How to Make Money at Horseracing

First off, I am not a professional handicapper nor do I claim to be. I love to play the horses and going to my local racetrack to try and make some money or at the very least, some extra cash. I know that there are a lot of "tip sheets" out there or even so called professional handicappers who will gladly give you their picks for a price. Why waste your money when you can do your own handicapping and feel better knowing that you picked the right horse.

I know that looking at the race form can be a daunting task for a beginner. Believe me, I've been there and at first glance, it looks like some ancient writing or code full of numbers and information. Call it information overload. But don't let that bring you down. I'm here to share with you some of the tips I've learned from playing this game.

Ok, so let's get down to business. First off grab a racing form and find a nice quiet place to handicap a race. Then start handicapping. You don't have to play every race as you probably know. I, myself, don't like to play maiden races simply because they are unpredictable and have yet to prove themselves. I stick to mainly claiming, allowances and stakes races.

I am assuming that you already know how to read the Daily Racing Form, if you're a complete newbie, research how to read daily racing form or Google it and you'll find different sites to help you read the form

OK, so rule 1 is find the CLASS of the horse. Basically you want to know if the horse is moving up or down in class. If he's moving up, it's a good sign but don't always assume he can take on the other horses especially if the other horses have already been racing at the same class level. Any horse moving down more than 2 or even 3 class levels should be a warning sign. That horse will not perform it's best. So if anything, look for horses moving up in class

Rule 2 is PACE. Find out who the speed of the speed is and start from there. Find out who the front runners are, the pacers/stalkers and the closers. Try to predict how the race will be turn out based on the horses running style

Rule 3 is JOCKEY AND TRAINER. Look for jockeys and trainers with a win percentage of at least 9% for that meet.

Rule 4 is EQUIPMENT CHANGES. Look for horses that are first time Lasix which usually can help them perform better or horses that has blinkers on/off. Blinkers will help the horse improve their speed so be aware of that. Also, some people pay attention to the front wraps of horses which usually indicate that the horse has a slight injury or that it's front legs are a little "soft" I don't particularly pay attention to that especially since some trainers purposely wraps their horses to fool the public.

Rule 5 is BEATEN FAVORITE. Look at the horses last odds from his last race. If there is an asterisk next to it, that means that the horse was the favorite at his last race but lost the race. Usually horses that are beaten favorites then to bounce back and win their next race.

Rule 6 TROUBLED TRIP. Look at the commentators comment and look for any signs of troubled trip, Some of them might say "bobbled start" or "went wide" anything that you might think prevented the horse from getting a good trip and winning the race.

Rule 7 is FIRST FLASH. This is a little tough to do especially if you're not on the racetrack. First flash refers to the very first flash of the odds for that race. The next time you are the race track, look at the tote board at the beginning of the race, you will notice that it will display the morning line odds of the horses. Wait a couple of minutes and the next set of odds will the be the first flash. Look for horses that have significant drops like overlay or underlay. For ex. A horse with a morning line odds of 10/1 and the first flash shows a 4/1. That's a big drop and I'm not saying that the horse will win but I have caught a few winners just by using first flash.

Rule 8 BEYER SPEED. High beyer numbers translate to faster horse but don't always assume that the horse with the highest number is the fastest. Just use this as a guide as what the possible speed of the race might be.

Rule 9 SECOND START OFF A LAYOFF. Horses that come back fresh especially if they are known to win off a layoff can be good contenders. Look at the past performances of the horse and see how he performed the last time he came back from a layoff.

There you go folks. Just some of the basics to help you decipher the racing form. Good luck and let's go make some money!