Horse Racing

Who’s Ready for the Kentucky Derby

In the world of horse racing, the Kentucky Derby is definitely a race that you have to check out. It’s going to be held on the 2nd and 3rd of May at Churchill Downs. Now, May is still a long way away but that doesn’t mean punters aren’t already eyeballing the contenders merrily.

If you’re going to start handicapping now, you need to look at different races as we get to the Derby, not just the Derby itself. Doesn’t that make sense? You don’t want to bet from the gut when there’s so much money to be made on a great horse. You have to think carefully about how you’re going to set up your bet down the road.

There are some races that you’ll want to study historically for any horses that seem interesting.

The first race to look at would be the Risen Star Stakes. That just happened on the 22nd of February, but it’s a very important race. You’ll have some allowance winners in the mix, and very few maiden horses. Maiden horses that haven’t won are always a wildcard, because you just don’t know what their final performance will be. Still, the Risen Star Stakes is a race that gets everyone’s attention. Many have made Derby picks just off this race alone!

The Fountain of Youth Stakes is another one to watch. It just aired a day or two ago as well, and it features a very hefty purse. This means that the star horses were definitely on that track. If you’re new to handicapping, don’t worry: we’ll cover more handicapping tactics in just a little while.

The final two races to check out would be the Davona Dale Stakes, as well as the Rachel Alexandra Stakes. These are races that feature nothing but fillies. Some might scoff at these races, but we like them for one reason: it’s easy to catch the silent top picks. While everyone’s watching the boys, there just might be a filly that surprises us. You just never know; fillies have taken the Kentucky Derby before!

So, what horses are you looking at for the Kentucky Derby right now? We’d love to hear your picks! And if there’s a race that we need to go back and check out again, do let us know in the comments!

Your Betting – How Horse Injuries Can Derail Your Betting Goals

By Tyron

No one wants to deal with an injured horse, but such a thing is part of the greater world of horse racing. You might as well get used to it. And if you’re going to get serious about horse betting, you have to get excited about horse racing too. You can’t just bet from the gut and hope that everything is going to be okay. Well, we take that back. If you don’t care whether you win or lose, then it doesn’t matter at all. However, if you’re like many people and you really, really want to win serious money over time, you have to start looking at how these factors make all of the difference in the world.

The top reason why injured horses are such a wildcard is that you really never know how healed they are until they’ve done another race. This is where you want to look and see their pace, how they handled the jockey, how they were on the track itself. Remember our pointers about track bias? You want to study the conditions of the track from start to finish and note how they change.

The best thing that you can do is to place bets carefully for an injured horse. A lot of people are going to want to see if that horse can still perform, including the owners themselves! They’re not going to let a super injured horse just race again without really making sure that they can handle it. Still, that doesn’t mean that there can’t be performance issues involved.

If you follow free tip sites, it might be worth your while to see if there’s any rumors or discussion about a horse. Genuine news articles can work well also.

The point here is that you have to take your research to the next level if you want to continue hitting it out of the park in terms of picking good horses. Unfortunately, we know that we can say this all day long, but only certain people will honestly follow this advice. They will be otherwise busy trying to get emotional about horses. Don’t get us wrong at all — we think these animals are incredibly beautiful, strong, and very powerful. But that doesn’t mean that we’ll bet on them no matter what. If a horse is no longer profitable, it’s time to cut them loose. That’s the way the game is really played. Now, you can stay being an amateur, or you can learn more and move up into the big leagues. The choice, like most things in life, is always up to you.

Why Smart Punters Look at Handicapping Pace

By Tyron

As promised, we wanted to dig more into the world of horse racing, and more into handicapping specifically. It’s quite possible to end up not handling handicapping the way you should. We understand that there’s a lot of data to process. you might not know where to really begin. But if you really want to dominate the racetrack in good time, you have to start looking at pace form a more serious point of view.

Can you use software to make pace handicapping easier? Absolutely — but you don’t want to do this right away. Like most things, it’s better to know how to do it manually. That way if you ever have to get things going on your own, you’re still going to be just fine. Some people rely so much on software that they really don’t understand the mechanics of what they’re dealing with. That’s a good way to lose money over the long run. Keep in mind that while software is definitely helpful, it can’t turn you into something that you aren’t. It can’t turn you into a super profitable, bettor that can see a good horse from a mile away. You have to do the research and put in the time — just like all of the other successful gamblers. Anybody can get lucky and bet form the gut a few times, winning small here and there. But you’re going to have to treat this almost like a lifestyle in terms of how much time you’re really willing to give to it. Some people can’t handle that, and that’s perfectly okay. It’s better to know your limits than not.

Anyway, moving back to pace handicapping. Pace covers the entire race as a whole. You need to try to figure out which horse can easily overtake the others, which horse is fast enough to keep up, and how hard is each horse really going to work. As you might imagine, these are some pretty tough questions to answer. You’ll get better at answering them and making educated guesses. Did we mention guesses? Yes, it’s true — you have to guess based on what you know. But that’s still an educated guess. You’re taking time to do the research into something that interests you.

However, it still gets even deeper than our little overview. Smart punters get into handicapping pace because it allows them the proverbial 50,000 foot tower view of everything that’s going on. This is something that you have to work up to, but it’s completely worth it in the long run. Some people feel that they would be better served by looking at other numbers. That’s a bit misleading — you have to pull data from a lot of sources in order to really understand a horse’s pace. It also helps if you’ve seen the horse actually compete. There are times where the commentators are indeed wrong, or the horse shows a little more fire than expected later on. You just never know until you start looking into things further for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with knowing where you want to go, and even realizing that you have limits in place.

