Time to handicap a race

[LutherCalvin]

Generally speaking, how much time does it take you experts to handicap a race? And how many bets do you make on an average day of racing?

[sjk]

I guess the experts don't feel like answering so I will. I let my computer do the handicapping so it really takes no time at all (usually when I bet, I don't even know the names of the horses).

On a weekend day, I usually bet 40-50 races.

[cj]

I think your use of "expert" is why noone wants to answer. With the side note that I am not an expert, I would say it takes me no more than 10-15 minutes to look at a race, make an odds line, and then I am finished. I find if I dwell too long on a race, it isn't worth playing and I'll try to dig too deep looking for some nugget I think I might have missed.

CJ

[Dave Schwartz]

WHen I play, I am in-and-out of a race in about 2 minutes or less. Generally, I make a bet in about 80% of the races I handicap so I make quite a few bets in the course of a full day. I think the most I have ever made is about 60 races.

I recently began playing exactas for the first time and am finding that it takes longer to punch in the bets. This is having a negative effect on the number of wagers, especially around midday when there are so many simultaneous posts.


Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[fmazur]

While I do hold my own, I am certainly no expert. I take less than one minute per race when I let the computer do the picks and two to ten minutes if using the Racing Form. As noted by cjmilkowski, spending too much time on a race causes one to put too much into it deluting the end result. When I play it can be anywhere from one or two up to ten plays.

[Zaf]

If using a racing form about 10 minutes.

If computer assisted 5 minutes.

I wouldn't put myself in the expect category, yet, LOL.

ZAFONIC

[sq764]

For me, if I am doing detailed analysis, 1.5 - 2 hrs..

For personal handicapping maximum 1 hr per card, usually much less (after picking and choosing races)..

Then you factor in the beer runs to the fridge, and a card could take 3 hours, with 40 mins of actual handicapping..

[David McKenzie]

Originally posted by LutherCalvin
Generally speaking, how much time does it take you experts to handicap a race? And how many bets do you make on an average day of racing?

It depends.

If it's a cheap claimer at Beulah or Mountaineer Park, then five minutes of handicapping is probably overkill.

If it's The Breeder's Cup, Kentucky Derby or a Pick 6 and you're betting $500 or more on the race(s), then several hours (or even days) of effort may be warranted.

In general I spend about three minutes per race and bet almost all the races I find, between 60 and 100 a day I'd guess.

[Aussieplayer]

At the moment: A few minutes in the morning to determine "possible plays," (average of 5), which then have to (unfortunately) be checked against the tote at race time to make an (average) of 1 play per day.
I can see myself scrapping this method soon, lol It's easy, and profitable - but (really), how can you make good money from 1 play per day? Esp. when the hit rate and ROI are nothing spectaculor?

On Saturdays (our main day), I'm still in experiment mode with a number of methods.

Cheers
AP

[NYRAcapper]

Guess everyone here put's me to shame. In races I like to bet heavy----normally at least a 10-12 horse field I will spend 1-1 1/2 hours apiece. That makes for some long weekend nights and I'm always tired Monday but it is generally worth the effort to me. Of course I WILL NOT use a computer to handicap a race.
NOW BEFORE I GET A NASTY RESPONSE-----------I do not knock those who use computers to handicap a race--Believe me when I say I have tryed them all. But have never found a program that I liked. Oooops, I take that back- HTR is an awesome program and if I ever got a wild hair and played the races full time I would use that program, but I cannot justify 119$ a month when all I do basically is play the New York circuit and then only on weekends. I do handicap all non maiden races for every race day in New York but rarely bet them as I am a carpenter and cannot access an oddsboard from work.
Seems to me that making my own #'s by hand often will help me to come across something in a horses pp's that the numbers themselves would not show. I'm probably completely whacko but I actually enjoy coming home from work and spending two or three hours a night looking over pp's and making #'s. To me it's kinda like coming home to the crossword puzzle. Except handicapping a horserace in infintessimally harder than any crossword or logic puzzle ever created.
I'm glad I still suck at this game or I would have given up long ago. Someday I'll beat the hell outta this game and then I'll have to find something else.
WHO AM I KIDDING---------LOL

[formula_2002]

Once the data is down loaded from bris and placed into my data base, I can handicap 100 races in 60 seconds.

But I spend 10 hours a day analyzing the data base results and working on "stuff"

The more I analyze, the less I bet.

Joe M

[superfecta]

seems like most of us do it in less than 20 minutes per race.I still do it by pencil and paper,and spend the twenty three minutes between posts handicapping,if that long.And we wonder why no one consistently wins more than 35% of our bets......

[Aussieplayer]

Today (Tues), I've got 4 possibles. So, nearly the average. They are at 3.17pm, 4.15pm, 5.02pm & 5.37pm
As I type this I've got 7 more minutes to the first of those.

It's looking like a pass. (Yawn).

Plus, with 7 mins to go there's only 6285 in the pool I'm looking at. Now, that'll probably quadruple by race close - but with small pools like that that we have (on non-city racing), how can you make significant money from average 1 play per day?

Sorry....going off the topic of the thread! But there's something to be said for the "downtime" of spotplaying, which is relevant to the thread (slightly!). Gotta run.
Cheers
AP

[Tom]

You make a good point about doing your own numbers. I also make my own, even though I use HTR and ESRoi....I consider making numbers part of the handciapping process, just done well before the race. I have to look hard at races where the numbers don't make sense (and there are a lot of them). I get an insight into a whole card at once when I do this and when I suspect a number, I highlight it in red on my spreadsheet, so when I use that racce later on, I know something is not right. This has helped on a lot of races where the last race looks either too good or too bad to be believed.

[dav4463]

I use my own ranking method, takes about 10 minutes per race....maybe 15 minutes for a 12 horse field.

[kenwoodall]

After crossing out all MSW and named races, about 5 minutes per race using my own show method with fast eliminations, I find spot win bets along the way, horses i would never bet against. I am VERY picky and find 20-25 horses per DRF.

[kenwoodall]

Hint- keep for and study individual horses' better races for common factors. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why a horse won every other race- the i figured out the only factor was he won each time after being shipped the length of California!!