAyNMKwMDHCsDIwMTnCsA== (Click link and Decode)
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link.
Please send me a PM.
Again I apologise if I do not respond to your message before race start.
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will reflect this and gain you some results
Finally, included in the sheets, are 4 new additions to accompany and improve on the Ratings.
They are : -

• NP Tip - this will acknowledge whether or not he the Horse has been tipped by the Papers.
• TpSpd - this will acknowledge the Top 4 Horses based on their potential Speed Rating.
• T2J - this will acknowledge the Top 2 best performing Jockeys in the Race.
• T2T - this will acknowledge the Top 2 best performing Trainers in the Race.

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a Combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Just because a horse has a combined score of 100, does not mean it will be the best. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process and I do not always pick the highest score!
The rating I use and rely on the most is the HF-Rating
*Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses CS rating in a race are way below 100 and average around 50-65 I tend to not place any bets on that race but may choose to Dutch the race. *
A lot of my betting is done by Dutching the races. The Dutching Calculator will always be pre-filled in correlation to the sheets however it is open to you to alter the Stake, Horse and it’s odds (if they have changed).

• For example just removing horse selections from its pre-filled cell/s, will remove its odds and stakes etc or perhaps swapping or adding a horse in the selections column will automatically grab its odds, what stake to use etc.*

The Dutching Calculator has been designed to be user friendly.
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horses A-rating and HF-rating rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and eliminate any outliers. You can then focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
One could happily use these Sheets to find the outliers and lay them. I find sometimes you’ll come across a false favourite and it’s these that can make you decent profits with laying.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting me, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process.
Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me or if you’re not a drinker, then how about donating me a coffee. as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly improve on.
Disclaimer Gambling can be a great pastime or to some it can be a source of income when approached with the correct mind and skill-set. Please don’t gamble money you don’t have and know when to take a step back. If your having a naff day then leave it as that. STOP. Call it a day and DON’T CHASE YOUR LOSSES. For whatever reason you wish to post these ratings sheets on a forum or website or anything else. Please PM me first. I’m happy to show support elsewhere but don’t take lightly for others stealing my work. If I see this happen I will stop posting.
THESE SHEETS HAVE HIDDEN MARKERS WITHIN SOME OF THE SHEETS TO IDENTIFY THEM AS MY OWN WORK SO DON’T ATTEMPT TO COPY AND PASS THEM AS YOUR OWN.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Welcome newcomers and hello again followers.
Had a great day yesterday. Hope you all did too. 🤞 no Meetings will be abandoned tomorrow.

• All 5 Meetings today.
• 36 Races provided
• 387 Horses analysed

If you have been following these Sheets you would usually be reading right now how these Sheets will be locked in a .zip file and will need a password to access them.
There will be two passwords to access the sheets.
The first one will never change however the second one will. This second password can usually only be retrieved through a PM, however today it will be retrieved the same way the first password is.
If you run into problems inputting the password then that is most likely down to the way the password has been constructed. The passwords are designed to not be easily ‘Copied & Pasted’ and will occasionally include special characters/symbols so please input the password manually as you see it and DO NOT COPY AND PASTE IT
If you are struggling to access the sheets please PM and refrain from asking on this post, thank you. I am more than happy to lend a hand in any way.
I apologise in advance if I do not get to your PM in time.
I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do. Please further read here for more on how I bet
Today I have done my sheet/s at Doncaster, Huntington, Lingfield, Newcastle and *Dundalk. *
You can find all meetings here.
Your first password is ZXJpY3RoZWJhbmFuYQ== (Click link and Decode)
Popular followers who are reading or skimming past to get the second password will usually be met with this link.
Click here to retrieve the Second Password
As I said at the beginning today’s password will be posted in the same format as the first password. If you are struggling then use the above link and I shall reply.
Your second password is TmNNaF5FRXNMdCR4 (Click link and Decode)
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link.
Please send me a PM.
Again I apologise if I do not respond to your message before race start.
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will reflect this and gain you some results
Finally, included in the sheets, are 4 new additions to accompany and improve on the Ratings.
They are : -

• NP Tip - this will acknowledge whether or not the Horse has been tipped by the Papers.
• TpSpd - this will acknowledge the Top 4 Horses based on their potential Speed Rating.
• T2J - this will acknowledge the Top 2 best performing Jockeys in the Race.
• T2T - this will acknowledge the Top 2 best performing Trainers in the Race.

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a Combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Just because a horse has a combined score of 100, does not mean it will be the best. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process and I do not always pick the highest score!
The rating I use and rely on the most is the HF-Rating
*Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses CS rating in a race are way below 100 and average around 50-65 I tend to not place any bets on that race but may choose to Dutch the race. *
A lot of my betting is done by Dutching the races. The Dutching Calculator will always be pre-filled in correlation to the sheets however it is open to you to alter the Stake, Horse and it’s odds (if they have changed).

