Archive for the ‘Horse Racing Features’ Category

Pick Winners in Horse Races Using Speed and Class Crosses

If you want to pick winners in horse races you are going to have to learn the basics.  The most important factors in horse racing are class and speed.  If you keep track of which runners win most often, you’ll soon find that the winner is often in the top three speed horses and or the top three class horses.

But that does not mean that all you have to do is pick a speed horse with class and stand at the teller waiting for your money, because they often lose.  The same is true of the horse with the top speed rating in its last race.  As anyone who is trying to make money betting on horses can tell you, it is a complicated game and simply betting speed or class will result in more losers than winners.

While you have to know how to assess each horse’s true speed and class, you also have to make adjustments to them to make allowances for form.  Form is simply an assessment of the recent ability of the horse.  While a runner may have won a 0,000 stakes race three years ago, it doesn’t mean that it is presently in condition to perform such a feat.  In fact the horse may only have the ability to win a ,000 claiming race in its current form.  Many factors contribute to a horse’s form and will indicate whether it is improving or regressing.  This article will only concentrate on speed and class.

Putting speed and class together in a meaningful way will help you to determine each horse’s fair value in the betting pools.  The way you do that is to cross reference speed and class.  The best way to learn how to do this is to read each horse’s name out loud and to say its last speed figure and the level that it raced at.  For instance, you might say, “Speedy didn’t win, but he earned a 78 in his last race at the ten thousand claimer level.  Smarty did win. In his last race he earned  an 80, but at the eight thousand claimer level…” and so on.

What you are learning to do is to make adjustments in your mind to the speed figures of each horse.  If the horses are running at the ,000 claiming level and you think Smarty will perform the same way, you might think he has a chance of winning with a 80 speed fig.  The only problem is that Smarty is dropping in class and was just two ticks off the leader at the finish.  How does this relate to how they should be priced on the toteboard?  Do you see what I mean?

If you look at the tote board and see Speedy is at 1-1, but Smarty is at 3-1, then after you make your adjustments for form and connections (jockey and trainer ability) you will probably want to bet on Smarty.  Learning to make accurate adjustments based on looking at class and speed as a coupled factor will help you to understand just what each runner should be valued at and that is the only way to make money handicapping horse races.

The Effect Of Weight In Horse Racing

Is weight really an important factor in horse racing? Does a few lbs really affect the performance of a horse that weighs anything from 700lbs to 1000lbs +?

The answer is of course YES! The official handicappers have been using weight to level the playing field for years and they aren’t idiots. If it was meaningless then they wouldn’t do it!

There are however a few ways we can use the weights to help find a winning horse, for no system is foolproof. When examining the form of a race, here a few things to keep in mind…

1.The official handicap is determined by the horses last few runs and how well they performed. If they ran well, the weight goes up, if they didn’t, the weight goes down. The weights are not set considering the race the horse will be running today.

2.The longer the distance the more effect the weight has. It’s a lot easier for a horse to run flat out for 5f with an extra 6lbs on his back than it is to carry that extra weight all the way around a 2 mile race.

3.Horses stepping up in class will rise in the handicap, but will often carry less weight than their last race due to the higher quality of competition. Look for such horses with high speed ratings, if they have proven they can run faster than most horses in the race, having less weight on their back will give them a significant advantage

4.When considering how much a extra weight will affect a horse compared to its’ last run, look at the differences. Horses that are carrying significantly more weight than last time out and are stepping up in trip (by at least 2f preferably) are facing a serious challenge. Because these runners are often horses that have done well in their last race they will often have short prices – and are prime candidates for laying.

5.On the other side of number 4, always keep an eye out for horses that recorded a good speed rating on their last race, are carrying less weight than last time out and are stepping down in trip. Not only will they be able to run faster than last time with less weight, but they’ll be able manage the weight they have more easily over the shorter trip. Such horses are often worth looking into as back bets.

Keep these pointers in mind and you will be guaranteed to put yourself at an advantage when picking a horse to bet on. Remember – a well informed punter is a winning punter!

