Put in the hard yards and stick to what you're good at

Betting on Racing is an app-exclusive daily punting guide from three of the Racing Post's most renowned experts: Tom Segal, Paul Kealy and David Jennings. A new instalment will be published every weekday for the next three weeks.

You cannot be an expert on everything so try to cut your cloth to fit what you are best at.

We are in 2022 and there is so much racing all over the world. On any given day in Britain alone, there could be two jumps cards, two Flat turf cards and an all-weather fixture. There might be two meetings in Ireland as well. You cannot know every horse inside out and study every race in depth. It is just not possible. Find your niche and stick rigidly to it.

My preference is for the bigger fixtures – Graded races and valuable handicaps. The big festivals are my thing – the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown, Royal Ascot, Goodwood, York and Irish Champions Weekend, as well as Christmas and Easter, which also plays host to top-class action.

That is not to say money cannot be made midweek on some of the low-grade stuff. You can make it pay if you put in the work. There are plenty of people who focus on Fontwell and Taunton rather than Cheltenham and Aintree and make it work.

But if you are an all-weather expert in Ireland and Dundalk is your thing, stick to that and don't be doing nixers here, there and everywhere on stuff that takes you out of your comfort zone. If you feel you have a grasp of the sprint handicaps at Dundalk, you couldn't possibly feel as comfortable solving staying handicap chase puzzles on bottomless ground at Hexham through the winter.

Like all things in life, you get out of something what you put into it, and the hard work does pay off. My advice would be to put in the hard yards in the areas where you excel, rather than wasting your time on something else and cutting corners.

Record your bets so you always know how you are doing and categorise them. See what areas you are doing best in and where you are falling down. Over a 12-month period, if you are making a profit on specific sports or specific races, stick to those the following year. Learn from your mistakes and don't keep making the same ones over and over.

Albert Einstein famously claimed that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you are not making a profit on staying handicap chases in Britain or all-weather sprints in Ireland, then change your approach and find a different area to focus on.

Always cut your cloth to fit what you are best at.

Tomorrow: Tom Segal on jockeys

Read more in our Betting on Racing series:

Paul Kealy: 'Notes can become seriously valuable' - form study tips from the best   

Tom Segal: the importance of times and why they are vastly underappreciated   

David Jennings: dispelling the myths - don't always believe what you hear