Looking to get into handicapping and betting.

[RacingFan1992]

What are some of the basic do's and don't of handicapping horses. I have been watching horse racing for 5 years now and thought about betting. Any tips and advice would be welcome. I plan on doing the research like the basic knowledge and terminology. I just wanted some first hand advice of what I would consider hard core horse players. Thank You!

[Stillriledup]

Here are some tips:

1) do not 'enjoy' the action part of the bets. Action guys go 'broker' faster than people who skip races and view race betting as investing.

2) horses are athletes, view them as such, learn to spot when a horse is ready to peak TODAY, remember, not only do you need to have evaluated the talent (along w strengths n weaknesses) of the equine athlete, you need to know if that athlete is going to fire big TODAY. If a great NFL team finishes the season 14-2 and you know they were great before game 1, it doesn't do you much good if you wagered on them both times they lost. Know the talent and know the circumstance.

3) don't let the humans get in your head, most trainers and jocks are all good enough to win in the right circumstances, but if you bet Pletcher or Baffert, you're paying a premium for a 'brand name' so the more high profile the humans, the harder it is to find positive ROI wagers.

4) stay humble, this game has a funny way of crushing egos, never get too high or too low, keep an even mental keel.

5) be observant when watching replays and live races. Everything you see means something, the key is to learn how to properly interpret what you're watching.

[letswastemoney]

Skip races.

If you're going to do it, don't just go after after race because everyone else is. There will be pressure to play famous races just because everyone is discussing them, but you may not have a feel for it.

[NorCalGreg]

Have you read any of the well-known handicapping authors? My favorite, and one I was fortunate enough to find early on was "Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing" You can actually find it used used on Amazon for $4- tax, shipping incl. Good luck.

[thaskalos]

Originally Posted by RacingFan1992

What are some of the basic do's and don't of handicapping horses. I have been watching horse racing for 5 years now and thought about betting. Any tips and advice would be welcome. I plan on doing the research like the basic knowledge and terminology. I just wanted some first hand advice of what I would consider hard core horse players. Thank You!

Put your betting on hold at least until you've read and digested these two books, in the order that I have listed them:

http://www.amazon.com/Handicapping-1...1+by+brad+free

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...ripbooks%2C174

Be patient, because there is a lot to learn. Books will not solve the puzzle for you...but the right ones will save you some time, and a lot of aggravation.

[Capper Al]

Brad Free's book, Handicapping 101, is a good place to start. Ten Steps to Winning by the late Danny Holmes is a good second book. Handicapping 101 introduces the racing game. Ten Steps will give some ideas on how to put a handicapping system together and how to make wagers.

[Some_One]

Remember, you're play against other people, don't do what they do.

[BELMONT 6-6-09]

Win a little, lose a little, but sometimes win big. Notice there is no LOSE big in the statement. Set a limit on a daily loss as it will give you some discipline to make your bets count.

[Aerocraft67]

Five years experience watching races is an exceptional foundation most "beginners" don't have.

The best wager is usually not on the horse most likely to win the race. The general goal is to find overlays, wagers that have a greater chance of winning than the odds suggest. There are many approaches to this, and it's extremely difficult to do consistently.

Bet a little to win a lot. It's one of the top cliches but sound advice. Avoid spreading wagers to thin across lots of exotic combinations or piling on a short price trying to cash a ticket.

It can be frustrating to handicap races only to land on the public choices. Try to find an interesting horse that's not the favorite. Develop contrary opinions. A little "beginners luck" might even land you on overlays the sharpies have passed.

Specialization is a worthy goal, and skipping races that are dim prospects for value is essential to maximize ROI, but in the meantime, try different races and wagers to see what you like. But don't run afoul of betting a little or exceeding your budget.

It might be useful to watch race preview programs like Talking Horses or DRF's Race of the Day video or read written race analysis after you've handicapped the card yourself to compare your interpretation with the "pros." Note that's not the same as taking their wagering advice at face value.

All that said, you will most likely not become a winning horseplayer. I'm not. Be cool with that. Keep your goals realistic and your budget in check. There are lots of ultimately dismal "can you beat the game/make money" threads on this forum, but there is also spirited discussion of a gloriously complex and engaging game. Of course maximizing ROI is the logical goal, but be realistic about what you can put into and get out of the game, with an emphasis on enjoying yourself, not torturing yourself.

[Luckycreed]

You need to really understand the class system or grading system if you like because that is the foundation stone on which the sport is built.The aim of the industry is to provide competitive racing and it uses a race grading system to achieve this by putting horses of similar ability into the same races as much as possible.

You need to get your head around all the intricacies of this, grasp the systems limitations understand not just the grades themselves but how they line up at different tracks at different times of the year all the subtle little things that go into finding a horse racing below it's grade ability wise, but not obviously so.

Everytime you look at a race you need to know the EXACT conditions of that race and asses it's quality (degree of difficulty) relative to what the individual horses in it have been racing against previously..There are loads of other things you need to learn as well but that is the starting point, if you don't understand grading or the class system as we call it in Australia you don't understand the basics of sport and have no hope.

