Free Horse Handicapping Contests

Recently I was with a few of my retired friends and they were asking me if there was a way they could get some experience playing the horses without losing a lot of money. I asked them if they had an internet account and were familiar with using the web. Most were, so I went on to tell them about some of the free horse handicapping contests that you can join and play to hone your skills.

There is a contest that you can play for free each day. All you have to do is sign up for a free account with Brisnet and play along each day. Just log in tohttp://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/daily-contest/index.cgi and click on "FREE Contest Registration". Follow the instructions to set up your free account. You're then ready to play "Race of the Day" each day. Brisnet keeps tab of your record and gives you one point each day just for playing. If you are in the top 50 of winning picks for the week you get a bonus of 50 extra points applied to your account for that week. Twice a year they have a drawing and you have a chance to go to the Kentucky Derby in May or to the Breeders Cup in October with all expenses paid for two.

If you only have time to play in a contest on weekends then there's a web site that you can join for free that lets you make your selections for four races each weekend. Just go to http://www.publichandicapper.com/ and click on "sign up to play for free here". You will get an email from the Public Handicapper folks each Thursday telling you what races you will be playing on Saturday. You can then use your favorite handicapping tools to make your three selections in each of the four races. Why three selections? Because if your top choice gets scratched then you have a second choice. If the top two get scratched (an unlikely event) then your pick is your third choice. They keep score for you and you can check at any time to see where you are in the standings. There are prizes at the end. It's a lot of fun and if your hit the winning horse in each race you get recognition as well as some free Past Performances for a period of time.

There is another web site that you can join, http://www.equibase.com/index.cfm, that has free contests at various times during the year. Go to "Equibase Virtual Stable" and click on "Register Now". It's free to set up an account. If you are registered then whenever Equibase has a contest they will send you an email so you can participate. The contest is for one track on a particular day, usually a Saturday, and you make a win and place bet on one horse in each race. There are cash prizes for the largest accumulated bankroll. It's fun and they keep score for you.

These contests are FREE so get started and have some fun. Good luck.