| Our expert on...why a betting notebook is vital (and how he tracks horses to follow):
"Firstly, I make sure I buy a hard-backed notebook at the start of every season. It gets a good battering over the course of the year and I'll get through a couple per season. I write down the list of runners and the race conditions for the race I am betting in. This is what takes a lot of the time - more so than watching replays (because I've watched most of the races live previously).
I note down race variables such as distance, class and going, and then other non-obvious things such as trainer form. Being able to check back when certain runners have run well when the yard is out of form, is useful at a later point and something the majority of punters won't bother to check (for example I think Limato can be forgiven his latest defeat as the Henry Candy yard was badly out of form at the time. He runs at Royal Ascot next week).
I also note whether the ground looked to be riding as it was officially described. Course clerks have a habit of giving inaccurate descriptions to ensure as many runners as possible turn up to race, but if there is mud flying about then it is worth recording that the ground was soft, as the going may officially go on record as something less extreme - and the majority of punters will refer to that official description in future.
After each race I go back to the notes and make a brief line on the race and circle any runners I want to remember for future reference.
However, as I cannot bring my notebook everywhere with me, I need an online method of keeping tabs on runners so, so I also use the horse tracker facility on Irish Racing's website. There are countless others out there, though I like that one as it allows brief notes to be saved online. You get an e-mail whenever your horses have declared to run.
Most of the time, though, I have seen the declarations for races at work, and providing the horse is running in the UK, I will be aware of it even before any tracker e-mails arrive. Given declarations are made 48 hours before a flat race, and my Press Association work begins as soon as the declarations come in, I've generally had two days to see the declarations for any notebooked runners.
The potential problem is when trainers go abroad - I almost missed Muthmir (my sprinter to follow this season) at Chantilly the other day, for example, and it was only when I saw a rival of his being well backed on Oddschecker that I realised there was 1) A Group race taking place in France that Sunday and 2) Muthmir was running in it."
Our expert on…why being realistic with what you can win is key:
"These days I don't request big liabilities. I have got used to knowing my restrictions with each firm and just play within the set limits. I spread the stakes about plenty but don't try and take the mickey.
Gambling isn't my primary income - my full-time job is - so I don't need to stake to the levels a professional gambler would need to in order to turn over an amount sufficient to live off.
Last year the service generated about 75 pts profit from 750 pts staked, so if I stake, say, close to £100 per point, a good year like 2014 still creates a nice little side pot (tax free) to top up my main earnings.
Several years ago I held aspirations of becoming a professional punter at some point, but then I started a family and my whole outlook on gambling has changed with new responsibilities, even before the account closures and restrictions started and placed a time burden on top of things in terms of getting bets on.
I am comfortable just using betting as a means of trying to boost my savings now, working within the constraints, rather than trying to progress things back up a notch and overcome the barriers like sourcing fresh accounts and spending more time getting bigger stakes on." | 
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