Top tipsters pick roughies too

For a long time commercial tipsters have been branded with a reputation of only picking short priced favourites. Some punters figure this is how the commercial tipsters keep their jobs "..they focus on strike rate because it's too hard for punters to keep track of their profit". We wondered if this claim was actually true and analysed our data to answer the question: Do top tipsters tip roughies?

To answer this question we referenced each of the Top 10 pro tipsters Key Tip Statistics at theGreatTipOff.com.

We found six of the Top 10 tipsters on the leader board had tipped a roughie over the past 6 months.

Top 10 Tipster	Date	Track	Horse	Win Price
Greg Miles	12 Sep 2009	Moonee Valley	PERGOLA	$20.60
Shane Anderson	5 Dec 2009	Caulfield	DANZYLUM	$17.90
Michael Sharkie	28 Oct 2009	Bendigo	ZUPACOOL	$7.20
The Weekend Whisper	3 Oct 2009	Randwick	MISS MARIELLE	$8.00
Mark Ryan	18 Dec 2009	Flemington	GARND DESTINY	$10.00
Grant Morgan	22 Aug 2009	Doomben	SHADY PROSPECT	$12.30

When you look at each of these tipsters' average price you start to realise favourites are not the first thing they look for.

Top 10 Tipsters	Average Win Price
Greg Miles	$4.29
Shane Anderson	$4.27
Michael Sharkie	$2.99
The Weekend Whisper	$3.44
Mark Ryan	$3.44
Grant Morgan	$3.98

The fact that the majority of Top 10 tipsters are tipping roughies and have a relatively high average price suggests that looking outside of the favoured runners from time to time is actually key to their success.

Maybe it's time for us punters to put the "short priced" brand away. We are not saying that there are no commercial tipsters who look for their best favourite when posting their specials, but this analysis surely proves it is not a brush we can tar all of Australia's commercial tipsters with.