The Retirement Staking Plan

The Retirement Staking plan was devised by Grandstand's Barry Hughes which is similar in some degree to Retrieval Staking, in that you are aiming to achieve a particular amount of money on any particular bet, and shape your stake accordingly. But rather than use the odds of the each horse, it uses an 'average' price of your winners. So, first of all you need to take the average price of your winners. Double this figure to get your 'divisor'.

We know the average price of our winners is 3/1, so the divisor for this plan is 6.

Now, the first stake in this plan is 1% of the starting Bank, and the target becomes this stake multiplied by the divisor:

Selection Divisor Target Stake Balance
Horse #1 6 £6.00 £1.00 £100

Now that we have our first bet calculated, we can carry on. All losses are added to your target, and to get your new stake, you simply take your current target and divide by the divisor. If you go 6 races without a winner, you need to increase your divisor by one after each losing bet:

Selection Fin Pos Divisor Target Stake Balance
Starting Bank NP       £100.00
Horse #1 NP 6 £6.00 £1.00 £99.00
Horse #2 NP 6 £7.00 £1.17 £97.83
Horse #3 NP 6 £8.17 £1.36 £96.47
Horse #4 NP 6 £9.53 £1.59 £94.88
Horse #5 NP 6 £11.12 £1.85 £93.03
Horse #6 NP 6 £12.97 £2.16 £90.87
Horse #7 NP 7 £15.13 £2.16 £88.71
Horse #8 NP 8 £17.29 £2.16 £86.55
Horse #10 NP 9 £19.45 £2.16 £84.39
Horse #10 WON @ 3/1 10 £21.61 £2.16 £90.87

Now, when you have a winner, you reduce your target by how much you won. And it just so happens, that we have won our 'target' odds, so with a stake of £2.16 on a 3/1, we have won £6.48. Our current target being £21.61, so we reduce the target by £6.48, which is £15.13.

Now, in order to see what the divisor is, we look back to when the target in previous bets, was closest to the current target, and we can see that on Horse #7 the target was exactly £15.13, and at that point the divisor was 7, so the new divisor becomes 7.

Selection Fin Pos Divisor Target Stake Balance
Horse #11 NP 7 £15.13 2.16 £88.70
Horse #12 WON @ 2/1 8 £17.29 £2.16 £93.03

Now, again we have won, so we take the winnings from the target. £2.16 @ 2/1 = £4.32. Target of £17.29 - £4.32 = £12.97. So again, we look to the past to see when our target was close to the current, and this was on Horse #6, where the target was exactly £12.97 - at this time the divisor was 6, so the new divisor is 6. However, we must also remember that at this point, (Horse #6) we were about to start increases our divisor, as we had had a losing run of 6. This must be continued again, so if our next horse loses, we increase the divisor.

Selection Fin Pos Divisor Target Stake Balance
Horse #13 NP 6 £12.97 2.16 £90.87
Horse #14 WON @ 5/2 7 £15.13 £2.16 £96.27
Horse #14 WON @ 5/2 6 £9.73 £1.22 £99.31

And at this point, the target drops from £9.73 to £6.69, so we are back at the start.

Advantages
  • This plan PROTECTS the bank, it can stand 48 losses before breaking it.
  • Increasing the divisor after 6 bets, further increases the safety of the bank.
Disadvantages
  • This plan is solely aimed at protecting your bank, and as such does very little to increase it.
  • Your bet so small even when you are betting your maximum you will fail to win very much.
  • Because the plan does not look at the current odds for the horse, the stake does not reflect the target, eg. if your target is 3/1 and you are betting on a 2/1, you know even before the horse runs, that you will not recoup your target.
  • When you do win, you have to work out not only what the new divisor is by looking back, but you must also remember, how many losing runs the current bet was on, and use that also.
Summary
  • Number of losing bets to halve the initial Betting Bank : 25
  • Number of losing bets to break the initial Betting Bank : 48
  • The Retirement Plan is a VERY LOW RISK Staking Plan