Sports gambling is a popular pursuit because everyone understands the basics of how teams win and lose and why. Horses, meanwhile, are an entirely different animal\”no pun intended. It is a complex discipline unto itself, and a sound background in handicapping sports doesn\’t insure success, or even mediocrity in handicapping the ponies. In fact, the history of sports betting is replete with successful gamblers that had a weakness for horse betting, with an emphasis on the word weakness. Most notable, perhaps, is the former resident handicapper at CBS, Jimmy The Greek Snyder. The story goes that The Greek was a first rate sports handicapper, but he couldn\’t pick the winner of a one horse race when playing the ponies. The bad news for The Greek is that he enjoyed playing the ponies nonetheless, and often frittered away the money he won at the other end of the sportsbook.
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.
Arm yourself with information: The first step for any horse handicapper is to pick up a copy of the Daily Racing Form (DRF) and the track program. The publications give the names of the horses, jockeys and trainers, the morning line odds, and the types of bets available for each race. You\’ll also have past performance charts, which are crucial for serious horse handicappers. These charts reveal a lot about a horse and what they\’ve 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.
You\’re playing against other bettors, not the racetrack: A big difference between sports wagering and horse betting is the function of \’the house\’. In horse racing, you\’re not playing against the track–instead, you\’re betting against the other patrons. The track simply serves as a \’banker\’, accepting money and paying bets. For this service, they take a percentage of the money bet on each race (called the \’takeout\’). The odds on a horse aren\’t set by the track, but rather by the amount of money bet on each entry.
The odds in the newspaper are known as the \’morning odds\’ and are essentially educated opinions. They\’re not much different than \’overnight lines\’ in sports betting. They can serve a function for handicapping, but often will not reflect what will transpire when the actual betting begins.
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 bettor reaches a conclusion about what he thinks will happen in a given race, it is still subject to the odds that are available when betting. This is similar to sports gambling, where an underdog may be more attractive due to an excessively high payback potential than he would ordinary, or, conversely, a clear favorite becomes an unattractive wagering proposition due to a prohibitively high price. Its all a matter of the math–if I could speak to the teenagers of America, I\’d try to impress upon them the importance of doing well in math for no other reason than its importance in all forms of gambling.
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 \’over perform\’ 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.
Dedication and Discipline: There\’s not a set formula for successful horse handicapping, so try different things and find what works for you. And, as always, don\’t go overboard with the money you wager and particularly until you get a feel for what you\’re doing. If you\’re interested in learning more, check out the Daily Racing Form website.
Adrian Vega is a part time writer who lives in Europe, he has plenty experience writing for bodybuilding forum. He is currently writing a program on how to lose weight and help people with his nutritional knowledge.
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