Most punters learn by doing and Dean Watling was no different. He made mistakes, tried things that did not work, and slowly figured out what helped him stay calm and confident. Those lessons turned into 12 rules that guide how he punts today. They are easy to understand and built from real experience. This two part series breaks them down.
Rule 6: Do the Form for the Best Races First
One of my best mates, Tom Haylock, gave me a subtle but powerful rule years ago.
When I was doing Sydney form, he’d call to ask my thoughts on the feature races. I’d say, “I’m not up to them yet, still on races 1, 2 and 3.”
He replied: “You’ll be burnt out by the time you get to the features. Spend your energy on the races you actually want to bet into, then work backwards.”
I live by that now, and it’s had a big impact.
Just like sport, you should spend your energy on the things that matter most.
Rule 5: Back Your Judgement
Another tough lesson I learned the hard way, multiple times.
You don’t learn off other people’s mistakes.
What do I mean by that?
If you lean too much on others and their opinions, you’ll be swayed into bets you wouldn’t have backed yourself. And when they lose, you don’t learn anything, because it wasn’t your mistake.
I’m a big believer in doing the form independently first, before reading or hearing anyone else’s thoughts. Form your own view, then lean on a small handful of sharp people to ask: “Have I missed anything?”
When you make your own mistakes, you learn from them. That’s the beauty of backing yourself.
Rule 4: Know What You’re Good At
This was, and still is, one of the hardest lessons in betting.
The best and worst thing about racing is that there are so many ways to win… and just as many ways to lose. Early on you can go through an identity crisis trying to figure out what type of punter you are.
My results kept telling me: focus on trial horses. But the “cool” way to punt on social media was off ratings and exposed form. Time and time again my results screamed: STOP BETTING LIKE THAT, YOU’RE NO GOOD AT IT.
Dominic Beirne gave me great advice early on: “If you don’t know what your edge is, then bet everything until your results tell you.”
My results told me lightly raced horses, trials, and races up to 1600m were where I made money. So I narrowed in on that.
This doesn’t mean you can’t learn other angles, it just means you need time. Record results, talk to sharp people, improve slowly, and only then start staking into new areas.
Rule 3: Do the Work
One of the biggest shocks early on was how much work I needed to put in to be successful. And it wasn’t just during spring or autumn, it was every day, grinding away.
Like any sport, it’s the athletes who put in the extra work, the 1%, who succeed long term.
Reviewing meetings and trials, watching replays, researching race shapes, trainer/jockey stats, putting in the work makes day-to-day punting far more peaceful.
You’ll find edges, errors, and opportunities others miss. And when the results come, it motivates you to keep improving.
Work ethic is everything.
Rule 2: Staking
The quote “staking is more important than finding the winner” has stuck with me my entire punting journey. A punter who finds plenty of winners will still lose long term if they don’t stake correctly. On the other hand, a punter who isn’t as good at picking winners but understands staking will be far more successful.
Staking can be confusing at the best of times. There are plenty of techniques, but for me, starting out with a fixed 1u amount was the simplest way to learn.
For example: if I went to the pub and put $50 on a bet, that became my 1u.
From there I moved to betting to return 4u, which can later be adapted to betting to win 4% of your bank. Now I use a mix of confidence-based staking combined with proportional staking to return 4u – this is what works best for my punting.
Staking can feel like a beast, but once you become confident in your approach, clarity follows.
Rule 1: Record Your Results
This rule no doubt had the biggest impact on my punting journey. It transformed me from a weekend punter who simply enjoyed doing the form into a credible, trustworthy punter who became obsessed with improving every aspect of my betting.
How does one rule do that?
Because it punches you in the face with no forgiveness. There’s nowhere to hide from mistakes or reckless bets, everything you do stares you straight back in the eye.
I quickly got sick of entering dumb bets into the spreadsheet on Sundays, and it forced me to become extremely disciplined and far more selective with my plays.
What it also did was show me where I was making money: the tracks, distances, bet types, setups and situations I was strongest in. It also helped me understand when I was beating the market. From there I could hone in on my edge, understand when to stake higher or lower, and recognise both winning and losing runs.
It lit a fire in my belly. I became obsessed, and still am, with getting better and beating the bookies.
Often in sport you hear, “The review sessions are the hardest.” There’s no hiding from watching mistakes, bad passes, missed tackles, dropped balls. Recording your results is the racing equivalent of this.
Recording my results taught me everything it takes to become a successful punter, and it remains the single most important rule in my punting.
