Secrets to Betting on Horse Racing Part 1

Betting on Horse Racing is more skill than luck, although you would get many arguments about that statement. People either believe that professional gamblers are lucky or that they cheat. Some people believe both are true. I am here to tell you that the most important thing in betting on the ponies is management of your finances.

As in every other endeavor that you are involved in there are risks and rewards. The same is true in betting on Horse Racing. But you must have a keen eye on what you can afford to bet and when you should bet. That my
friend is the key to making money. If you get this wrong you are going to lose everything.

I get two questions thrown at me almost every single day. One is, "Can I really make serious money betting on the ponies?", and the other is, "How much should I be betting?". I really can't answer the second question without knowing your current financial situation. And I don't want to know, that is personal and best kept to oneself.

To answer the first question I say Yes, you can make money betting on the ponies but you have to be smart about it in every way. Not just on which horse you bet but also on when you place your bet.

The most important thing in betting is looking for value. I know that sounds funny but it is extremely important. When I go to the track and I see person after person betting on the favorite I cringe. Do you know how often the
favorite wins? Have you ever bothered to look it up? Do you care about the hard earned money you just put down?

Let me tell you, the favorite only wins about 33% of the time. A 1 in 3 chance, less than a coin flip. But the general public seems to think that the favorite is really the most likely to win horse, which it obviously isn't.
Not only that but by betting the favorite your return on your bet is the lowest odds so even if you do win, you don't win as much. As you probably already know if you have been betting for a while you will lose your shirt by
betting on the favorite all day. It just doesn't pay.

Now I'm not saying to never bet on the favorite, there are times when this is well worth it. But the main thing is to know when to bet on a particular horse and when it is of high enough value to warrant the bet. This is the
difficult part but it's not impossible to figure out or I wouldn't be here writing this to you now.

Before I get into greater detail here let me explain this in a way that you will understand. Say you are looking to buy a new car and you have been shopping and discussing different cars with your spouse. You know what you
are looking for and you have done enough research to know basically what the price range should be.

So you go into a dealership and you see the perfect vehicle. A salesman sees you and comes over and just when you think he is going to offer to let you take it for a test drive he mentions that this car is selling for $250,000. You would spit on the floor and walk out the door saying that he is crazy. This is exactly what is going on at the race track except you didn't know it and no one is going to tell you either.

A horse must be worth it to bet on it see, just like the car. Not all horses are worth putting your money down on them even if the odds say they are. You are making a huge mistake betting the favorites who are the overpriced cars of the racing world. You need to know which horses are priced according to their worth.

By doing this you are significantly increasing your odds of making a profit while betting on horse races, and that's what we all want. If you can see which horse is in the value section and bet on her and she wins you win more than if she were the favorite, you get more bang for your buck.

Learning to see value is a skill. You can acquire it either by reading tips sheets or finding someone who already has the skill that will let you learn from them. It is not impossible, but it will take some work. But it is key if you want to be able to bet on horse racing and make a profit.

Like I said, getting a price that is a value is the central theme of all professional gamblers. It's the cornerstone of your soon to be betting strategy. Most people don't realize that they have a lousy betting strategy until it is pointed out to them. The funny thing is that most people have it but get offended when you mention it to them.

Learning this skill is important of course, but there are other aspects to betting on horse racing that you must know and put into place. Money management is really the engine that drives this vehicle so knowing how much you have to bet and what you have left to bet is fundamental to this venture.

I will cover that in greater detail in Part 2 of this Article Series.