[wtt0315]

Ok i am getting into horse and dog racing now that i live close to a track. I am a real newbie at this and have hit a few trifectas but usually just look at the board and pick chalk. I want to learn about this and know a few of you are pros. Anyone have a good website that i can learn from or even better some good free software? I have seen a lot of software on the internet but some is pricy. I dont want to make this a career but want to make some profits and want to hit my damn superfecta that i keep missing by one dog. thanks guys

[Casperwaits]

I would recommend reading the Daily Racing Form as often as I could. PublicHandicapper.com is a good site to check out as well. I personally am not a fan of betting chalk, especially if you are playing TRIFECTAS. It's hard to hit them to begin with, but when they do come in, you want a decent price. I look for value. Keep in mind, horse racing is VERY hard to make $ on. The one good thing is the more you read and learn, the easier it becomes to find a horse in a race with good value that you may want to play. Just my 2 cents.

[bbyhill]

I would get to know the trainers and jockeys any track bias.Brisnet.com is a decent site.Would watch replays and put horses on my watch list.

[SlickFazzer]

Contact Richkas, he eats, sleeps and drinks the ponies.

[Boner_18]

Picking Winners - Beyer
Betting Thoroughbreds - Davidowitz

Both good books to get started with.

[bbyhill]

Bet with the best #1 and #2

[Richkas]

Ok i am getting into horse and dog racing now that i live close to a track. I am a real newbie at this and have hit a few trifectas but usually just look at the board and pick chalk. I want to learn about this and know a few of you are pros. Anyone have a good website that i can learn from or even better some good free software? I have seen a lot of software on the internet but some is pricy. I dont want to make this a career but want to make some profits and want to hit my damn superfecta that i keep missing by one dog. thanks guys

Takes years to learn. I lost $200,000 over the course of 20 years before I got a clue.

[fiveteamer]

Read books on money management and how to put together exotics, but not for handicapping.

[pokernut9999]

Ok i am getting into horse and dog racing now that i live close to a track. I am a real newbie at this and have hit a few trifectas but usually just look at the board and pick chalk. I want to learn about this and know a few of you are pros. Anyone have a good website that i can learn from or even better some good free software? I have seen a lot of software on the internet but some is pricy. I dont want to make this a career but want to make some profits and want to hit my damn superfecta that i keep missing by one dog. thanks guys

Hey , I may be down in Daytona over the holidays "NewYears" maybe we can get together at the track.

[bbyhill]

Steve Christ Exotic Betting

[13th Inning]

While I can't really speak for dogs, when it comes to horses, this would be a pretty good progression in terms of educating yourself:

I. - Overview of all the Fundamentals:
"Picking Winners" by Andrew Beyer
"Betting Thoroughbreds" by Steve Davidowicz
"Handicapping 101" by Brad Free

(The first two listed here are quite old and the examples given may be a little outdated, but the fundamentals are still as valid today as they were then. The latter is a newer book that provides a decent overview of all handicapping factors while using recent examples and DRF format.)

II. - Speed and Pace:
"Beyer on Speed" by Andrew Beyer
"Modern Pace Handicapping" by Tom Brohamer
"The Power of Early Speed" by Steve Klein

("Modern Pace Handicapping" can seem a little technical at first, but you'll get the hang of it quickly. In my opinion, and I can only speak for myself, this is the single most important handicapping book ever written.)

III. - Class
"The Handicapper's Condition Book" by James Quinn

(This book will help you gain a better understanding of the eligibility conditions for a race and help you focus on horses that most logically fit the conditions. It's a tremendous resource on Class, probably THE book regarding Class, but I found it a little tough to wade through at times - it can be a little tedious.)

IV - Physicality of the Horse
"Horses Talk: It Pays to Listen" - book and VHS tape by Trillis Parker
"Spotting the Ready to Win Racehorse" VHS by Joe Takach
"Beat the Beam" VHS by Joe Takach

(These videos give you good examples of signs to look for visually that will help point out whether a horse is feeling good/bad/angry/wants to run/doesn't want to run, etc. This is a highly overlooked handicapping factor, but if you understand physicality, you will definitely help your bottom line.)

