How do you keep score?

[BELMONT 6-6-09]

Their are numerous time frames for horseplayers to keep tabs of their betting activity and reflect exactly their success or failure in terms of money won or lost.

Is it weekly...monthly...completion of a meeting...certain amount of wagers...yearly?

Myself, at this stage I attempt to show a weekly profit since I rely almost 95% on win or win/place wagers with occasional doubles. I am comfortable to attack the game in this frame work to keep my betting with a purpose...to show a profit (large or small ) on a weekly basis.

[proximity]

i will readjust my bankroll at the beginning of each month.

if i'm losing for the month and don't find any plays on the final day i won't try and manufacture a bet to get me ahead..... it will just be a losing month.

long term i'm trying to get my overlay win percentage closer and closer to the percentage i'm saying that the horses should be. certainly not easy to do, but that is the challenge of the game!!

[CBedo]

If I remember correctly, Steve Fierro had an interesting monthly way of "getting paid" that he talked about in The Four Quarters of Horse Investing.

[Track Collector]

My profit/loss is determined yearly, however, I review each of the different play types weekly to determine their year-to-date progress and assess whether minor or major changes to the play criteria are required.

[Robert Fischer]

spreadsheet

[Tom Barrister]

While I stay on top of my betting activity, and regularly monitor how well each kind of bet is doing, my "scorecard" is based on a calendar year.

[schweitz]

Yearly till I became full-time, now monthly.

[JustRalph]

Don't forget to ask yourself something...............


How much fun are you having? Very important if you ask me..........

Don't forget to measure that............. monthly .....weekly or whatever.......

It really does matter...........

[jefftune]

It's yearly for me. Slightly down for 2009. Had a winning 2007 and 2008.

[bisket]

at the end of each betting day. if i'm up then i won. if i'm down i lost. its really bad if i have to put money towards my betting account.

[kenwoodallpromos]

Whenever I change my handicapping with adjustment or new method/angle.

[CincyHorseplayer]

Every 20 race days bet.A typical month.A lot of fluctuations over 3-7 days.A race month evens out the damage you can or can't do IMO.

[fmolf]

Since i only play at most twice a week i calculate my ledger on a weekly basis but scrutinize my wagers and my handicaping methodology monthly to see where i might improve or where i might have missed something.

[BELMONT 6-6-09]

So far the responses seem varied as I expected. I guess this depends on the individual players make up and style of wagering as naturally a exotic player will have longer droughts between cashing situations then the straight win player.

[CincyHorseplayer]

So far the responses seem varied as I expected. I guess this depends on the individual players make up and style of wagering as naturally a exotic player will have longer droughts between cashing situations then the straight win player.

Not true.As an exacta player I have a 47% cash rate dating back to 2001.Getting my key horse to finish 1st or 2nd to who I feel are the live contenders creates a lot of leeway that avoids cash droughts.I can easily maintain a self preserving 10-30% loss rate over a period of time where I'm not hitting my top combinations.

Starting as a fulltime win bettor I know that win players are more likely to suffer cash droughts than an exacta player because I've done both.

[bisket]

if you get good at it exacta's and trifecta's are the way to go :ThmbUp:

[CincyHorseplayer]

if you get good at it exacta's and trifecta's are the way to go :ThmbUp:

No doubt.

I still bet to win and I do pretty well.I won't bet anything under 3-1 so my average mutuel is up there.Some days it's amazing how good the prices can be.

But exactas definitely transformed my game.

[Track Collector]

Not true.As an exacta player I have a 47% cash rate dating back to 2001.Getting my key horse to finish 1st or 2nd to who I feel are the live contenders creates a lot of leeway that avoids cash droughts.

Wow, that is a very impressive cash rate. Personally, I am not interested in the specific handicapping criteria used to determine both the key horse and the contenders, as I'm sure you have worked hard to develop it, and it is none of our business. What does interest me, though, is how a wager such as this is put together.

Specifically, it would be interesting to know the following:
(a) What is the average race field size?
(b) What is the average number of contenders that are wagered both top and bottom with the key horse?
(c) What is the average number of plays per year?
(d) What is the ROI (pre-rebate)?

No doubt you are being VERY SELECTIVE on identifying the key horse. If you chose to box the entire field top and bottom with the key horse, the win and place percentages of the key horse coming in first or second would then total 47%. If one chooses to eliminate some the field, which is what you are doing, the win and place percentages of the key horse would need to be significantly higher, say in the 55% to 60% range.

[CincyHorseplayer]

Wow, that is a very impressive cash rate. Personally, I am not interested in the specific handicapping criteria used to determine both the key horse and the contenders, as I'm sure you have worked hard to develop it, and it is none of our business. What does interest me, though, is how a wager such as this is put together.

Specifically, it would be interesting to know the following:
(a) What is the average race field size?
(b) What is the average number of contenders that are wagered both top and bottom with the key horse?
(c) What is the average number of plays per year?
(d) What is the ROI (pre-rebate)?

No doubt you are being VERY SELECTIVE on identifying the key horse. If you chose to box the entire field top and bottom with the key horse, the win and place percentages of the key horse coming in first or second would then total 47%. If one chooses to eliminate some the field, which is what you are doing, the win and place percentages of the key horse would need to be significantly higher, say in the 55% to 60% range.

I don't think my cash rate is very impressive at all.Hand picking races to play and getting a horse to come in no worse than 2nd isn't at all a great accomplishment.But it makes a nice foundation as a betting approach.It lightens the burden of "having to" win and the value in the place hole vs a place bet is big.The last time I ran a sample from spring/early summer over 71 races the key horse win % was 30% and the W/P was 68% with 5 bust outs,for a 61% cash rate.Some meets,especially winter meets,that cash rate will be 45% or less.Overall it is slightly less than 50%.

To your questions;

a)honestly I don't keep field sizes in my betting records,but I can tell you I'm not fond of 6 horse fields and will pass often if there are a lot of chalky exactas.If I feel a finish is blatantly obvious but $20 or so I will play it one way heavily with a minimal reverse combination.

b)normally I'll have 2-4 contenders total.I'll often isolate 2 or 4 combinations/1-2 contenders to play dominantly top heavy but will use a 3rd horse occasionally if the odds warrant.If a meet is giving me trouble with bust outs as Tampa Bay did earlier this year I'll stretch out to use 6-8 contenders if necessary because there will be $100-200 payoffs in there for a $1 combination,but don't do that very often.I'm not a wheeler and I don't distribute equal sums on combinations except for 2 situations.1)I am making a value play on a high odds horse and the contenders aren't easily separated or 2)I will box 3 contenders in a race where there is a false favorite.

c)In a normal 5 day betting week I will play as many as 25-28 races or as little as 12-15,it just depends.I have gone 2 days without making a bet if I don't see or feel anything or am getting a price.Beyond that it depends on how many times I bet.It's been as little as 40 days up to 150.Never have bet 250 days or so.

d)ROI,like win percentages always fluctuates,but based on average payoffs I came up with a crude projection method that time and again proves to be very accurate,but it's definitely idiosyncratic.Here is the hit % chart I came up with,ROI's attatched;

18% hit rate=17% ROI
21% hit rate=40% ROI
25% hit rate=63% ROI
29% hit rate=87% ROI
32% hit rate=110% ROI
36% hit rate=133% ROI

To come up with the numbers just divide the number of hits by the average number of races played to get the hit percentages,then divide the payoffs into 2 different ranges and come up with 2 base averages,then split the number of hits 50% each to come up with composite ROI's for each hit % bracket.Once you know what your normal payoff ranges are you come up with the average payoff,and in turn it becomes a base goal.But it's never that clean in practice normally.