CALUM McCLURKIN: The big betting lesson in this jumps season? Be honest with yourself in victory and defeat

Daily Mail​

26-04-2025

When losing a little bit of faith in the game, actually going racing is the perfect tonic.
That's precisely what happened when I attended a wonderful day's racing at Perth.
An entry fee of £22 on the Wednesday to see arguably the best card the picturesque track has ever staged was a real treat.
Seeing Fun Fun Fun in the parade ring was worth the cost of a ticket alone.
It's easy to be disillusioned from afar, particularly in a period of punting woe when everything you try just keeps on going wrong.
Maybe you've been fooled by an inaccurate going description, felt hard done by with a bad ride, your horse has had no luck in-running and you've had more seconds than Jimmy White in a World Snooker Championship.
Every grizzled hard-faced racing punter has been there.
You simply can't catch a break. But when the spreadsheet is being painted with a little too much red then there's really only one place to look to place the blame – and that's squarely in the mirror.
Despite thoroughly enjoying the action at Perth regardless of winning or losing, I knew that my punting on the day had been incredibly poor. Reading all the signals wrong throughout the card. I took one look at Kiss Will in the paddock and thought: 'Hmmm, not a lot of size to that one.'
On the drive over, I basically left the feature race alone to simply think it through thoroughly. I came to two conclusions. The first was Kiss Will would win and stay three miles as his Cheltenham Festival effort could be forgiven as it was such a warm race.
Paul Townend picking him out of the Willie Mullins trio was significant and Loughlynn was second in this last year – a dour staying type and I pondered whether the Closutton trainer wanted one of his classier types with a turn of foot to win this important prize in the trainers' title race.
Regrettably, I threw all this sensible reasoning out the window on one glance in the paddock where my first impression on Kiss Will was fairly negative. He looked quite scrawny in truth in comparison to the rest of the 13 runners. One look trumped hours of reasonable race analysis. One of the easiest 5-1 winners went abegging.
The danger now is compounding mistakes like that and the frustration builds which leads you to chasing losses and making more wrong decisions. Sometimes the best option is to draw stumps for the day.
It feels like doing all the homework, behaving in class, not missing any lesson and studying really hard only to get a big fat F in the final exam. All the work put in for no reward.
The other Perth punting conclusion I had nailed down beforehand was backing anything trained by Olly Murphy and ridden by Sean Bowen was a very good idea. His record at this Festival was exemplary but the combination weren't firing in the first six races.
I spotted Murphy looking rather vexed on the phone at the far end of the paddock after Vocito, another horse I'd backed on the day, was a well-beaten favourite.
There was a look of bemusement on him which made me think that the reliable Murphy-Bowen combination might not be the way to go. The trainer won the penultimate race on the card, which was the only Murphy runner I didn't support on the day.
It was if you don't laugh you'd greet kind of stuff by the last. I was on the Murphy runner and that finished third. Only Fun Fun Fun, an obvious odds-on winner was a small source of profit on a bruising day.
Backing Murphy and Bowen was actually a good policy at Perth. On the Thursday and Friday, Murphy trained seven winners. Bowen, champion jumps jockey, also had seven winners. Six of them with Murphy and he bagged the Highland National with a superb ride on Fairlawn Flyer for father Peter and brother Michael.
There is value for trusting your instincts but it's a fine line between keeping the faith and overcompensating for pervious results. It's a dilemma every punter has to tread very carefully.
This is where keeping records really matter. It's easy to bury yourself away and be in complete denial about a hefty losing day. Updating the spreadsheet might be a source of pain but it allows you the chance to front up, draw a line under it and move on to the next opportunity.
It also maintains routine and keeps you in control. It helps prevent you from falling into the traps of chasing losses and staking too much. We've seen all the responsible betting adverts and there's nothing more sensible than keeping track of what you are doing – win, lose or draw.
You can learn plenty in defeat and there's been many of them for myself this season. All you can do is dust yourself down, restore some confidence and go again when ready. Everyone in sport experiences defeat at some stage. It happens in betting, too.
NOT JUST PUNTING LESSONS TO BE LEARNED AT PERTH…
There was a scary incident in the Listed Mares' Chase at Perth when El Elefante was quickly dismounted after jumping just a few fences.
The incident happened just 200 yards away from the winning post and in front of the sitting area at Perth. The screens were erected, connections sprinted towards the horse and the horse ambulance arrived.
Everybody assumed the worst. I caught trainer Lucinda Russell walking back from the track to the paddock and she told me that El Elefante was okay and walked into the horse ambulance.
That was excellent news to hear and I quickly posted on social media an update on El Elefante. There was a delay to the following race for the veterinary and medical teams to get back into position over the PA.
What was not mentioned over that PA announcement was that El Elefante was okay. There was a lot of chatter in the stands and I spent a good 15-20 minutes overhearing conversations about El Elefante and telling as many folk as I could that she was okay.
There would have been people leaving Perth that day thinking El Elefante had died on track when that wasn't the case.
The screens going up are no longer the death sentence it is presumed to be - and racing must communicate that better. The screens are much about privacy and respect for the horse as well as receiving immediate treatment.
Racing was caught out with this over Broadway Boy's fall in the Grand National. Many assumed he'd died when he hadn't. And an update on his condition could have been received a lot quicker.
El Elefante received swift and brilliant care. The trainer, jockey Patrick Wadge, vets, medics and all professionals on track deserve immense credit in that situation. It's a shame it went largely unnoticed and a lot of people where left in the dark despite this being a great advert for racing's improved welfare standards.