The Magic Horse Racing Betting Formula for Profit

By Bill Peterson

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There is no magic formula for picking winners, but there is a method of making a profit from horse racing bets. That may sound contradictory, but it's not, because there is a difference between picking winning horses and picking good bets. The difference between a horse player who looks for winners and a horse player who looks for good bets is the difference between a successful gambler and a gambler.

Regular gamblers take some comfort in being right and sometimes they even take comfort in commiserating with other losing gamblers. Winning gamblers take comfort in making a profit and usually keep their ROI and other secrets to themselves. You'll hear a lot of horse players complaining about how hard it is to make a profit or about the losing streak they're on, but you'll rarely if ever hear one talking about his positive return or method of picking those good bets.

Let's be clear on what a good bet is before we talk about the magic formula for determining that bet. A good wager is one that will show a positive return over the course of a season or a meet. That means that is you make the same bet under the same circumstances at the same track, it will pay you back all the money that you bet plus a profit.

I realize how difficult it is to find such bets, so please don't think I'm being glib. Making money wagering on horse races is one of the toughest things most of us will ever tackle. It requires certain skills, such as good math skills and the ability to keep accurate notes, whether by using a good computer program of just keeping hard copies that you jot down. Fortunately, a lot of the record keeping is now done by the major suppliers of past performances.


You may have been confused by that line about note keeping. Notes? You may ask. Yes, notes. How else will you know whether a bet is profitable unless you can check its recent track record. If I bet the horse with the fastest pace figures in its last two races at Aqueduct for 6 furlong races over the inner track, will those horses show a positive return on straight win bets if they go off at 3-1 or higher?

You see what I mean? Maybe those horses don't show a profit every day, but in races where you find such horses and flat bet them to win, knowing they pay a profit is one way to make money, (Please note that was a hypothetical example and not an actual money making example)

While other horse players are trying to figure out if those horses will win, the smart bettor is trying to figure out if it's a profitable bet. So the magic formula is the number of bets times the amount bet on each horse minus the return on all bets. In other words, if I find 20 such horses and bet $10 on each one, I'll have spent $200. Now I add up all the winners and what they paid and see if I made a profit. If so, then I've just found a good bet and that is how gamblers and horse players make money. To be honest however, it should be noted that it is still a risky way to make a buck and you should never bet money you can't afford to lose.

If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com/true.html and get the truth about betting on horses and winning. Bill Peterson is a former race horse owner and professional handicapper. To see all Bill's horse racing material go to Horse Racing Handicapping, Bill's handicapping store.

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