I must sound like a moron sometimes screaming at the TV monitor when a driver does something that more or less costs him the race
1. Learn how to get horses out of the mobile, sounds simple but its only a select few who have the knack of maximising a horse's gatespeed and the difference it can make at the finish simply cannot be measured
2. Don't drive leaders too slowly - hate the mentality that a lot of drivers have that "the slower they go on a leader, the better chance they have". Its a total myth and in fact statistics prove you are better to run even 32 quarters in front as opposed to a 34 split. Heaps of drivers also go too slowly down the back straight and allow their dangers into the race when in fact they only have to go 28.5 to make it hard for the ones out wide and if you go 28.5 you should still have a decent amount of petrol left
3. Never hand the death seat up to a bolter unless you have no intention of relying on it to take you into the race
4. Know the characteristics of competitors (both horses and drivers). It stands out like dogs balls which drivers actually do their form in depth and its surprisingly low
5. Go to the fence when you are struggling ffs
6. Forget the fascination with the one out/one back spot as its generally not the greatest place to be despite what 99% of racecallers lead us to believe
7. Further to the previous point, don't use a bolter mid race to pull out in front of a runner coming 3 wide to obtain the one/one as your horse won't finish the race off and it makes to aggressor work for another 300 metres to simply get round to the death seat. This is also usually chorused by racecallers as "a great piece of driving" PLEASE!!!!!
8. Don't be afraid to come 4 wide earlier than usual if a no hoper pulls out in front of you at the 800 as you will have to come 4 wide anyway and more than likely be further off the leader than when you started if you stay behind the bolter for another 300 metres
9. If an odds on pop leads you are far better off being 3 pegs than ANY position in the running line. Sure leader's back is the best place to be but outside that 3 pegs is clearly superior to any other spot but its amazing how many drivers shun this spot
10. Its always better to err on the side of aggression as opposed to passiveness. Not many have the abilities of a Gavin Lang or Greg Sugars so stop trying to impersonate them
Just waiting for the NFL to start and came up with these off the top of my head but there are countless others no doubt given a bit more time to think. Who teaches the young drivers anyway??? From what I have seen, its usually some nearly retired unsuccessful driver who has dabbled with a few horses most of their life and learned to drive on 800m tracks without sprint lanes. Maybe they need to get a punter's perspective into how to drive tactically as I'm sure punters have more knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of how races are run
