I've been tidying up my file of Lee's posts from the old Gummy forum and thought that, as I do so, I would post some extracts that seem to me to be particularly helpful here. Below is the first brief selection. (The dates after passages in this and future selections are the dates the posts were made on the Gummy forum; entries in square brackets are mine, hopefully to add to the clarity of the passages):
"Not surprisingly, the most popular thread on the board! It's interesting that there seems to be a lack of ˜posters' who were actually around when the man from Market Harborough came on to the scene; or perhaps they just don't wish to show their age!!
Those that were will certainly recall how a lifeline was thrown to those of us who were treading water with our betting activities back then, and I had personally already been in to racing for about 8 years and had really got nowhere fast ….
A couple of things, and firstly one point that seems to be obvious is that the old formbooks are required. Well they most certainly are. Anyone wishing to take up the quest may as well put the letters and articles to rest until the necessary formbooks have been obtained. I am fortunate to have collected from the start all formbooks going back to 1971 for both rules, which is in my mind where the collection should start. The reason for this should be obvious.
Secondly, the examples that VDW gave? Where should you start? I hear a lot that say start at the beginning, well I'm afraid I have to disagree. This was fine back in the late 70's when you had no choice, but not now. Anyone that knows something about VDW will tell you that the Prominent King letter holds many, many answers. But they will also tell you that these answers only became apparent when some of the more obvious examples, such as those that were forecast favourites, or indeed sent off as favourites, were looked at in detail. The ones that I refer to are those such as Little Owl, Wing and A Prayer, Cool Gin etc. etc.
Believe me when I say that a killing can be made just by understanding why these types were ˜good things' …" (15/02/02).
"The Armaturk type of bet is where I poach the majority of my winners, but not always at that price. He was the class/form horse in the race and everything went his way. This had the markings of a VDW certainty written all over it, and in my mind it gives us another example of watching how the trainer has placed his horse, and was the winner in the race. Some may have felt that the price was a bit short, but when you look at what it had come up against and how it'd performed in comparison to the opposition on the day, 4/6 was snapped up. For those who wish to study an up to date example [of the Little Owl, Wing and Prayer etc type] then this is a good one to get your teeth in to." (21/02/02). [The Armaturk race was on 16/02/02.]
For anyone wanting another, even more recent, example: "Came Back was for me what VDW is all about, and many more with very similar profiles come in at much better prices." [Came Back's race was on 26/03/08. This sentence by Lee comes from another forum, not the Gummy board.]
