The Key Horse is Still the Secret to Any Good Horse Racing System

By Bill Peterson

image: depositphotos

There are just so many ways to bet on horse races and so many ways to make money betting with a good horse racing system. Eventually, it all comes down to finding one good horse(s) to key on whether making a straight win bet or betting exotic wagers. Betting strategy is usually determined by the best value for the money.

For instance, once you have identified the contenders in the race, the next step is to arrive at an idea of how likely each one is to win. You may think horse A. has a 30% chance, horse B. a $25% chance and horse C. a $20% chance. The next step is to turn those percentages into dollar amounts, or pounds, or euros, or whatever the currency is that you are using to make your wagers.

Horse A. would need a payoff of approximately 5-2 to break even or to show a slight profit. Horse B. would require a payoff of at least 3-1 to break even and horse C. would need a payoff of 4-1. If you can't find the right odds in the win pools to make any one of them a good bet, the next place to look, obviously, is the exotic pools.

Taking Money From Dummies at the Racetrack

By Dave C Williams

image: depositphotos

Believe it or not, most people do not understand how betting on horses actually works. The average person thinks that they are betting against the racetrack. That is understandable. When you make a bet at the racetrack you hand your money to the person who works at the betting window, and if you win, they hand it back to you.

What they are really doing is pooling all of the money that has been bet on a race, and then handing it out to the winners when the race is over. They take a cut (usually around 19% of the total) but they have no interest in who wins or loses the race. They make their money no matter who wins. When you win a race, your winnings come from the players who made losing bets. When you lose your money is divided up among the winners.

Smart guys win, dumb guys lose.

Make a visit to your local racetrack one weekend and take a look around at the people who are there. The racetrack is a microcosm of society. You will see very wealthy horse owners in the paddock with their horses, average middle class people enjoying an afternoon outdoors, and more than a few people who look like they don't know where their next meal is coming from. All of them are players in this game and it is your goal to take their money.

The Magic Horse Racing Betting Formula for Profit

By Bill Peterson

image: depositphotos

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.

Finding Good Bets With Horse Racing Jockey Changes That Lead to Winners

By Bill Peterson

image: depositphotos

Following a horse through its career is one way to cash winning tickets. Very few handicappers actually do this, but it is a solid way to make money betting on horses. Of course, you have to have some knowledge of training and horse racing to be successful. If you understand what a trainer is doing with a horse then you will understand that some races are for exercise and conditioning while other races are meant for a real serious effort to win.

The problem with that method of making money betting on horses is that you have to follow quite a few horses in order to make any real money. You may have to wait weeks between races and that can get tedious, especially if the horse is in races where it can't win.

That's why more handicappers follow trainers or jockeys. Most good jockeys race almost every day, making for a lot of action. Learning the strengths and weaknesses of a few good jockeys and then following them can lead to some very good bets. I like to check to see when a good rider is on a horse that he has won with in the past. That's a big advantage.

When a trainer claims a horse and his regular rider happens to be a jockey who has won with that one before, that can often signal a good ride and a finish in the money if not in the winners circle. Some of the leading suppliers of past performances now supply that information which shows whether the trainer has won with the horse and also whether the jockey has won with it in the past.

Most of the opportunities for good bets will come in the claiming races, if you decide to use this method of finding winners. Start by noting all the horses that have been claimed in their last few races. Then note who was riding it before it was claimed and whether the jockey who is on it today has won with it before. Note the same for the trainer.

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.

Three Key Factors to Note in Horse Racing Handicapping For Consistently Picking Winners

By Bill Peterson

image: depositphotos

The way that you progress as a horse racing handicapper is by keeping good accurate notes that you can refer to when you want to check your progress and avoid making the same mistakes. But keeping notes is not that simple for some people and being organized in your thinking is an absolute must when picking winners.

First you must identify key handicapping factors that you want to follow. If you want to become a master at using speed figures to pick winners, then you must keep track of the speed figures that you used to make decisions about bets. If you want to use pace as a handicapping figure that you use to rate the competitors, then you must note how you thought a race would shape up and then you must watch the race and see how closely you were able to call the position of each horse during the race.

Here is what you are actually trying to accomplish when you are using your own notes to become a better handicapper.
1. Learn how each horse's projected figure, whether pace, speed, class, will affect its ability to compete.
2. Learn how important the spread is when comparing those figures in each class of race.
3. Learn how to exploit the differences and the crowd's opinion of those factors to find good value bets.

Here is what each of those points really means.

1. Once you decide which factor(s) you want to rate, the next job is to write them down for each race you handicap. Then, watch the race and note how each horse performed. After a while you may start to notice a pattern. You will also start to have a valid opinion based on watching numerous races with horses that showed that figure. For instance, let's saying you are watching claiming races for older horses at 6 furlongs at your favorite track. You start to notice that a horse with a superior early pace figure is usually within a few lengths of the leader or wins the race. Now, each time you see a horse like that, you know it must be considered a contender or an exotic play.

The Truth About Simple Methods for Picking Horse Racing Winners

By Bill Peterson

image: depositphotos

Handicapping horse races can be a very time consuming and frustrating experience. In plain English, picking winners is one of the hardest things some of us ever try and most people lose money at the horse races. While some of us enjoy trying to solve the puzzle of a horse race, at the end of the day, when we've spent so much time and energy, only to have lost money, there is "...no joy in Mudville," as they say.

That's why some people give up and just use the odds on the tote board to try and pick winners. They figure, and rightly so, that the lower the odds on a horse the better its chances of winning. While that is true, it is also a fact that almost all horses go off at close to the correct odds and you will still lose whatever the track take out figure is for win bets at that track.

For instance, if you decide to bet the second favorite in each race and bet ten races, it will average out in the long haul that you've lost about whatever the track's percentage may be. It might vary a little one way or the other, but overall, you'll lose. While it's a nice simple method for picking winners, it's also financially unsound and results in a loss. Not a lot of fun, unless you can convince yourself that losing is fun.

There are simple ways to pick horses that are contenders. The odds show the horses who are likely contenders and at most race tracks the top four horses win about 70% of the races. A study of the different types of races will often show some disparities. For instance, in certain races for maidens the percentage of winning favorites is 40% and the average payoff is quite small.