V. - Money Management:
"Money Secrets at the Racetrack" by Barry Meadow
"Commonsense Betting" by Dick Mitchell

(The Barry Meadow book is especially great since it provides handy charts and is easy to read and understand. The Mitchell book is a little more esoteric.)

VI. - More Advanced and/or Specialized Insights:

Some suggested reading:

"Thoroughbred Cycles" by Mark Cramer (good book about understanding how horses come and go through their form cycles and how to spot when the horse is improving/regressing)

"The Best of Thoroughbred Handicapping" by James Quinn (each chapter discusses some other writers' specialized viewpoints - there's like 30something chapters, and you get a little intro to a LOT of different factors.)

"Winner's File" by Henry Kuck (Very hard to find, but it is packed with general insights on nearly all the handicapping factors, and is easy to read - each chapter focuses on one specific thing and uses detailed examples and is only 5 or 6 pages long.)

"Exotic Betting" by Steven Crist (If you want to learn how to most efficiently bet the exotics, this book outlines it for you. His 'ABC' ranking system is very good and helps reduce the costs of your pick-3s -4s and -6s.)

There are numerous other great books out there - I just wanted to recommend some of my favorites that I thought were most influential. I'm sure I missed a few on my list, though! Additionally, you can check out www.paceadvantage.com - it's a pretty decent horseplayers' message board. A lot of sharp guys there.

Also, one other quick piece of advice - anyone who is interested in betting horses or dogs or harness online should sign up for an account with Premier Turf Club. They are the only legit U.S. service that I know of that is tied into the pari-mutuel pools, paying full track odds, that offers rebates. They don't carry some of the major tracks, however - so that may be an issue for you. Check out their website to see their tracks list. It is pretty extensive for dogs, IMO. www.premierturfclub.com

Hope this helps... Sorry for being longwinded! It's just that there's a LOT of good resources out there, and I've barely scratched the surface. I literally have over 100 books about horse handicapping - horses are my focus - I've never even bet sports.

[curious]

Don't handicap horses and jockeys. Handicap owners, trainers and veterinarians.

[13th Inning]

Don't bet on the races, like Richie said it takes YEARS to get good at it

This is very true - Richie is right about this - there is a long learning period when it comes to betting horses. Many people go through a lot of losing years while they are learning everything early on. I know I did. As you increase your experiences, you'll become sharper and start to win more consistently. The biggest thing to remember, though, is that you will never stop learning - you can't let yourself get stagnant for long - keep your methodology flexible and don't fall into using a set of "rules" all the time.

[wtt0315]

Hey , I may be down in Daytona over the holidays "NewYears" maybe we can get together at the track.

send me a pm we can win some money

[jjgold]

Take out rates way too high to win

It is a numbers games and form means nothing

[Richkas]

Take out rates way too high to win

It is a numbers games and form means nothing

I totally disagree. Big money to be made in horses.

Form means nothing in cheap races.

Allowance and up are the races to bet.

[exstatman]

Takeout is completely overrated. If you have a horse at fair odds of 3-1 and it goes off at 6-1, does the takeout matter? Turf Paradise has some of the highest takeout in the country, but some of the best overlays as well, IMHO.

Sometimes you find better odds at -110 books than 5Dimes or Pinnacle has; does that make them bad bets because their "takeout" is higher?

[Justin7]

2 thoughts.

1. Racing is tough. The house take is about 20%, compared to 4.5% for sports. You have to work harder and be smarter to beat this. The only people I know that beat this spend 40+ hours a week studying.

2. 13th inning seems to be on the ball. Look at the bibliography he gave. If you're serious about winning at racing, don't fret over blowing $500 on books. I don't know whether 13th inning is actually a winning racer, but the fact that he reads means he's a 100:1 favorite over anyone else here who doesn't.

