A New Year: Time for Reflection and Resolution

Did you get any of those 'your year in review' thingies from online subscriptions? I did. My Spotify listening age is 67 apparently (don't play classical music if you want to be considered young and hip - who knew?), and I'm in the top 0.1% of global ChatGPT users - and probably the top 0.00001% of those who swear profusely at the robot (may the lord preserve me when the machines rise up).

Well, no such automated 'done for you' harvested data flatter-fests here; something a bit more DIY - and more personal as a result - instead.

Seeing as we're in January, the month named after Janus, the two-faced Roman god who could look both back and forward, it's time for some reflection and resolution. That's a sentiment that applies as much to horseracing play as to other, more meaningful, facets of life. So in this post I'd like to share a few brief thoughts on my own reflection and resolutions.

Clear your plate

The turn of the year is an excellent time to de-clutter and to make the space to start afresh. That clearing out applies to tools as well as mindset.

Tracker

Racing trackers are brilliant aides-memoire. They provide a handy reminder, just when you need it, about a horse (or jockey or trainer or sire) in which you're interested. If you watch racing at all - even a little bit - you should add horses to a tracker. I really strongly encourage it. The geegeez tracker is part of our free provision so you don't even need to be a paying member to use it.

As well as adding a horse or other entity to the tracker - just by clicking the little star icon next to its name - you can include a comment about why you're tracking it. I use the comments religiously, while trying to use the tracker more sparingly, when I see something I think will be useful in future. Here's an example:

That randomly chosen example - Ballysax Lil' Mick - finished 2nd at 11/1 on his next start, and was then a slightly disappointing 6th of 14 the only time he ran since.

And now, as part of my 'reflect and resolve' activity, I have to choose whether to keep him on my tracker. In his case I'm going to remove him. Adding horses (or other entities) to a tracker has been a great source of winners for me; but removing them once they've served (or failed to serve, as is also often the case) their purpose is just as critical. Purge and reload.

So, step 1, review your tracker and clear it down. Or start using a tracker if you don't currently but you do watch racing.

The geegeez tracker is here.

Query Tool

Another tool I use a lot is the geegeez Query Tool. I do plenty of general research, occasionally replicate specific big race conditions so I can analyse, say, the Derby in more detail from a profile perspective, and I have lots of micro-systems and angles saved as QT Angles.

Again, the problem is that angles get added but they also need removing: sometimes the perceived benefit doesn't manifest or, more often, loses its edge. Reviewing the ongoing performance of QT Angles is good discipline in and of itself, but it also declutters the personalised content you pipe into the racecards.

After all, why would you want out of date and/or unprofitable intel presented as fact? That's one of the reasons ChatGPT and other LLMs are currently so moderate at assessing racing form. They will improve over time, but the fact that the companies want to burn as few tokens as possible means a lot of the responses are far less considered than they ought to/could be. Anyway, I digress.

I review my angles at least once a year and, to be honest, I'm overdue. I'll be finding time this week or next (there's a lot of actual work I need to do just now, alas) to pare my QT Angles back.

Once you get into it, it's actually pretty fun; and there's an above average chance you'll end up doing a bit of impromptu research triggered by one of your current angles which has gone 'end of shelf life' on you.

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Clearing down your Tracker and Query Tool Angles sets you up to start adding new entries in the coming months. The danger with all such tools if they're not semi-regularly pruned is that their utility becomes diluted by content that you know to be stale but which you haven't cleaned up. So clean them up!

Review Performance

Once you've set the scene for the new year, it's a perfect time to look at how the previous year (or period, a year being entirely arbitrary) went. Below are two ways of doing this, one beloved of some and the other available to all of us.

Bet Tracker

So, how did you get on punting last year? What do you mean, you don't know?

Just kidding. Hardly anyone who bets knows where they are with their pee and ell. Part of that for a lot of people is because they either know they're behind and would prefer not to specify to what degree... or they just don't care: they're winning or losing a few quid and it doesn't matter either way because they're having a good time.

I am enormously ok with that take. Betting on racing - or anything else - should be fun first; otherwise it's just another form of work. Naturally, it can be rewarding in more than just passing the time terms.

If you want to know where you are on the profit/loss spectrum, you could use our Bet Tracker. Not only will it help you with your bottom line awareness, it will also highlight areas of strength and weakness - by race type, handicap/non-handicap, distance, field size, and so on.

Users who commit to adding their wagers to Bet Tracker evangelise about how helpful it is in understanding what they do well and where they're leaking cash. Often, it's confirmation of something long suspected; occasionally, it provides a shock in an area considered relatively strong.

Deposits and withdrawals

I should front up here and concede that I don't use Bet Tracker. Part of the reason is that a lot of my bets are not standard bookie bets. Rather, I play on exchanges and the tote a fair bit, which doesn't lend itself readily to this tool (although there are at least partial workarounds that can be deployed, especially if using the 'notes' function: use a prefix in the notes, and then sort your csv download by the notes column).

But what every online punter - including me - can, and arguably should, do is review deposits and withdrawals from bookie accounts. These won't include bookmaker balances or ante post bets in transit, but as a crude barometer of the ledger they are the one-eyed king in the land of the blind.

Further candid admission: whilst I haven't yet undertaken my annual public P/L exercise, I'm pretty sure I lost a small bit last year. There were reasons for that - apart from picking the wrong quadrupeds! - which I'll come on to when I do that article; but what is crucial is that I sort of knew what was happening throughout... and I was (and still am) totally fine with that. I have several 'jobs' where I derive my income, and I generally top it up a tiny bit from betting - but in real terms that amount has only ever been a vanity symbol. Last year, it probably wasn't. And I had a wonderful time betting horses all year! Anyway, like I said, more on that anon. Which leads me to...

Go Forward... or Sideways!

Having reflected, it's time to resolve. Once you know where you are - or have recently been - you have a choice to make. You might want to change, and you might not. There is no wrong option. Reflecting in the ways I've suggested will only truly answer the "did I make a profit?" question. That, almost certainly, is not the most important one.

Questions like "did I enjoy my time with the form?", "were there any unwelcome side effects?", and "is there something else I'd rather be doing?" are much better ones to ask, assuming the financial bottom line is acceptable to you.

My answers are, "Hell yes, I enjoyed my time with the form", "no side effects whatsoever", and "there is almost (almost!) nothing else I'd rather be doing with that time".

Your responses might be different. But by reviewing, and knowing what they are and where you are, you get to make an informed decision either way.

Forward is good, and sideways might be absolutely fine, too!

Happy New Year,

Matt

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