Accurate records of every bet that you place, updated on a daily basis are an essential part of successful betting and will be invaluable when it comes to finding out what type of bet and races you succeed most in.
Imagine looking back at a years records and finding that you were successful in over 75% of all bets placed in Maiden races or Nurseries but couldn’t even hit a 10% strike in Group races and Novice Chases.
How much better do you think you would do the following year by concentrating more on where you bet best?
Here are some more positives that come from keeping a betting record:
1. Betting records can help determine at a glance, the current size of your betting bank and whether it is running at a profit or a loss.
2. Betting records will determine your personal performance statistics, such as your strike rate overall and in bet/race types, the average odds of your winners and so on.
3. Keeping records encourages self-discipline and helps discourage the odd silly bet and ensures that you stick to your plan.
4. Betting records allow you to keep a close eye on your progress and watch your betting bank grow from your initial betting bank to something much more substantial.
I suggest that you get yourself an A4 size squared note pad if you can and write the following headings across the top forming separate columns. The underlined headings below are ones I strongly recommend, the others are headings that may be useful too.
Date
Course
Meeting
Race Type (Maiden, Handicap, 3yo’s etc.)
Horse Name
Distance
Trainer
Jockey
Forecast Price
Bet Type
Total Stake
SP or price taken
Won/Lost
Profit/Loss on the bet
Total bank after this bet.
You can of course add as many other headings as you wish as the more that you know about each bet that you place the better.
I would also suggest that you highlight every line that is a winning bet with a marker pen so that you can see where your best bets are placed at a glance.
There are many ways that this idea will help you, not least with discipline but also you will be quite amazed at just how much money you are betting with.
If you bet on line or over the phone using a debit or credit card it is very easy not to see the money you are using as real cold hard cash. Taking £20 from an account and losing it just like that doesn’t really mean that much sometimes, unlike when you physically go to the bookmakers and hand over the cash.
After a few months of keeping a record you may be surprised to see the amount that you have actually lost and in many cases this can be enough to decide that you really are betting too much and should cease for good or at least take time out from your betting.
Another way keeping records will help is it should stop you placing so many bets if you are strict with your record keeping. One because you don’t want to be writing hundreds of bets each day or week and two, if you can start to identify where your best bets are placed you will instinctively stop betting where you are not so good.
Once you start to do this and see your Total Bank column steadily increasing, you should gain great confidence from your successes and start to become more professional in your approach and going back to betting on ‘anything just to have a bet’ will become a thing of the past.
Great article James. I am fairly new to punting, and I have just finished my record keeping chart, then came across your article.
I had a focus on betting pools, and track conditions and weather were an important consideration for me [In Queensland, Australia].
The reason I thought betting pools were important is because I started only betting bet first fours [selecting the first four horses in a race] and trifectas as a back up. These rarely come in, but can pay big when they do. I actually started to notice that mostly my trifectas as backups won, and when my First fours did come in they were skinny payouts, because everyone else picked them!
So I have decided to bet in most pools, and start with small bets, and keep each pool separate, so that I can see where my bets are going, and where my winnings are coming from.
Also I wanted to increase double my winning bet types on wins/half on loses, from its own pools, and keep losing bet types from using a winning pools money. [What had been happening with first fours using trifectas winnings.]
My gut feel is that win bets will double quickest, and so that will become the biggest pool.
Whilst my First four bets will double slowest, and may not give the return I think it will.
Why the concern on weather and track conditions? I have been finding that it appears that runners are affected by weather, against their form lines. It bad weather or soft tracks are not profitable, I plan to stop betting in those weather patterns. [In Australia I can afford to do that.]
Why don’t I worry about top Jockeys?
In general top jockeys win up to 20%- 25% max of races, so they lose 75%-80% of them.
The only time I take notice of top jockeys is when they are at different tracks, Interstate tracks, and the horse as never won but come close, or never won at this course or in this class before. These can come home often at big odds. In this case the Jockey is brought in to unlock the horses potential. But I look for that before the race, not record it after the race.
I’m Starting to keep records —Track, Type, Dist & Surf, then surface by itself, colt, fillyI would say age but I only play 2 yo maidens (other races not profitable)…also Number of starters, after Scr’s..Update each w/running totals of profits and loses…This way over 6 months I hv eliminated Allowance, Stks, Even races for all 3 yr olds even if Mdn’s. I do well …. (Ahead some…I bet $5/$12 per race…) but being almost $300 ahead is pretty good, but I’m improving becuz keeping up with results under each condition helps a lot…Then let those go…But still follow for a while…I did this (saved $64 over 3 weeks) take care ,,, Respond ?