A Simple Daily Double System for Horse Racing Handicapping Success

This simple system is not meant to replace good, solid, horse racing handicapping, but if you want a simple system to help you hit more daily doubles, here is something you can use.  The nice thing about it is that it is a quick horse racing system and an easy one, too.  Before you mortgage the farm and race off to the track to get rich, however, here is a bit of a disclaimer, this method of hitting daily doubles is for fun and entertainment only.  It is not meant as an inducement to gamble and you should never risk more than you can afford to lose.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk doubles and betting.  As you probably know, daily doubles are an exotic bet that involves picking the winner of one race, call it leg A. and then the winner of a consecutive race, leg B.  You can key on a horse to win one leg with several horses in the next race or just play several horses in one leg in combination with several horse in the other leg.  We’ll call that a box bet.

Now here is where things get a little tricky and you have to be a detective.  Start noticing how often one leg of the daily double has a standout horse that is really much better than the others and usually wins.  You will find this happens most often on Saturdays and holidays.  The higher the purse in a race, the better the quality of the horses, and usually the easier to handicap, with a few exceptions, of course.

On weekdays when crowds are usually smaller, they card races for cheap claimers and bottom of the barrel types.  These horses do not hold their form and therefore it is hard to clearly see a horse who will win.  If you start following purse value and winners in th first two races on the program for each day of the week, you will soon see what I mean.  Therefore, look at both races and see if the racing secretary has set up a race with an easy winner to help the crowd.  That is your key to whether or not you should risk a daily double wager.

If there is such an easy race then that is your key race.  If you keep track of races at your favorite track and follow the purse amounts and percentage of winning favorites, you’ll soon develop the ability to spot the gimme’ race the track is giving you.  That easy to spot winner is your key horse.  Key it over some horses in the second race that appear live on the tote board and you will often have the winning daily double.

Betting to Win a Guide to Horse Racing Profits and Handicapping Tips

No single article on handicapping or horse racing can guarantee you will be a winner over the long haul.  Making a consistent profit on the horse races is a very difficult task and usually requires a great deal of work and practice, but the amazing thing is that, while it may take years to become a profitable handicapper, the actual keys to your horse betting success will usually be a few choice thoughts, moments, experiences, that help you to develop a successful method or system.

Many successful women and men will tell you that though they worked at solving a particular problem or mastering a skill, it only took a second or two for the answer or solution to the problem to come to them.  Einstein solved the riddle of time and space, his Relativity Theory, while taking a walk.  Thomas Edison, perhaps the greatest inventor of all time said ideas came to him from out of space, meaning he was given the answer from another source, usually during one of his famous naps, by the way.

These, “Aha!” moments can take forever to reach us unless someone says something to us or we read something and we understand or, “Get it,” right away.  You may have heard or read something about horse racing handicapping and didn’t realize how important it was until long after that piece of information entered your consciousness.  In fact the answer to your problem of making money betting on horse races may be right in front of you, but you won’t get it until you have an Aha moment.

The first thing I would like to tell you is that betting to win is the best way to make money over the long haul.  It is the simplest bet to make and will pay off better than the exotics and other bets for most people over time.  How many times have you heard that before?  Yet how many of you are still pouring money into other pools and losing at the track?  You obviously haven’t had your Aha moment, yet.  You won’t start making a profit betting on horses until you do.

The reason we don’t see things that are staring us in the face, those things that are right in front of us, is because something is blocking our view.  I am not trying to preach at you, I am just as guilty of this condition as anyone else and I am writing from firsthand experience.  If you want to start winning at the horse races here is the best handicapping tip I can give you.

“Start Fresh.”  Just for today, look at horse racing like you have never seen it before, clear your mind of all the things you know about it.  For instance, the idea that favorites win a third of all horse races. Forget it.  Look at a race as if you know nothing about it and then start reading the horses lines.  Without all the clutter in your mind, you’ll be surprised at how different those lines will look to you and how you will see things that you have been dismissing for years because of what you know.  Do you realize that, like me and all the rest of the human race, some of the things you know aren’t true?

Hundreds of years ago people knew the Earth was flat.  That was obvious.  It was only common sense, wasn’t it?  Well guess what, the earth is round and some of the things we believe today will one day seem as ridiculous.  Trust me, forget everything and start over, just for a day, it will be a learning experience, you will remove the things that are blocking you from seeing the truth, and your handicapping will improve.