You may have noticed, in a lot of the articles and posts I have written over the years, that I advocate keeping your own notes and records if you are half-way serious about profiting from betting on horses. If you could see my office you would understand that I practice what I preach. Not only do I keep spreadsheets and databases on my computer, but maintain good old hard copy journals, notebooks and box files, all hand-written in my own scrawling handwriting.
Those notes are not just to remind me of when I made a blunder (I use big bold red letters in marker pen to give myself a mental kick up the backside!), but also to help me to develop my skills as a race analyst, and to snare the occasional value bet. In my individual approach to race analysis and betting I’m continually seeking that bit of information that the crowd doesn’t have, or isn’t immediately obvious and staring them in the face. I have often said, “if you want to beat them, make sure you know something they don’t, or at least have better information on the stuff they do know.”
If you want to beat them, make sure you know something they don’t, or at least make sure you have better information up your sleeve on the stuff they do know.
Just possessing that one piece of knowledge that the average punter doesn’t know, can be the difference between a winning day and a miserable evening spent brooding over your mistakes. So what notes should you keep? Well obviously, you need to spot things, and when you do, write them down. They have to be the kind of things that the race commentators probably will not mention in their post-race comments.
An example of this sort of note taking is a tongue tie. If you note that a horse did not have one in its last race, but today has one fitted, then that is important. If you had made a note that a horse looked distracted or out-of-condition in the paddock last time out, but today looks good in his coat, with ears pricked, then that is important.
Those are the kinds of things you will not find in the form book, but they can point very clearly to how the horse may run today, compared to last time. So these kind of notes are very important. If you are anything like me, you cannot rely on your memory to recall what you had for breakfast this morning, let alone how a horse looked in the parade ring three weeks ago. So that is why I am a prolific note taker. You may think it is a lot of hard work, but then I’ve never said making your betting pay was going to be easy.
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