A Beginners Guide To Horse Race Betting
One of the reasons that the popularity of sports gambling has skyrocketed in recent years is its accessibility. It's easy to bet on most major sports
because everyone understands the basics, which teams are good and why they win. Horse handicapping, on the other hand, is a completely different
and somewhat arcane discipline. Where there are some shared concepts, success at sports betting doesn't guarantee the same playing the ponies.
Legendary sports handicapper Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder was famous for killing the books with his sports plays--and giving it all back with his inept
horse bets.
The information below is the bare bones basics of what you need to know to enjoy a day at the horse track. If you're interested in becoming a serious
horse handicapper, you're best advice to start with one of the countless books or DVDs that deal specifically with the discipline.
Reading in Fundamental: The first thing you should do when you arrive at the horse track is to purchase a track program and a copy of the Daily
Racing Form. The Daily Racing Form (or DRF for short) is the Wall Street Journal of the horse handicapping set. The track program will offer much of
the same information about the specific track, but is frequently in a more user friendly format than the often arcane DRF. The basic stats youll find in
these publications are the names of the horses, jockeys and trainers, the morning line odds, and the types of bets available for each race. Youll also
have past performance charts, which are the bread and butter of serious horse handicappers. These charts reveal a lot about a horse and what
theyve done on the racetrack, including its record, where it ran, the quality of competition it ran against, and what position the horse was in at various
points in the race. Most tracks have customer service types that are helpful in clearing up anything you dont understand. While asking the personnel
in a sports book who they like isnt a wise idea, its OK at the track for a reason well now discuss"youre not playing against them.
The House Doesnt Care Who Wins: One thing that is important for the sports bettor to remember when playing the horses is that its a parimutual
situation. In other words, youre not playing against the house, youre playing against the other bettors. The track just facilitates the betting and acts as
a middleman, handling the money for a fee (15 to 25 percent of the parimutual pool). Another difference is that the track odds are determined by how
much money is bet on each horse. If everyone bets on one horse"whether it is the best horse, or just has the catchiest name"it will go off as the
favorite. Long odds on a horse doesnt necessarily indicate a bad horse, but just one that the wagering public isnt investing in. Sometimes this can be
one and the same, but not always.
So where do odds in the newspaper or program originate? These are known as the 'morning odds' or 'morning line' and is basically an educated
guess as to where the betting will go. They can be helpful as a handicapping tool, but may or may not reflect what will happen in the actual betting.
Horse handicapping basics: This is where horse racing gets complex--there are countless theories about how to handicap a horse race. Some
handicappers consider the breeding lineage of the horse, while others are more concerned with past performance. Still others put more weight on the
training a horse has received, or its workout performance.
Once a handicapper gets an idea what will happen in the race, he has to factor the available odds into the proposition. A favorite may be an
unattractive wagering prospect due to a prohibitively high price, while a long shot may be a good wagering value based on a high potential payback. It
all boils down to wagering value, which is simply a matter of doing a math. Teaching the youth of America solid math skills is crucial for no other
reason than to help them gamble effectively and profitably.
Trainers and breeding: Some handicappers prioritize a horse's breeding background--considering his bloodlines and the competitive quality of his
parents and grandparents. Then training must be considered--a good trainer can often get a horse to 'overperform' much in the same way a good
coach can get the most out of his team in sports.
The Jockeys: In the simplest terms, jockeys are independent contractors and thus to make money they need to do well. In theory, a jockey wants to
get on the best horse possible in each race to maximize his chances of winning. That also results in sort of a chicken and the egg conundrum"are the
horses winning because the best jockeys are aboard, or are the best jockeys merely adept at getting on the best horses? Most serious horse players
look to the jockey as a secondary consideration. Its sort of a situation where a good jockey cant win with a bad horse, but a bad jockey can cause a
good horse not to win.
Find your own style, and maintain discipline: Basically, there's not a 'right' or 'wrong' way to handicap a horse race. Figure out what works for you,
and develop and refine your own methodology. As in any form of gambling, don't bet more than you can afford to lose and in particular when you're
starting out there's no reason to be making big wagers. If you want to learn more, there's a number of good internet resources including the Daily
Racing Form website.
About the Author
Ross Everett is a staff handicapper for Sports 1 online sports betting. He's an expert on sports betting theory and practice, as well as financial markets.
You can read more articles on sports betting topics at Sports 1 online sports betting.
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