The most commonly asked question is, “Can you make money betting on horses?” The simple answer is yes.
However, very few people can consistently benefit from horse racing because they cannot handicap using a standardized method and the discipline to stick to a consistent money management strategy.
When you bet on horses, you bet against the crowd, not the house, as you would in a casino. When you win money at the racetrack, you deprive other people who bet on the same race as you. To win money regularly, you must work harder and be smarter than your rivals. You may create a mix and then compare it to previous races to see how it worked throughout a meet. When you apply the combination to future races, you will have the data to show that you are making a wise decision and will be able to bet confidently.
Every race cannot be bet on. That should be clear to most players, but it cannot be overstated. You will lose money if you bet on every race you see. You must choose your races carefully – races in which you have decided that a specific horse has a greater chance of winning than the rest of the field and have the statistics and historical records to back it up. Even so, you will not succeed every time, but with a good money management system, you will be able to overcome the losses and turn a profit in the long run.
If you were looking at a normal Saturday and had eight racetracks to handicap, each with nine races, you will have 72 betting options. If you created a very selective set of mixes and applied them to each race where your top-ranked horse has a substantial point advantage, you could find ten races worth betting on. If the horses you choose do not meet your minimum odds requirements (who wants to bet a 3:5 shot? ), you will ultimately discover that only 5 of those races are worth betting on. Assume that 2:1 is the lowest price you can consider and that the horse is going off at 2:1 in all five races in which you plan to bet. If you bet $2 on each of those horses to win in each race, you would have wagered a total of $10. A winning horse that is backed at odds of 2:1 will cost $6.00. To turn a profit, you must win two of the five races. You will make money betting on 2:1 shots at the racetrack if you are right 40% of the time. Of course, in the real world, things do not always fall into place so neatly. Some horses will have a 9:5 or 4:1 ratio. The trick is to keep your bets small and constant. Human nature dictates that if you lose the first few bets, you will either be tempted to bet more on the next race to make up for your losses or lose faith and bet less to minimize your future losses. In any case, you are on the verge of catastrophe.
Winning money when betting on horses necessitates continuity—consistency of handicapping and betting. Consistency in handicapping is much easier to achieve than consistency in betting. People are not computers, and it’s difficult to watch a race where a horse that almost met your handicapping requirements is going off at 15:1 and not bet on it. Your money management strategy should allow you to play those marginal horses, but not at the same level as your solid picks.
