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.
Were not going to suggest that the information here even scratches the surface of what you need to know to become a serious horse handicapper. There are countless books, DVDs and other media that you should check out if this is your goal. If you’re interested in simply knowing the basics so that you can enjoy a day at the track, here are some basic concepts of horse handicapping:
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.
The House Doesn’t Care Who Wins: One thing that is important for the sports bettor to remember when playing the horses is that its a parimutuel situation. In other words, you’re not playing against the house, you’re 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 parimutuel 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 doesn’t necessarily indicate a bad horse, but just one that the wagering public isn’t 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.
Handicapping basics: There are so many different approaches to handicapping horse races that its difficult to even know where to start. Some handicappers emphasize past performance data. Others factor in the results of recent workouts, while others prefer a visual examination of the horses in the paddock.
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.
Horses and Trainers: Some handicappers place a great deal of importance on the horses breeding lineage”the quality of his parents and grandparents “as an indication to his performance potential. This may be particularly important early in a horses career, but after a half dozen or so races what hes done on the track becomes more important than his pedigree. Trainers, like Bob Baffertt, can also be an important consideration much in the same way that coaching can play an important role in sports wagering.
Jockeys: Jockeys are independent agents, and thus to make the most money they need to win the most races. The more a jockey wins, the better ‘rides’ he gets and the more money he makes. Surprisingly, many serious horse players put minimal importance on the jockey. It’s essentially a case where even the best jockey can’t win with a bad horse. In other words, if a jockey is seen as ‘competent’ there are many other more significant factors for the handicapper to consider.
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.
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.