Horse
Betting Strategy
by Tom Wilkinson
When it comes to a
winning horse betting strategy I could write
numerous books on the subject. The problem
with reading all of those books, although
fascinating reading, is that most of them
wouldn’t make you any money. A successful
horse betting strategy is very difficult to
find. Many people have written numerous books
on the subject, and for the most part, the
books aren’t worth the paper they are
printed on. What all of these books fail to
mention is the huge house edge the horse tracks
have over the player. The person betting on
horses has to overcome a huge percentage,
far greater than that of sports betting, or
most casino games. While horse betting is
one of my favorite things to do, it is not
the easiest thing to win at.
Having said all that,
a winning horse betting strategy can be formulated.
If you are looking at making money betting
the horses you have two main choices. First,
you can play the horses to win, place, or
show and try to grind out a profit that way.
My first tip is to throw out place and show
wagering entirely. You can’t make money
in the long run by betting horses to place
and show. With discipline and a sound wagering
strategy it is possible, although unlikely,
to find a winning betting strategy by playing
horses to win, I don’t recommend it
though. Your best horse betting strategy is
to play the exotics. That refers to the exacta,
trifecta, superfecta, and multi race bets
such as the pick 3’s, pick 4’s
and pick 6. So why do I say that you must
concentrate on the exotics? If you are betting
to win, place, or show you are eventually
going to lose. The house take is just too
high to overcome over the long run. You just
don’t get a fair return for your money.
It is possible, though to get a decent return
playing the exotics.
What I will concentrate
on today as a horse betting strategy is playing
the pick 3’s. Many tracks have rolling
pick 3’s that enable you to play races
all day long. Some tracks specify only certain
races so check your program before laying
out your ticket. When we play a pick 3 there
are two main schools of thought. First, we
can concentrate on a few horses in each race,
say 3 or 4, and combine them onto one ticket.
If we boxed 3 horses in each race of a $1
pick three, it would cost us $27. That would
be 3x3x3. That is a $1 pick three. Obviously
a $2 pick three would be double that amount
and cost us $54. You could box four horses
in each race and the cost would then be $64
on a $1 Pick Three Ticket. That is the first
possibility. The second choice, and the one
I prefer, is to concentrate on one or two
particular horses in a race and get all of
the horses in another race. Let me give you
an example. Let’s say we have the first
three races of the day, with 8, 7, and 10
horse fields. We could just find a single
horse in the third race and use all the horses
in the first two. That ticket would give us
all 8 horses in the first race, all 7 horses
in the second race, and our strong selection
in the third race. The ticket would cost $56
for a $1 pick three (8x7x1). The advantage
to playing the ticket like this is that we
could get a long shot in either of the first
two races and if our single horse comes in
a winner in the third race, we collect big.
You can also, if you prefer, pick out 2 or
3 horses in a couple of races and go all in
the third race. In the previous example, that
would mean 2x2x10 for a total of $40 or 3x3x10
for a total of $90. The possibilities are
endless but you should get an idea of what
I am trying to show you.
The goal with your
horse betting strategy should be to hit a
big ticket. That is really your only chance
to come out a winner in the long-term. The
house take will eventually grind down the
everyday player unless they can hit the occasional
big ticket. Hopefully this will give you something
to think about the next time you head out
to the track.
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