By John Cobb

At the funeral of a friend last week I was reminded why he was always a far better punter than me.

Dick Fellows-Smith meticulously kept a daily, hand-written ledger of every bet he placed throughout his many happy years as a punter that began with his student days when he was lured into a bookie’s by a friend and placed his first bet – a winning one of course.

It sounds obsessive, but Dick was not a compulsive gambler but a compulsive record keeper, which is what you need to be if you are going to be honest with yourself, and others, about your betting.

So while you or I might say the punting is going okay, we’re breaking even, Dick could accurately tell you the amount he had lost that year – ten per cent of his turnover was the norm – or rejoice in those years when he was in the black – again, ten per cent of turnover would be typical.

It brought him great satisfaction to be able to do so. This didn’t make him a professional punter, far from it. He had a serious day job and spent a lot less on gambling than on other forms of entertainment, including that other highly enjoyable but financially unrewarding activity, owning racehorses.

And if he was serious about record-keeping he was far from dull, the life and soul of a day at the races, and just as prone to foolish bets as you and I.

The longstanding friend who had introduced Dick to betting recalled a day at Cheltenham from the early 1980s. Dick had been following the Michael Dickinson-trained Political Pop through the season when he had mopped up a string of handicap chases. Come the Mildmay of Flete, there could be only one horse Dick would back and his many friends knew it, so jumped on board too in fear of missing out.

After Political Pop strolled home, Dick’s friends tried to pick him out in the payout queues but instead saw him up in the Cheltenham stands thudding his head against a pillar. When placing his bet the punter in front had put a lumpy wad on Peter Easterby’s runner, so Dick suddenly threw aside his carefully formed plan and followed suit.

Keeping a record of all your bets, good and bad, won’t take the foolishness or fun out of your betting but it might give you something to look back on with a mixture of pleasure and pain in the years to come.