[13th Inning]

Justin - Thanks for the kind words pal - forget 500 - if you really become a student of the game, you'll lose a lot more than that in the early stages of horseplaying... But that's OKAY. Trust me on that - it's OKAY, I'm telling you. As long as you're not looking for some easy way out or some easy way of capping the horses, you'll pick up the experience you need to win. It takes time, of course, and it takes a lot of hard work, but you can definitely beat the races - there's no question in my mind. I know because I've done it.
And even though I've got a lot of book knowledge, there's no substitute for actual real life experience betting the horses. I mean, even when you lose, you can still always learn something. In the end, you can become a winner. There's no greater satisfaction.
It's a lot of hard work to beat the races. You need to be on top of a lot of things. But it doesn't take any special mind to be able to do it - anyone can do it if they're willing to put the effort in. That's up to the individual player - there are probably easier and quicker ways to make money betting sports - but if you are willing to put the effort into horse racing, you can unequivocally make money at this game, and there is no greater reward in LIFE, as far as I'm concerned, since so many others get buried trying to pursue that same goal.

2 thoughts.

1. Racing is tough. The house take is about 20%, compared to 4.5% for sports. You have to work harder and be smarter to beat this. The only people I know that beat this spend 40+ hours a week studying.

2. 13th inning seems to be on the ball. Look at the bibliography he gave. If you're serious about winning at racing, don't fret over blowing $500 on books. I don't know whether 13th inning is actually a winning racer, but the fact that he reads means he's a 100:1 favorite over anyone else here who doesn't.

[13th Inning]

One word about takeout - it is important in this game. Some places it's okay, and some places it's obscene. For example, I'll never bet a trifecta at Philadelphia Park or Penn National because the takeout is over 30% on trifectas in Pennsylvania. On the other hand, Ellis Park was offering a 4% takeout on Pick 4's last year, so I would pound that bet when it would arise - you always need to keep abreast of the takeouts. I don't know off the top of my head a single resource regarding the takeouts at each track, but each track's website should have that pertinent information.

[13th Inning]

Also regarding effort and work - I once took a full month vacation from my day job to strictly devote my time to playing horses. I've never had a more profitable stretch than that. I made more money in that single month than I had in any individual month before or after.

But therein lies the issue.

I was taking a vacation from a 40-hour a week job. Meanwhile, I was probably putting 60 to 80 hours a week (while I was supposedly on vacation) into record keeping, watching replays, going to the track, taking notes, and handicapping the horses. It was a lot of work and I became somewhat burned out by the end of that period. Even though I was making money hand over fist - the track was like an ATM for me at that time - it was so mentally draining I was almost welcoming the daily grind of regular work after a while.

It's a funny game. I guess that's what makes it so satisfying and rewarding. You truly get paid handsomely for your efforts. The more you put in, the more you get back, at least in the long run.

It's certainly not for everyone. But everyone should at least give it a shot once in their lives. There's no better game, and I love it more than anything else.

[jjgold]

Best advice

DON'T BET THEM

[fiveteamer]

WTT,

I have been playing for over 30 years!
You may want to check out my site as I have everything you need in my Race Cafe!

I have also set up my New site for my Free Selections as well!
If there is anything I can do please let me know!

By the way feel free to get all you race needs & fix of information here ...

Be sure to visit my Race Cafe at my Web Blog.

http://ulitmateselectorslivedailysel....blogspot.com/

http://ultimateselector.blogspot.com/


Thanks!
.

mods, remove this spam.

[picantel]

Hey US long time no see. Ready for another head to head battle next week> I am 2-0 and no doubt you want revenge.

[jjgold]

Any guy that bets horses consistently is flat broke, ask anyone at the track.

[pat venditto]

heres some advice dont bet horses

[BBROBOZO]

Yes !!!! Most Or If Not All Horse Bettors Don't Win. I Think About 3% Of All Horse Bettors Can Boast About Being Winners !!! They Whack Over 20 % And There Is No Way To Out Run That!!!! Takes A Lot Of Time And Effort To Have A Chance At Winning At The Horses.
Now,"about Dogs", You Have No Chance To Win At The Dog Track Over A Period Of Time. To Many Ways To Cheat !!!