Many people who read my handicap books ask me to go into more detail about how to keep good records or race notes. How you keep track of your bets and also take notes on the horses you are following is a personal matter. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and different ways of organizing information, so this is just a list of suggestions to help you keep your notes and become a better forecaster.

First of all, let’s set the record straight, taking notes is one of the most important habits a serious rider can develop. You can think of it as feedback to help him figure out what he’s doing right or wrong and make corrections. It is also a good money management tool and will help you mature as a horse player. Keeping a journal or taking notes is also a great self-improvement tool for many other areas of life, not just betting on horses, so you may want to think about how you can use this to help you in other ways.

We are going to divide note keeping into several categories. The first one we will talk about is money management (also one of the most important parts of successful horse racing betting). Money management should keep a running total of your budget and bets should be a fixed amount of that budget. In other words, if you have $1,000 in your bankroll, you only have to wager a predetermined percentage for each bet. Let’s say you’re using 5%, if your bankroll increases to $1,100, your new bet amount will be 5% of $1,100. Each bet should go to the ledger and there should also be a simple way to identify which type of bet it was if you are using more than one type. A winning bet could simply be marked with a “W”, while an exact one could have the initials “EX”.

In addition to keeping a running total, there should be a daily limit and a weekly limit on bets in order to maintain a steady cash flow and minimize the dangers of tapping.

The next type of note keeping is keeping track of the horses you are following. You may have noticed that a horse that seems ready and ready had a rough ride and you want to check it out at your next race in case you find a good value. Using a virtual stable, one of the online services that will alert you when a horse is running, will help you keep track of many horses. Other horses that you could follow would be those that have shown exceptional training in the last 30 days. They will also enter your virtual stable.

The final category would be taking notes on your own moods and campaigns. I like to split my bets into campaigns of a set number of bets so that I can quantify any changes I make to my handicap. Whether it’s twenty races or a full meet, I can review it and see if the changes I made to my handicapping methods had a positive or negative effect. I keep these notes in a notebook where I keep a diary.