One of the top factors to look at when it comes to pace would have to be running style for each and every horse that you have your eye on. This is also where watching the replays really comes in. You have to look at some past performances in order to get the historical data you need. [Read more…] about Why Smart Punters Look at Handicapping Pace

Free Horse Picks Are Still Chugging Along – But Take Caution

By Tyron

Here’s something that I think we can all agree on: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Still, does this extend to the world of free horse picks? Some say that this is the case, while others feel that it’s really not anything to worry about. You see, horse picking is something that’s personal. Would you tell another man what type of woman he should be interested in? I didn’t think so!

The truth is that not all horse picks will be generated in the same way. You have to really know the site and know the people that are publishing the information. We can look at horses all day, but we may come to a different conclusion as to how far to take things when it comes to the way that horse performs. Yes, there are some people that just bet from the gut. And that’s okay. They will take random horse picks and run with the ball. But if you’re trying to get into the business of horse handicapping, there’s a lot of data that you need to pour over.

I’m not going to insult the many hard working men and women that put together horse picks. They often take a long time to come to their conclusions, and they should be rewarded for that. However, just as some people take a lot of time to come to their own conclusions, there are some that don’t take enough time to come up with logical picks.

If you’re getting serious about horse betting to the point where you want the best picks, you’re most likely going to have to spend some money. It’s the best way to get the attention of the community as well. If you’re someone that’s super serious about the game and you’re willing to invest, you won’t find too many to tell you that you’re out of your mind.

The truth here is that you need to seriously consider investing in this like you would anything else that you’re interested in. The more data that you can get your hands on, the better decisions that you’ll make. However, just because I’m telling you that doesn’t mean that you need to run out and get the worst data that you can lay your hands on. That just wouldn’t make any sense at all.

Horse racing is something that has a long tradition. Some people will be able to jump right into the game and make some good bets, while others will need assistance. It’s okay if you need a little more help than the average bear. We have you covered!

Investing Money Into Sophisticated Horse Picking Systems

By Tyron

Are you trying to get better results when you step up to bet on all of the big horse races? You’re not alone. But if you’re new to the world of horse handicapping, it really can seem like a lot of work. It just feels like it would make a lot more sense if you could figure out a different system, or even borrow someone else’s system.

Investing money into sophisticated horse picks can be tricky. Just about everyone is offering horse picks these days, and it means that you’re going to have to be careful before you really get too deep into things like this. It’s up to you to make sure that you’re thinking about whether you’re going to make a return on your investment.

Think about the type of money that you have to spend on horse betting to begin with. If you’re not a big player yet, you really don’t need to do horse picks from a service. The reason why we say it that way is because it’s very easy to think that you’re going to be getting into a world that leads to instant profits, but that’s not the case either. You have to think about how much money you stand to win before you buy horse picks every day.

You also want to think about the source. If the people you’re buying the picks from aren’t seasoned handicappers, then what’s the point? The whole pint of buying picks is to avoid doing the work. Yet this is short sighted. “The work” in this case leads to the money, and you like money. Otherwise, why bet at all?

There’s a certain thrill in mastering horse handicapping. Sure, it’s not something that you can learn overnight, but what really is the right thing to do, when you really think about it? You owe it to yourself to figure out just about everything there is to know about horse handicapping. If you want to invest in a service, well…it’s your money.

We don’t think these services are always a good thing. If you’re going to do this, you want to make sure that you’re going with a service that truly raises the bar in terms of what to expect. That’s just the way it is, so make sure that you’re looking through all of your options. Of course, there are some free picks available, if you want to cut your teeth on those. You can always choose a premium service later when you feel more confident. Good luck out there!

Common Horse Racing Multiple Bets That You Need to Know About

By Tyron

Just when you thought you’ve heard about every single term in the world of horse racing, we had to go and throw more at you. We apologize, but we have our reasons: we want to make sure that you’re as well informed as you can possibly be. Of course, this isn’t stuff that you’ll dive into immediately as a newbie. Multiple bets can be pretty complicated. If you’re not doing sophisticated handicapping and looking at as much data as you can, then this information isn’t going to benefit you. You’ll need to make sure that you are looking at each horse and really evaluating whether or not it’s a winner. Betting from the gut when it comes to a multiple betting scheme is going to make you lose more money than what you stand to make. Once you are ready, check out grand national live betting odds and place the winning bet.

Here’s a few common horse racing multiple bets that you’ll run into and hear about as you begin looking at horse racing forums.

The Trixie

What a fun name for a fun multiple bet — this is where you make 4 bets involving 3 selections in different events. The bet includes 3 doubles and 1 treble. Two of your picks have to be successful to get a return.

The Patent

A patent bet is going to be made up of 7 bets that involve 3 selections in different events. The bet will include a single on each select, 3 doubles, and a treble. If one selection is successful, then you get a return.

The Yankee

This is one of our favorites. The Yankee consists of 11 bets: 4 selections in different events. You get 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and an accumulator. 2 of your selections must be successful to get a return, but you get more money if more selections are successful.

The Lucky 15

This is starting to get complicated with 15 bets. 4 selections in different events. The bet is made up of: 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 fourfold. If one selection wins, you’ll get a consolation on the returns like double or treble the odds. If all four selections win, then you get a bonus of 10% or more to total returns. If you are going with an each-way, the consolation is only paid on the win part of the bet.

The Goliath

This is one big monster bet! The Goliath can be broken down to 247 bets that involve 8 selections in different events. The bet includes: 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 fourfolds, 56 fivefolds, 28 sixfolds, 8 sevenfolds, and an accumulator. A minimum of 2 of your selections have to be successful to get a return.

There are plenty of multiple bets, but we picked the ones that you should hear about over and over again. This is not for the faint hearted — again, make sure that you’re picking wisely. Good luck!