Horse Racing Winners

Many people are aware of the factors used to handicap a horse race, but how many know just how important each factor may be? Do you know if class or speed is more important in that turf race you are now handicapping? Is early speed the most important consideration in that dirt sprint? Knowing how the factors relate to each other will help you to pick more winners.

Some people call it weighing the factors. The most important aspect of the race gets the most weight. If may be expressed as a percentage or as a simple number such as Speed +1.43. Obviously, even though class, speed, or other considerations may seem to matter more, we can’t disregard the other things that make handicapping the challenge that it is.

A lot of times, the way to determine which one of the many statistics and bits of data you are analyzing is the strongest is to look for the differences between the runners. For instance, if you have a maiden claiming race where the top three contenders have the following average speed figures, A=78, B=77, and C=75, you have three horses who are closely matched for speed.

If your research has shown that speed is usually the most important factor in handicapping maidens, then you might assume that A has a slight advantage over B who has a bigger advantage over C. But there is more to it than that, because B is dropping out of the Maiden Special Weight ranks into a mid-class maiden claimer. That gives B a big class advantage. In this case, though speed is usually the first consideration, the class drop is now determines who your top pick will be.

Comparing one number to another and looking at it as a fraction or ratio is one way to see just how big the difference, or advantage may be. For speed we have 78/77 but for class, using the purse, we have $45,000/28,000. Now the difference becomes quite clear. While we still have to consider other handicapping tools, ratios will help you to make the many comparisons that make horse racing handicapping so challenging and potentially profitable.

There are several ways to use this information. First of all, you can determine what the most important factor is in any class of race just by looking at the winners of past races and comparing their speed, class, pace, and connections to the other horses who ran against them. Secondly, you can create a fraction or ratio for comparing the attributes of the horses in a given race.

Since the favorite is the horse with the most money wagered on it in a horse race, a lot of the focus of the bettors is in either winning with the favorite or betting against it and winning. If you are handicapping horse races and wagering then your focus should be to make a profit. The joy of gambling and watching beautiful runners as well as the drama and spectacle is all part of the game, but when the cheering is over and the moans of despair have faded away, having more jingle in your pocket will enable you to keep playing.

As you evaluate each runner in the race, your goal is probably to estimate each one’s chances of winning and converting it into a number that you can then work with to compare to a payoff. For instance, if Horse A is going to win about 20% of the time, it must be going off at 4-1 in order for a win bet on Horse A to be a break even proposition. If the favorite is at 2-1 and will pay $6 for every two dollar win bet, then it must be able to win at lest a third of the time in your calculations.

Another way to look at it is simple percentages using the totals in the win pool. If the chalk has 40% of the win pool bet on it and in your estimation only has a 30% chance of winning, that means that another horse must be under valued by the crowd. That is a false favorite and creates a nice betting opportunity for you, if you can spot the horse that is better than it appears.

How you arrive at the actual probability of the people’s choice winning the race should be based on multiple handicapping factors such as speed, class, pace, connections, post position, and form. These factors are all part of the mix and many handicappers are good at analyzing them but leave out one important step. They fail to acquaint themselves with the actual statistics for races of the same class, distance, surface, gender. In other words, there is a race model that shows how often favorites win and what running style, post position, etc., wins most often.

If you find a horse that has an edge in several critical categories such as speed and pace, you may rate its chances very high, but what if the race favors closers and this is a front runner who must be out front all the way? Its running style may seriously compromise its chances of winning and yet, the crowd may make it the favorite. Even though your handicapping has shown it to have an edge, using your knowledge of what it takes to win in that particular spot, you should spot this one as a false favorite and look for a horse that may win from off the pace.

It isn’t enough to know who has the edge in certain categories, it is also important to compare that favorite to the race model and statistics for winners under the same conditions. Horses who are running against the grain are often a gold mine for handicappers who will take a chance on another horse better suited to the race and they are one of the best false favorites to bet against.

Weight is assigned to horses in each race in order to handicap each one according to its age and performance, or so the theory goes. There are many people who wonder if a few pounds one way or the other really matters to a thousand pound thoroughbred. Of course it matters, but the question is, how much will it affect the runner’s speed and finish?

Let’s look at a hypothetical situation of a one mile race for three year old fillies. One filly who fits the conditions of the race to a tee has the lowest assigned weight of 118 pounds. The rest of the field are carrying 122 pounds. In hr last race the low weight filly faced many of these same races and they were all carrying the same weight. She lost by 4 lengths. Does she have a chance in today’s race?

The answer is yes, of course, because each pound will equal at least a length at the finish of the race according to most students of weight and handicapping. Therefore, you decide the odds and her chances compute to a win bet and you prepare to make a wager. However, on the screen, just before the post parade, you see the information on overweights and sure enough, the jockey is 2 pounds overweight so she is now carrying 120 pounds.

To make matters worse, there is another horse in the field who is being ridden by an apprentice who gets a 7 pound allowance so that horse is now only carrying 115 pounds. The plot, as they say, thickens. In order to determine what impact these new weights will have on the final result of the race, it is necessary to factor in the weights and deduct or add lengths accordingly. There are several questions that the astute handicapper must now ask him or herself.

The first question is how much did the horse that now has the apprentice advantage lose by in its last race? The next step is to deduct the 7 pounds from your projected finish for that runner and to see if it makes that one competitive.

The next question, and this one trumps all others, is just how much will each runner advance or regress from its last performance based on form and equipment changes? Weight calculations and adjustments to final times and beaten lengths must always be made with the form cycle in mind. The horse may be getting stale or it may be rounding into good form. The addition of blinkers may help it to stay focused on racing or a tongue tie may keep it from choking down in the late stages of the race.

It isn’t enough to look at speed and pace figures to determine who will win the race, it is also necessary to factor in weight, and I mean the real weight after all race day changes are noted, equipment changes, and form. The extra two pounds that the fat jockey brings to the race will have an impact, but will it be enough to change the final result? That question may be answered by deducting lengths and using a simple rule of one length per pound means the horse will lose two lengths to the competition.