How to become the best punter you can possibly be

This is not another new year's resolutions column, but I am here to assure the resolvers that I firmly believe you have the right idea. If you are sharp-eyed enough to assess horses with any degree of success, you should have the capacity for frank and fairly accurate self-assessment. It is a rare and enviable quality.

Or, put another way, 'give me the aspiring punter every time'. That was how pro gambler Mark Holder signed off his first column in the Racing Post last month.

Holder put punters into four categories – occasional, aspiring, serious and illogical – and going by the reaction it generated, the person Holder quoted in his column as saying 'Mark is good at rubbing people up the wrong way' was certainly right.