Though there are many ways to successfully handicap races and thousands of systems for sale, there are a few things that are of absolute importance if you are really serious about making money by betting on horse races. Whether you use a particular system, or just wing it, you can't get past these few factors.
Some people look for a situation and can be called situational handicappers. Other horse players look for what they consider overlays and underlays and exploit deviations in the pools. Other bettors are in the know because they have back side information, in other words, because they are able to learn things about a particular horse by being on good terms with the trainer, owner, jockey or groom.
What are the three points or steps to handicapping success?
1. First of all, you must know if the trainer intends to win the race. With a few exceptions, like the Kentucky Derby, almost any race will have a at least one runner or more who are not meant to win. Trainers use races to condition horses and to school them. If a horse has developed a bad habit, for instance, bolting to the lead and wasting too much energy, the trainer may tell the jockey to hold the horse back at all costs and not to worry about winning for that day. It isn't dishonest, it is how trainers teach their horses.
Sometimes a trainer knows his or her horse doesn't have what it takes to win, no matter how it looks on paper, and tells the jockey to just take it easy and exercise the runner. The point is, that if you don't have some way of knowing whether your horse is "well meant," then you are going to bet on horses that are not going to win and not even have the chance to win. The pools is one place to look for trainer intent.
2. How good the horse is compared to the competition is the next critical factor. In other words, does the horse have the ability to win? There are several ways to arrive at this conclusion, some use an ability time, while others look for win at the same level in a past performance, or par times.
3. The third factor is value. Simply stated, picking winners does not guarantee financial success. Your winners must return more money than the cost of your bets or you will be a loser. These seems like such a simple statement and obvious truth, but it is the reason why so many people fail to make a profit from wagering on horse races. With practice you will learn to set fair odds on a horse and by only betting them at fair odds you will make a profit. If you don't insist upon fair odd, all the handicapping and systems in the world won't help.
Though you may think you know the above factors and they are obvious, check your own performance at the track to see if there isn't one area that you are not succeeding at and that is why you are losing money.
The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com and get the truth.
Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, "Horse Racing is in my blood." To see all Bill's horse racing material go to http://williewins.homestead.com/handicappingstore.html, Bill's handicapping store.
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