"What Should I Do When My Punting Gets Out of Control?"
When the punt gets out of control, the only move is to stop and walk away. The way to avoid it in the first place is planning your selections and your staking for a day when nothing wins.
Recorded August 2025 for How to Survive a Brutal Punting Weekend. Any figures mentioned are from that time.
A favourite gets beaten by an inch and something shifts. The adrenaline is up, the head is gone, and suddenly you are chasing. I have been there. I speak from personal experience, not theory. When Euroboros got beaten by an inch, that is exactly the sort of moment I am talking about. There is no worse feeling than being out of control on the punt, and there are only two things that deal with it. One is what you do in the moment. The other is what you do before you have a bet.
What out of control actually costs
It does not happen to me much now. Part of that is age, I am 50. Part of it is that you cannot get huge bets down on Australian racing like you used to. But when I was younger and more erratic, I knew the feeling well. You are sliding, you are chasing, and that is when you do real damage.
The damage can be life changing for some people. I have seen punters do everything right for two years, get out of control in one day, and knock the whole lot off. Two years of discipline gone in an afternoon. That is the risk you are carrying when your head goes.
Stop, walk, come back
When you feel it happening, stop. That is the whole answer in the moment. It does not matter if it is after race one, race four, race five or race 10. Say that is it, and stop.
Go for a walk. Clear your head. Then come back and stick to your rules again. In that moment the adrenaline is pumping and you are fired up enough to knock everything off in one day. It is not worth it. This is a long, long game, and one afternoon should never be allowed to end it.
Plan for the day when nothing wins
Stopping is the emergency brake. Planning is how you avoid needing it. You plan the day before your first bet, and you plan two things: your selections and your staking.
With selections, plan how many bets you are going to have. You do not have to have 50. You might have two. You might want to back three golden bullets, or ten bets, or 20. That is up to you and how you select. The point is that you decided beforehand.
With staking, you stake for the worst. Plan for the day where you do not put a ticket in. Not in a negative way, in a realistic way, because I do not care how good a punter you are, we all have bad days and we all have strip outs. Those are the days you need to come through. Ask yourself the question before you start: if I do not put a ticket in, am I going to survive? Am I still here tomorrow? Because if you do not get through Saturday, you never see the light of Sunday.
Planning keeps your mind stable rather than erratic. If you have a bad day and you still did what you said you were going to do, you can live with it. You cannot get too dirty on yourself for that. So before your next punting day, write down how many bets you are having and what you are staking, and make sure that plan survives a day where nothing wins.
Every race on the card, rated, with Kingsley's selections and the speed maps behind them. Your first day is free, no card needed.
More from Kingsley
- Why Betting Against Top Weights Pays in Group Races
- Why Is a Horse $2 When the Ratings Don't Support It?
- "Why Do So Many Group 1 Favourites Get Beaten?"
From the full video: How to Survive a Brutal Punting Weekend | The Grind Ep 5
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