£19,764.44 .................

net profit in 2007 , well short of my £30,000 target , the first time i have missed my £30k target since i left the city rat race in june 2002 . This has been the first year of my blog but i feel the blog itself has been a help rather than a hinderance and that there is no connection between the poor year and the blog as i feel my discipline has improved somewhat and thats down to the online diary .



My gross profit is £23,759.44 take away my subscription fees of £3995 leaves £19,764.44 .



A brief analysis of the services i used in 2007 :


ISIRIS


The highlight of the year for me happened in november with the introduction of the more user friendly and selective service , no more days with 5 insiders , i had ceased backing the insiders as i struggled to get on and i have been brought up with being selective with my betting and having 5 bets in a day from one service was of no interest to me . I was and still am a great supporter of the new system and i look forward to a successful 2008 with isiris , having just 4/5 bets a week at most .
The introduction of the new system was soon followed by membership to isiris closing and no more advesrtising in the racing post , in effect a private members advisory service has been introduced .
I contacted kevin early in december and told him that i was intending to continue my blog in 2008 , i was aware of the closure of membership and ceasing the adverts and had an idea of what he was trying to create with the revamped isiris , i asked whether he had any objections to me mentioning isiris and the bets on a daily basis , he responded that he would prefer if i dropped the daily bets and p/l , i have no problem with this and instead in 2008 all i will mention is a weekly p/l from isiris .

MARK HOLDER

2007 not a vintage year for mh followers , frustration followed frustration , the year was brought to an apt close by cemgraft today finishing 4th but with a 33/1 shot bolting and being withdrawn the ew terms were reduced to the first three . i experienced my longest ever losing run with mark since i joined in 1998 BUT for all this we still ended comfortably in profit for the year so i still remain positive and have every confidence in mark going forward especially with no flat bets in 2008 .

OPTIMUM RACING

A definite positive in 2007 was optimum racing , i admit i was not saying this earlier on in the year as the service struggled , and yes i did cut my stakes but i just felt i had to do some firefighting so to speak , part of the early struggle i feel was andrew starting up his own service as previously he was with mark holder , and he had to combine the pressure of advising and running a business . But wow did he turn around the p/l in the second half of the year , andrew concentrates on chases and also runs syndicates under the optimum banner with city affair being the flagbearer so far improving and wining 3 races on the trot in august and has been raised 25lb since coming under the care of tim vaughan , a trainer to note in 2008 .
I am looking forward to the future with optimum in 2008 .

CONCLUSION

This time last year if i was told that my profit would be a little more than £19,000 in 2007 i would have been most disappointed but after finding myself over £7500 in deficit during february im not too downhearted .
I have not enjoyed the last year as much as previous years , with the bottom line not progressing to levels i had previously experienced this is not surprising but the main reason has been the difficulty in getting on , no longer can i place the bets via the internet from home i now trawl the shops in london , overall i have not experienced too many problems but i now work in some pretty shappy parts of north london and my line of work means i have to carry some lumpy sums of cash on me and i have had a few scary moments and i have to remain vigilent at all times .
I will be continuing with all 3 services in 2008 and all that is left is to wish all a most happy and prosperous new year .

DIRK DIGGLER .