Carl Nicholson’s Racing Diary and Stable Whispers are two horse racing tipster services which are operated by the eponymous xx. It is claimed that they have produced somewhat varied profits.
Introduction to Carl Nicholson’s Racing Diary
I have looked at Carl Nicholson before now however it was a very long time ago. As I recall, I was left a little underwhelmed by the end results, although I was perhaps less eloquent about it than I would be now. It is however several years later and there is a new service bearing his name, or more specifically, there are two services. Racing Diary and Stable Whispers.
These have some very interesting results and the way that the service is packed is somewhat frustrating to me, but I will get to that later. The important thing to keep in mind is that you have two tipster services from Carl Nicholson, both of which have produced a profit. With this in mind, let’s have a look at Racing Diary and Stable Whispers.
What Does Carl Nicholson’s Racing Diary Offer?
The core of what I want to look at in this review is Racing Diary for reasons that will become apparent eventually. This is a fairly typical horse racing tipster service and Carl Nicholson doesn’t really do anything to break the mould. Selections are sent out to Racing Diary subscribers on a daily basis and they are issued via email.
One of the things that is worth mentioning is that unlike a lot of services, Racing Diary does provide selections the night before racing. This allows plenty of time to get bets placed. By contrast, Stable Whispers sends them out on the day. This is down to a different selection approach.
In terms of the bets that you actually receive, there isn’t anything about Racing Diary or Stable Whispers that I would say are really different. They are pretty straight forward bets which from what I have seen so far are predominantly win bets with some occasional each way bets. These are at something of a variety of odds, but one thing that is quite apparent to me is that Carl Nicholson doesn’t really back favourites. This is applicable to both Racing Diary and Stable Whispers.
In terms of stakes and how much you will bet betting, Carl Nicholson has a simple level staking plan in place for Racing Diary and Stable Whispers. This generally involves staking no more than a point on each bet (1/2 a point on each way bets), although occasionally you may receive advice to stake more than this. Honestly though, this is very much a rare event. Both services appear to be based on a betting bank of 100 points.
Finally I want to talk about the strike rate. Now it is important to keep in mind that these are very different services and I think that this is where it becomes apparent that this is the case. Carl Nicholson has guided his main Racing Diary service to a strike rate of about 17.5%. This doesn’t look great but as I will cover in greater detail, this is a service based around sending selections out the night before.
This means that there is by and large less information to go off. Stable Whispers on the other hand can send out tips with relatively short notice. This means that the strike rate of just shy of 21% over the last few months is probably more in line with what you would expect.
How Does Carl Nicholson’s Racing Diary Work?
I want to start by addressing a little bit about Carl Nicholson himself. He claims to have a degree in maths and computer science from Harvard University. From what I have seen of the guy and my research, I see little reason to doubt this. He has also worked in the horse racing industry before becoming a bettor. This is all rather important to keep in mind as it appears to be the backbone of both Racing Diary and Stable Whispers. This doesn’t however mean that there isn’t more to it.
As I have hinted at before now, Racing Diary is a service which is based around value. This is why bets are sent out the night before. It is also why you don’t tend to see shorter odds or even a great strike rate. There isn’t a lot of detail given, but it makes sense than Carl Nicholson taking an analytical and mathematical approach to horse racing would allow him to find value. I should point out however that this does involve some speculation about Racing Diary on my behalf.
Stable Whispers on the other hand is, as mentioned, more immediate. This is supposedly based on Carl Nicholson’s network of contacts and the information that he gets from them. Essentially, he is getting information from track side and as such, you get less notice and shorter odds.
What is the Initial Investment?
I have hinted at the pricing structure for xx a few times now and I want to explore this in some detail here.
Racing Diary is priced at £24.99 per month. This isn’t particularly expensive. If you want to receive Carl Nicholson’s selections for Stable Whispers however, you have to sign up for both Racing Diary and Stable Whispers at a cost of £34.98. There is no option to sign up for them independently. Alternatively, you can sign up for Racing Diary on an annual basis for £299 and get full access to Stable Whispers as well as a few other bonuses as well. With all options, there are no money back guarantees in place.
What is the Rate of Return?
Racing Diary supposedly made a profit of £4,312 to £25 level stakes over the last 12 months according to Carl Nicholson’s website. This would mean a points profit of 172.48 points, an entirely reasonable amount for a tipster service to earn. For 2018 however, we are told that Racing Diary has made a profit of £908. At the end of August however, the proofing shows that the service is actually up 135.34 points.
This is a decent amount. Meanwhile, we are told that Stable Whispers is up £1,131 in the same space of time. According to Carl Nicholson’s proofing however, Stable Whispers is actually up 68 points as of the end of August. In both circumstances, Carl Nicholson has produced a decent enough profit though.
Conclusion on Carl Nicholson’s Racing Diary
The whole set up of Racing Diary and Stable Whispers takes some time to understand and I hope that I have done a good enough job of explaining the service to paint a picture of what you get. For those that may still be confused (and I really wouldn’t blame you. I’m a little bit confused myself and I just wrote all of this), the long and short of things is that Carl Nicholson has put out a pretty average tipster service, and a more selective probably quite average tipster service.
But in my opinion, the two aren’t supposed to be used individually. So much so that I have treated Racing Diary and Stable Whispers as one product throughout this review.
Whilst I can appreciate that it is in Carl Nicholson’s interests to market them the way that he does, I don’t see it as the right call. I understand that some people may prefer to back value and so would just be interested in Racing Diary. I can also appreciate that packaging them together comes with some risk as they are very different products. I can even see how offering two different price points broadens the people who might be interested in the wider service.
For my money, even though Racing Diary is probably just about worth £25 per month on its ownand Stable Whispers probably just about warrants that additional £10 per month, I feel that this puts them on the very edge of being value for money. Put them both together at about £30, explain the multifaceted approach to betting, and that would be a much stronger product in my opinion.
None the less, I should reiterate that I don’t think that either Racing Diary or Stable Whispers are bad value for money.
The bottom line here is that you have a tipster service which has made a profit of some 203.34 points. This works out at an overall 25.4 points per month on average. A respectable result. I still don’t think either option really works particularly strongly on their own however and I would have liked to have seen a joint product here.
Still, this is probably worth some consideration.
