A Winning Strategy

A trip to the race track or a session on your computer with Twinspires.com can be a winning one or a painful loss.  So let's take a look at both situations and see if we can identify what may be 'a winning strategy'.

First, a look at the 'behavior of betting' is in order because the individual's mind set is behind the bets he makes. The first thing to consider is the size of your bankroll.  Your bankroll is money you have put aside to bet with.  There is a saying that goes like this: "you can't win them all but you can lose them all".  What does this mean?  It means that it is quite possible to lose every bet you place.  If that should happen to you then you may end up with a zero bankroll.  This is the very worse situation.

We will look at a strategy that will put money bet, that we win with, back into our bankroll.  So when we win a bet we will put this winning ticket aside and not use it again during the current betting day.  Quite simply what this will do for us is to make sure any winnings we have we do not roll over into losses.  Rolling winnings back into betting again with the proceeds and losing is the way many a horse player ends up with empty pockets at the end of the day.

Putting winning tickets aside and back into you bankroll is a strategy for at least preserving part or all of your bankroll for the day.  The second step in a 'winning strategy' is to never bet more than your have in your bankroll for that day.  For example, if you start with a bankroll of $200 you might want to allocate $10 in bets for each race if you have 10 races on the card for that day.  That assumes you want to bet every race.  If you have some discipline in your betting you may not bet every race but choose races that you have the greatest confidence in winning.  You can measure the size of your bets but never exceed your bankroll for that day.

A profitable day is one where your winnings exceed your bankroll that you started with at the beginning of the day.  In fact you may want to stop betting when you reach a profitable level that meets your expectations.

May the racing gods be with you.

What I Should Know About Handicapping and Betting

[I am being encouraged by friends and new acquaintenaces at my home race track to write some articles for beginners.]

What is horse handicapping and what should I know about betting?

Handicapping a horse race is about determining which horse (or horses) could win the race. Betting is about determining what kind of a bet to place and how to configure it. Let's talk about handicapping first. When you go to a race track you can purchase a newspaper called the Daily Racing Form (DRF). The DRF has long been the means to getting a look at the Past Performances (PP) for all horses in a race. If you have the internet you can use your PC to access the PP's before you ever get to the track. Just go to DRF.com, pick the track and date. Reading the DRF PP's, if you are new to it may seem quite formitable. If you want to become more serious about handicapping and picking potential winners I suggest you study the form (DRF) and become familiar with the terminology in it. Those who do not use the form may resort to tip sheets. These are put together and sold by individuals who rate horses in a race. I have found that if you are at the track strictly for fun then tip sheets may be an easy way to skip the handicapping, use someone elses picks and have fun.

Placing a bet is determining what kind of a bet you will make and how you will structure it. There are many bets that can be structured. 50 years ago when I first went to Saratoga Race Track, close to where I lived at the time, there were three main bets that you could make; WIN, PLACE, and SHOW. Today there are many more bets that can be made at the track, at a simulcasting location, or over the internet. I'll list a few of them. WIN, PLACE, SHOW, QUINELLA, EXACTA, TRIFECTA, SUPERFECTA, DAILY DOUBLE, PICK 3, PICK 4, PICK 5, PICK 6. Each track across the country has some or many of these bets that can be placed depending on the race.

Doing your homework: A lot of homework can be done ahead of time to prepare for placing the bets you will make. As I mentioned before for those of you, especially starting out, you may prefer not to do any of this homework. You can buy tip sheets at the track and rely on someone else's opinions. You can decide whether you want to become a serious player or go to the track just to have some fun. It's up to you.

I hope this helps out the beginner to get started. Here are some links to past articles in my blog for further reading.

http://handicapbet.blogspot.com/2007/11/can-i-play-horses-over-internet_29.html

http://handicapbet.blogspot.com/2007/12/stay-on-top-of-your-handicapping.html

http://handicapbet.blogspot.com/2007/12/tote-picks.html

A Starting Point for Betting Simulcast Tracks

Several years ago I set up a web page for myself that would allow me to go to the resources that I needed to get ready for a day of racing. It became popular by word of mouth to others, especially those horseplayers at Remington Park my home track, who also started using it. That web page has had over 125,000 hits in the last several years and is reached at
http://billwinters.org/handicap2

There is a selection bar on this page that includes the following: Race Tracks/E-ponies/Equibase/Handicapping/Twinspires/Brisnet/TVG/Racing Channel/Daily Racing Form
A click on "Race Tracks" takes you toUSA Horse RacingTracks - Listed by State.
http://www.officialusa.com/stateguides/horseracingtracks/index.html

A click on E-ponies takes you to Computer-based handicapping - the best source for free picks
http://www.e-ponies.com/

Official source for thoroughbred racing information
http://www.equibase.com/

To listen to daily free audio selections/ race of the day free selection
http://www.trackmaster.com/

A Churchill Downs Corp. Wagering Site
http://www.twinspires.com/content/

Bloodstock Research Information Services
http://www.brisnet.com/

TVG Interactive Horseracing
http://www.tvg.com/

Provides Toteboards for Thoroughbreds, Harness Racing, and Greyhounds
http://www.racingchannel.com/

America's Turf Authority Since 1894
http://www.drf.com/

I have found that the favorite link used by many horseplayers is the E-ponies link with the free computer-based handicapping free picks. I have done some studies on the E-ponies picks and can offer some advice. Just picking the top choice in each race is a losing proposition over the long run. Choosing the top three choices will get you close to making some money in the long run. The best advice is to use some handicapping tools along with the E-ponies free picks. I like Brisnet's Ultimate PP's.

Enjoy and good luck.

What are some of the horse betting sites on the internet?

If you go to your local track and watch the simulcast monitors you will see advertised several horse betting web sites depending on the track you are watching. For example, if you are watching Churchill Downs the betting site you will see is TwinSpires.com. This is the betting site that is a Churchill Downs Company. Twinspires has three sister sites at the present time: Brisbet.com, WinTicket.com, and TsnBET.com. Churchill Downs Incorporated has a number of race tracks. The tracks that have 'live' racing right now are: Churchill Downs, Arlington Park, Calder, Fair Grounds, and Hoosier Park. HRTV carries all of the Churchill Downs Incorporated race tracks in case you want to watch on your TV.


Magna Entertainment Corporation is another company that owns a number of race tracks around the country. These include Golden Gate Fields, Gulfstream, Laurel, Lone Star Park, Magna Racino, Pimlico, Portland Meadows, Remington Park, Santa Anita Park, The Meadows, and Thistledowns. All of these tracks you can bet on at XpressBet.com.

Another popular betting site is YouBet.com. It is US based and is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. A Google search on 'horse betting sites' will produce a number of other betting
sites also.