• For example just removing horse selections from its pre-filled cell/s, will remove its odds and stakes etc or perhaps swapping or adding a horse in the selections column will automatically grab its odds, what stake to use etc.*

The Dutching Calculator has been designed to be user friendly.
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horses A-rating and HF-rating rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and eliminate any outliers. You can then focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
One could happily use these Sheets to find the outliers and lay them. I find sometimes you’ll come across a false favourite and it’s these that can make you decent profits with laying.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting me, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process.
Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me or if you’re not a drinker, then how about donating me a coffee. as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly improve on.
Disclaimer
**Gambling can be a great pastime or to some it can be a source of income when approached with the correct mind and skill-set. Please don’t gamble money you don’t have and know when to take a step back.
If your having a naff day then leave it as that. STOP. Call it a day and DON’T CHASE YOUR LOSSES.
For whatever reason you wish to post these ratings sheets on a forum or website or anything else. Please PM me first. I’m happy to show support elsewhere but don’t take lightly for others stealing my work. If I see this happen I will stop posting.**
THESE SHEETS HAVE HIDDEN MARKERS WITHIN SOME OF THE SHEETS TO IDENTIFY THEM AS MY OWN WORK SO DON’T ATTEMPT TO COPY AND PASS THEM AS YOUR OWN.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
4 Meetings today. Will be 5 when I include Ascot in the morning. (ASCOT NOW ADDED)
Today I have done my sheet/s at Market Rasen and at Redcar and at Newmarket and at Ayr and at Ascot.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process. Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly imrpove on.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!
EDIT. Added ROYAL ASCOT SHEET

HorseRacing Tips Sheets

Todays Cards
Its a full house today. All Meetings done today. Hope these bring you in some pennies.
Gaining a great amount of feedback and quite a lot of you have PMd requesting my picks or what races to watch out for. Thus these sheets now include this.
This is not to say that every pick I have posted is what I’m betting on today. Admittedly I bet cautiously and I dont ever chase my losses. I play with £50 each day and aim to double this which 9/10 I do.
My picks include a single and and a cheeky EW Please do your own follow up research to confirm your own selections and by no means am I an expert 😂.
Today I have done my sheet/s at Hexham and at Worcester and at Gowran Park and at Pontefract.
I’m happy to do other meetings upon request. To make it easy I have created a pre-filled direct message in the following PM link. Please send me a PM
I have made a vast improvement on the ratings due to feedback positive and negative and hopefully these changes will gain results

The Guide to using the sheets

I have changed the original 3 types of ratings on the sheet but it is still legible.
First one will be in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘A-rating’. This is a rating based on each horses average earnings and ability based on various criteria such as meeting, distance, going, class, course etc.
The second rating is the Horses Form. This again is in the Orange column within the sheet titled ‘HF-rating’.. This gives a Form Rating based on each horses sex, days since last race, form, weight, market position etc.
You will find the third rating in the ‘HF-rating’ sheet next to the selections. You will notice it’s a combined Score I have given the horses rated in the sheets ‘A-rating’ and ‘HF-Rating’. Using this combined score is not definitively going to outright give you the best horse so please be wary of using it and do your own research if you’re not confident. Again this is just my own number crunching to aid me in my selection process.
Upon looking at these ratings, if the majority of the horses ratings in a race are below 100 I tend to not place any single bets and happily choose to Dutch the race
Please feel free to request information on how to use the ’Dutching Calculator’ sheet or how to Dutch in general if you are unsure.
Also please note any horse rated in the high 100’s isn’t always a ‘SURE BET’. The aim of doing these sheets is to gauge out the top horses and you can focus some further research on these to ensure a decent bet.
Any help or advice please don’t hesitate to PM and ask.

Supporting, buying me a beer & donations

For several years I have been following horse racing and I have invested untold amounts of time in making these horse racing sheets. If you use any of these sheets to assist you in your selections or just for fun, please consider a small donation which will help keep me smiling and importantly keep these sheets coming. Many of you have already made me smile through PM’s, telling me about your winnings and also providing great feedback, and I thank you wholeheartedly.
A donation is completely optional, and can be made here. I refuse to be affiliated with any betting websites and would never make providing these sheets a paid service. I create and provide these sheets because I enjoy it and because I know how easy and quicker it makes your selection process. Please consider donating me a beer and getting drunk with me as a thank you for using these racing sheets that I’ve worked hard to create and constantly imrpove on.
Finally...
...Happy Racing everybody!