7 Things You Should Know About Horse Racing (Before You Start)
Whether you’re a beginner to horse racing or an expert, there are some information and rules that you will need to know about horse racing to make informed bets.
Knowledge is power in betting games, and the one who knows how to analyse data about each horse race will enable you to make informed decisions. When you have a selection based on just one or two resources, you’re more likely to lose money in the long run. To attain a long-term profit in horse racing, a variety of services must be included that involve data from every portal, absorbed and synthesised.
Here are some essential things that you need to know about horse racing, to increase your probability of winning:
1. Paddock Picks
If you want to take a good look at the horses running the race, the padlock is the best place. This is an area where the horses get saddled before the contest, and they walk around a ring. It is the ideal place to see ‘your’ horse personally and make a determination of your bet accordingly. You should look for characteristics like calmness, alertness, lightness on its feet, and a shiny coat that generally means the horse is ready to run.
2. Form History
When it comes to horse racing, the form of a horse is a record of significant events that determines its performance in the previous races.
Form can be extremely helpful, especially knowing the horses blood-line. You’ll often find a horses prefered running style matches that of its dam, this can help when making a decision about young horses. Running history can also be used for several things, sometimes no form can be just as telling. Especially when you consider the trainner and owner.
The form of the horse is published in newspapers and other media in a specific format, just like below.
3. Handicapping
Handicapping in horse racing is an art of analysing information found in the past races, to determine the relative ability of horses in a race. There are several handicapping systems developed over the years, which are simple and make use of data in the best possible way.
See the link in the paragraph above for more detail, handicap races make up a large proportion of a days racing. Understanding the handicapping system is extremely important if you’re to make things pay. There isn’t much point backing a horse that burdened with a heavy handicap, particularly in a race where others are unexposed.
The short explanation of a handicap race is; a race in which horses are assessed on ability and weighted accordingly. In an ideal world, if all horses are handicapped correctly they would finish in a dead heat.
That’s never happened though…
4. Backing Winners
Once you have studied the horse’s form and analysed your handicapping information, it is time to back your selection!
But this is probably the most important part. Taking any old price will hurt the bottom line over an extended period.
Bookmakers often offer the poorest value, where as exchanges and tote’s offer far better. We’ll save that for another article though. It’s a complex subject.
Using sites like oddschecker is probably your best bet (but only in decimal format) and sticking to the exchanges. If for any reason you do see a bookmaker with a bigger price than the exchange, it’s often a good thing. Over time betting at them prices alone will lead to account closures. But as we always say, if your accounts not getting restricted or closed you’re doing something wrong!
5. Racing Scheduling
Being selective with your approach is key to any kind of success. It’s simply not possible to go throughout the day and make selections in every race and win. The odds are stacked against you…
Looking ahead at the cards on offer and picking your selections carefully is extremely important. You’ll find some tracks, owners, trainers and even horses produce trends. For example Richard Hannon does extremely well with 2 year old horses. Where as some horses will only be run at select tracks. Others like to run left handed on the jumps etc.
The official BHA website is useful if you wish to see schedules in advance.
6. Horse Racing Statistics
The base of any good system is by identifying a key statistic a horse exhibits. Then, depending on the opportuntiy, working out if the horse will exceed expectations. Horse racing statistics range across a huge variety of variables.
James Willoughby provides an interesting insight into sectional times, we’d advise following him if that’s your thing.
7. Free Horse Racing Resources
Horse racing resources are directories and tipsters that give out important information about the race, which will help you determine the best outcome.
Most of these high-end resources are for free and can be easily accessed on the web. Once you have mastered the art of analysing data and making informed bets, your chances of winning with every race increases. Some of the top resources we have used in the past ourselves are listed at the bottom of this post.