The following is by way of self-motivation, ahead of an intended return to action later in the month. (Have always used rules, guides, hints as a means of navigation through betting's dark chambers).
1) Don't bet, but if you must bet, have a proper bet. Don't piddle around.
2) “Thou shalt not win” is betting's implacable commandment, carried down from high mountains by representatives of the bookmaking industry. What, after all, do you intend to do about it?
3) Form can be studied at length, with the candle burnt at each end, but do you know what a bet looks like?
4) The deluded backer seeks something for nothing and never finds it.
5) Scared money never wins and sensible money won't get you far. There must be some daring.
6) Never bet out of context. What context? The context of your aspirations and the processes set in place in order to attain them.
7) If you “just knew it” why did you back it?
8) There is no such thing as a bet to nothing.
9) “Can't see beyond” a certain outcome? Look again.
10) Stable form has its bearing as surely does the form your horses finds itself in, but how much attention has been paid to your own readiness and willingness and fire?
11) Rhythm, harmony and balance are essential components of inner fortitude as much as a flint-eyed resolve and indomitable will.
12) What are you seeking to achieve, across a given time-frame? Is your aspiration in due proportion to what you are prepared to put at risk in the game?
13) To take up the game for real; well, you'd better be fearless, hadn't you?
14) Don't get carried away by how you feel about something. This horse, for instance. That bet.
15) Honesty and humility are essential requirements, alongside the ability to retain a sense of humour when it all goes horribly wrong.
16) Betting for a purpose. That's what it's all about. Isn't it? What purpose? The glory of the game is being free to decide.
17) Don't bet in the Intermediate Zone, full of fuss and stress, signifying next to nothing should the horse go in.
18) The losing run is an inevitable part of the game. Can you lie awake, in the terror of the dark, and quietly tell yourself:
Fine.
No worries.
Not long to turn?
19) Let your results do the talking, when the reckoning comes.
20) Come on, let us cultivate the Supreme Art of not taking it personally. 12-14 July
Have seldom, if ever, known ground like this for the Newmarket July Meeting. Who knows how soft it will be, especially on the punishing uphill finish?
Ahern (1.50, Thursday) ran extremely well in defeat at Royal Ascot, but I'm not quite convinced about the form and anyway he's been widely tipped and the price has gone.
Hajras (2.25, Thursday) remains open to big improvement but this 1m2f handicap is always tough to win so he can also be left alone.
Neither win, and Chachamaidee, pencilled in as a possible return bet in the Falmouth Stakes on Friday (3.00), doesn't run on account of the ground.
Even Sentaril manages to get beaten at a short-price at York, illustrating the extra degree of diligence required when the ground is so unseasonably soft.
Each race can still be approached as a unique entity, in search of individuals likely to be suited by the given conditions, but the problem is a lack of continuity. Rhythm gets interrupted.
For instance, the Superlative Stakes at Newmarket (2.15, Saturday) is a natural next stop for Olympic Glory after his superb run in the Coventry Stakes, but will he handle the ground, which will be even worse for the final day of the meeting, now unceremoniously shifted to the weekend.
The July Cup on a Saturday?
It just doesn't feel right.
Trouble is, those who take these decisions block out feelings with a totalitarian rigour.
All that interests them is the bottom line and if that means trampling over tradition, then so be it.
16 July
The Backer of old had fierce self-discipline, ocean reserves of patience and an iron nerve.
Nowadays, if you announced to some forum or other that you are intending to wait all week for the 13-8 shot in the last at Market Rasen, you'd be laughed off the premises not that the Backer would have wasted his time in the opinion mix.
He had a deep respect for the game.
You'd never find him the worse for wear in a racecourse bar after the last, though of course he could hold his drink.
He'd never dismiss those who were down on their luck, often elderly men who had been to the war, and knew the meaning of fearlessness, which certainly wasn't to be full of bluster and bravado at the prospect of laying a dodgy favourite to grab a few quid in the opener at Lingfield Park.
It was a tough game, but he didn't complain.
He tried to keep the moaning to a minimum and to appreciate a decent winner when it came along because, damn it, he deserved it.
17 July
As a tipster, what counts is the quality of your insights, the strength of your opinions.
As a backer, you must leave these realms behind and concentrate on action and intention.
How come you started out fancying this horse, really rather strongly, but when it came down to it you scaled down your stake, or left alone altogether?
Perhaps it comes down to concentration, timing.
Keeping a grip on yourself amidst the fast flux. You could start out with the best of intentions as an opening batsman – watch the ball, get in line, play it late – then slash at a wide one for reasons never quite clear and be walking back to the pavilion.
To extend the sporting analogy – and betting for real is arguably closer to sport than to art or certainly to science – maybe aggression is required. “Mental strength”, whatever this means, maybe a mode of inner refrigeration enabling you to be cool, calm, calculating.
Or else it is a matter of touch, finesse, style.
Yet always that central core of resolve.
Betting is believing.
Do you secretly and silently believe it will be running for you, when all is hushed; when the crowd has dispersed and the slips have been swept up from the floor and incinerated out back, without fuss or dignity or ceremony?
18 July
Is it less a matter of setting out in search of winners than of winners coming to find you?
Perhaps we ought to be asking ourselves not “can it win?” but “can it win for me?”
What have I done to be worthy of this winner?
Has sufficient effort been made?
21 July
Immediately after Sea Moon had powered home in the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot I told myself “King George” and not inclined to depart from this instinctual position despite the undoubted strength in depth among today's opposition (4.35).
Plenty clearly agree as he's backed late on from 3-1 into 2-1, but he can't get competitive under a hold up ride.
Another disappointment.
More and more I like to see mine out in front, or ridden prominently (and given that Sea Moon is often held up maybe this was a clue missed in evaluating the race).
Reminded of the days when Steve Cauthen had recently flown in from America. Seasoned judges would turn to each other in the stands and wonder what on earth this American boy was doing having them so far out in front, only his rides wouldn't be coming back to the field.
It was glorious backing him on one of Cecil's at York in the sunshine. Watching him wind it up from the home turn, bounding further and further away on the fast ground (hardly any watering back then, in those happy days).
28 July
Nowadays, the winner of almost every big sporting event will hardly be over the line before a microphone appears under the nose.
“How does it feel?” is the inevitable question and to judge by the answers it often doesn't feel very exceptional at all which is perhaps not surprising since these winners are at work and in most cases doing what is expected of them.
(Seriously doubt if it ever “sinks in” either).
Same for the “pro” gambler.
You watch a big winner on the television and wait for the weigh-in then go to brew a pot of tea.
I used to bet in fairly big amounts, with varying degrees of success (and stretches far more barren than the Russian Steppes) and now the stakes are smaller, yet it is for real because I don't have a big betting bank to sustain and console and reassure.
It isn't my money talking, it's me, it's personal, and often it hurts, but then it hurts working at the factory or the office. You get that hemmed-in feeling which I could never stand for long, stretching right back to school.
Imagine many “pro” gamblers are the same.
Loners, largely self-reliant (and not necessarily rich. You don't need a big betting bank to start out on your own though it sure does help).
Not much in the betting mood at present, though hopefully alert and ready for the right one to get it up and running again, maybe at Goodwood next week, though can't say this has been a lucky meeting for me over the years, not that it comes down to luck, though sometimes you wonder.