[Robert Fischer]

Originally Posted by RacingFan1992

What are some of the basic do's and don't of handicapping horses. I have been watching horse racing for 5 years now and thought about betting. Any tips and advice would be welcome. I plan on doing the research like the basic knowledge and terminology. I just wanted some first hand advice of what I would consider hard core horse players. Thank You!

Read everything you can get your hands on. Watch the good handicapping shows (Serling @ New York, Mark @ Mountaineer, a couple other that slip my mind...)

Learn the system(the market and how it works), learn the sport and how it works, read all the good handicapping books, and on paceadvantage read all the good Robert Fischer posts you can sort through and find (there is a bunch of crap mixed in too, but if you can't sort good from bad you aren't cut out for this game)

Take a little bit of your money and start betting. Playing "on paper" is like reading a romance novel or watching a dirty movie vs doing something else.

When you play with a bit of real money, you will get to learn about yourself as well. You you never really know your own nature until you've participated. Where, (if anywhere) does your behavior tend to become irrational? For some, it's the natural upswings that happen to all. (Greed, overconfidence, misjudgment). For others it's the natural downswings that happen to all (fear, anger, weakness in adversity). Sometimes the prime moments in the market can cause us to be impulsive(bet twice! exacta box this that, manic wastes of money) or alternately 'freeze up'(womp womp buzzz "you've been shut out"). Have to make adjustments! Amazing how far adjustments to the errors of your human nature will go in avoiding the repetition of mistakes.

That's what learning about yourself is all about! Your irrational behavior.

Racing requires 2 amazingly difficult working parts in order to 'run'
1. understanding or 'insight'
2. behaving

Insight requires that you understand the rules and dynamics of the games. I already gave you a hell of an intro up there. Most are too lazy to grasp the basic rules and truly understand them. And that's the easy part of insight! You've also got to master the sport itself, so you can see the probable performance better than the public, and occasional find yourself in a situation where the public is wrong.

Behavior involves behaving. Duh! Making rational moves in a game like horse playing requires great behavior. We used to call behavior virtue.
These virtues transferred to simple layman's terms are as follows;
Good Judgement - choose well!
Be Fair&Reasonable - balance your greed and fear, be appropriate
Exercise Self Control - Stay in control of your emotions and behave rationally.
Strength in Adversity - A losing streak, even a winning streak, a downturn a photo finish, a previous mistake, horse racing has an unending list of stuff that can be EXTREMELY adverse! Be strong and continue to play your normal game. Buck up, and fight through it, but also learn from yourself and your environment anticipate and structure to avoid. Learn how to handle certain repetitive adverse situations.


Now, there's an excellent chance that you are not at all serious, and that the main person to benefit from this article will be myself as a refresher course written in the perspective of a teacher, but there is a longshot that this could benefit you or someone else. Enjoy the process of this challenging game.

[Johnny V]

You are getting some excellent advice here. There are many experienced players on this site with excellent and sometimes differing but nonetheless good approaches to handicapping and betting. The fact that you have been watching races for 5 years is a good start/leg up already. When it comes to handicapping and especially betting you have to take into account your own temperament. What works for some may not be suitable for others. There are many ways to approach this and you will need to find what works best for you by study and practice. If you are able to be fortunate enough to go to the races on occassion with an experienced, able handicapper whom you respect and can learn some things from that could be a plus. Remember, if you ask him about a horse always ask him why he likes or dislikes a horse. Make your own decisions and learn from them. Keep records.

[DeltaLover]

Reading the responses, I am getting the impression that, there is way to much emphasis given to the “reading” part of the required education of the aspiring gambler while learning from doing seem to be clearly underestimated.


In the same way that you can not learn how to swim by reading a book, it is impossible to become a successful bettor unless you go through a lengthy trial and error period that will allow you to develop the necessary experience, maturity and more than anything else cultivate the required psychology to keep you focused and constantly evolving as a horse bettor.

Although you might find some useful information in some of the related books, still most of them do no contain the needed context, to lead you to a deep understanding of the game.

It is your own dedication and persistence that can eventually put you ahead of the crowd and a lot of research and hard work is required if you really want to maintain some realistic expectations. Of course, even the most precise and accurate “academic” study of the game is simply useless, if it is not combined with real world betting with significant money that need to be risked during the learning process.

Learning to bet horses, is not a theoretical concept that can be mastered simply be reading books and getting advice from other more experienced bettors. Instead, is a very time consuming process, requiring both personal R&D and lots of losing tickets thrown to the floor in order to maintain some realistic hope that you can sometime become an expert bettor and handicapper.

[Lemon Drop Husker]

Bet.

You have to bet and gain experience.

$1 Exactas and $2 WP tickets should be your friend. Without any skin in the game you won't learn anything.

It is like Golf. You can go to the range and stripe balls day in and day out, but that teaches you nothing about playing the game. Eventually you have to take your game to the course and learn how to play.

Lastly, concentrate most on eliminating horses as opposed to finding "winners". The best horses don't always win, but the worst horses rarely do.

[no breathalyzer]

1) do not 'enjoy' the action part of the bets. Action guys go 'broker' faster than people who skip races and view race betting as investing.


why do i still struggle with this Its my #1 profit eater by far..