PICKING a winner is difficult enough without trying to name the second horse as well but there is a lot of value these days in betting on a forecast with the English Tote.

Bookmakers long ago created a controversial computerised system, based on the starting prices, and, of course, containing a built-in percentage. This return for picking the one-two is, in the UK, the Computer Straight Forecast. But its days must be numbered in its present form, if it continues to trail the new Tote equivalent.

The CSF is currently losing out 6-4 to the Tote's new (correct-order) Exacta. This replaced the Tote Dual Forecast (either-order) bet on January 21 this year, and it has been dramatically successful.

In the first two months, it declared a better return than the CSF in 644 of the 1,081 races run in that time.

A £1 stake on each winner compared like this:

Exacta £69,019; CSF £46,996. In other words, the Exacta paid 47% better.

One way of having a flutter with the Tote is to take the MajorData selection for a race, then pick your own horse, or take the favourite. Put this second horse with the MajorData pick in a reverse Exacta so that, however they finish, first or second, you must win.

At Cheltenham, if you'd fancied the runner-up Marching Marquis for the Kim Muir, an Exacta with MajorData's winning tip, Honey Mount, would have paid 221-1. Had Danegold, second in the County Hurdle, been your fancy, then an Exacta with the winner, MajorData's tip Master Tern, would have netted you more than 296-1.

In smaller races, take MajorData's tip "with the field;" in other words, MajorData to win and anything else to be second. If the MajorData tip is an outsider (it usually is) and it beats another outsider, the return could be colossal for the size of the field. Even with a 5-1 or 6-1 shot, it could be very rewarding.

Example: on the second day at Cheltenham, there was an eight-horse race at Newton Abbot. The winner (10-1) "with the field" paid nearly 90-1 on the Exacta, although the second horse home was only 6-1 (CSF 67-1). We're talking about winning nearly £1,000 for a £10 note. Not bad. Call up MajorData now to start winning.

TERRY CLARK, a former racing editor in Fleet Street, is editor of the MAJORDATA racing agency at 401 LANGHAM HOUSE, 302 REGENT STREET, LONDON W1R 6HH *************************************** MajorData has completed 28 months with a profit on its selections every month from December, 1997, to March, 2000, inclusive. Visit the Majordata Web Site for more information