A Very Personal Betting Checklist

I am starting to limber up. No, not twenty press-ups when I jump out of bed each morning. I really need to get back to some form of fitness as I can't go swimming, although I do go out on the mountain bike each day. 

Living in the pancake-flat Fens a molehill is classed as a mountain. Anyway, I think my eating is in excess of my calorie intake/burn. 

But back to the post...

One thing about planning is that you have some aspect of preparation. That is no bad thing when it comes to horse racing and betting because if you don't and it is all off the top of your head you may be prone to knee-jerk reactions and that is never a good idea. I guess when you don't have an idea you don't have an idea!

Yes, that sounds very Irish (sorry if you are of the Gaelic breed because I love you all). 

Anyway, I have been thinking about the season ahead (when it happens) and switching my brain on. As I am getting older, the brain is less like a wet computer (sounds a horrible term) and more like a chugging one-stroke cylinder engine with a dodgy head gasket. They say as you get older your brain cells are dying at a rate, like lemmings jumping off a cliff into a pond full of acid. 

So I have been working on my Betting Checklist. I never used to be one for checklists and that kind of hippie stuff (joke) but I simply cannot get away from the reasoning that it helps me, you and the old women down the road work efficiently. I was inspired by my brother, Tony, who listens to panpipe music on a loop and wears hand-knitted jumpers. 

The Betting Checklist is about helping appreciate the task at hand by assessing a given race or horse. 

You may be looking at the graphic I added to this post and thinking, wait a minute, I can't even read it. 

If anyone wants a copy of the Betting Checklist you are welcome to contact me at jason@professionalgamblers.co.uk and I will email it to you. The thing about the Betting Checklist is that it is a personal thing. As it should be because we all have our own way of working and a specific approach. 

It's important we have our own way of working. 

If we all bet the same it is a recipe for disaster. To me, winning is about finding your niche. Anyway, my checklist details positives and negatives. I can assure you these aspects of categorisation help narrow down the field. 

The truth is that most horses have very little chance of winning. That's why it is important to have a standardised approach to our thinking and reinforce what works rather than thinking without structure which doesn't sit on a good foundation. 

As they say when sawing a piece of wood: measure twice - cut once.

The Betting Checklist relates to positives, negatives, differing race types (maiden, stakes, listed, group, plating, and nurseries). All the kind of stuff you would think for debutantes and thereafter. 

I will be using this checklist for each and every two-year-old race as a form of assessment. It is a Very Personal Betting Checklist but it might be of interest to you or help you creates a checklist that works for you.

Good luck to all.

Author: Jason Coote

**KNOW THE BEST HORSES IN TRAINING (BEFORE THEY RACE!)**