Horse Racing Handicapping Strengths And Weaknesses Can Make You Or Break You

By Bill Peterson

image: depositphotos

Horse racing handicapping is the kind of intellectual pursuit that requires so much effort and concentration, that we handicappers sometimes lose sight of some pretty important and fundamental factors. For instance, are you keeping a record of your bets and regularly checking to see where your strengths and weaknesses are? Do you know which bets or situations are profitable for you?

Even if you are a casual bettor who only occasionally attends the race track or otb, rating your own performance and trying to improve it will still give you more enjoyment and also help you to make a profit from racing. In any form of gambling there are many losers and a few consistent winners. One of the keys to that consistency is usually keeping track of where the money is going and how the gambler is faring in each category of bet.

For instance, a horse racing handicapper who is good at picking winners, but lousy at picking exactas, may be making a profit on winners, but throwing away the profit and some of his or her bankroll on exacta bets. Let's say our handicapper makes a $100 win bet and then plays 4 $10 exacta keys with the choice for winner on top of four other horses.


Over time the horse player makes a nice 30% profit on win bets, but loses almost every exacta key. The handicapper is making an average of $30 on each $100 win bet, but then throwing it away on the exacta keys with a little more from his or her bankroll. That is an example of how a person who should be very successful is actually losing money just because he or she isn't paying attention.

Keep accurate records of each bet you make and why you made it. Have a regular interval of time or a number of bets that you go over those records and determine where your strengths or weaknesses are. If you are determined to improve and eventually make a profit from the area of your weakness, then bet small until you can consistently show a profit over sets of 20 bets. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to instantly increase your ROI just by keeping a simple record of your own performance.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to True handicapping and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, "Horse Racing is in my blood." To see all Bill's horse racing material go to Bill's handicapping store.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Peterson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Horse-Racing-Handicapping-Strengths-And-Weaknesses-Can-Make-You-Or-Break-You&id=1200903