Horse Betting Tip - the Power of Pedigree

How many times has it happened? You handicap a horse race and determine the horse you like is a sure thing stone-cold-lock. He stands head and shoulders above the other horses. The track is muddy, but that doesn't matter your horse is the boss.

The bell rings, The gate opens and some 50-1 shoots to the front, never looks back and splashes home a winner. He crosses the finish line in hand, leaving the other horses in his wake.

You scratch your head wondering how in the world this could happen, you may even smell a rat.

Fact of the matter is some horses are simply bred to excel at running in the mud, and sometimes when the conditions are right, it can be a wake up call to the horse with the ugliest looking past running lines.

Fortunately there is a way to know in advance if a horse, who's never raced in the mud, is likely to enjoy the off-track. And that information is easily found in the Daily Racing Form. It's called the Tomlinson rating, created by the late-Art Kaufman aka Lee Tomlinson.

It's been a part of the DRF since 2001, but I remember when the Tomlinson rating book would come out for sale. It was a green slim manual with all the best sires for Turf and Mud. Using the ratings you had to use the horse's breeding, cross reference the book and come up with figures manually.

Now it's all done for you! When you are looking at the horse's DRF past performances you look to the right and you will see his lifetime record, and on the 2nd line down (i believe) is the term Wet with a number next to it. Mud Rating of 320+ Merits further consideration as a horse who could run particularly well over a wet track.

You now have one of the most powerful horse betting tips available! If you like the horse's workouts, if the distance is right, the trainer and jockey are a good combination, the class is right - you have a go!

According to the Daily Racing Form, "With horses trying mud, slop, or turf for the first, second or third time. Every horse whose sire and maternal grandsire have had a meaningful sample of offspring is assigned two Tomlinson Ratings - one that assesses it's likely aptitude for grass and one that does the same thing for muddy or sloppy tracks. These ratings which have been updated historically twice a year and will now be updated quarterly, are derived from an analysis of tens of thousands of race results on turf courses or wet tracks. The ratings, which appear next to the "Turf" and "Wet" headings in each horse's career box, can range from 0 (totally unsuccessful) to 480 (spectacularly successful.) A dash (-) means that the horse's sire has had an insufficient number of runners to create a rating."

So now you know the secret of the mudder. Use it wisely and you can find yourself picking some very nice longshot winners!