If you know how to handicap, it gives you a great advantage over others who are betting without this knowledge at the racetrack. If your reason for going to the track (or a sports book, for that matter), is to make money, and not just to have fun, then you had better learn something about handicap horse racing before you reach into your pocket to place that bet. You won’t learn it quickly…there are many methods used by handicappers for checking out the odds and figuring out the value of a horse at a specific time, varying conditions, and considering the history of both the horse and jockey. Every race will continue to add to your learning experience. To succeed you need to be flexible, always looking for a new angle, and patient with a little luck thrown in. Handicap horse racing involves many kinds of handicapping. Since you have to start somewhere, let’s look at speed handicapping first. Just because a horse has recorded the fastest time, it doesn’t mean he will win. The Beyer Speed figures found in the Daily Racing Form take into account the condition of the track, the weather, and other features to come up with those figures. A horse with a high speed figure is one that has proven he can win, so it is a good place to start when eliminating probable losers in any given race. You also need to consider whether it is a fast track and if the horse is one that leads all the way or is a closer, or one that prefers to come from behind. This takes us into pace handicapping, which considers what happens after the race has begun. In handicap horse racing, it is wise to study past performance of the horse to see if it comes out of the gate fast, or hangs on and makes a dash later in the race. By comparing the different styles of each horse in the race, you can begin to determine which ones have a chance…not only based on their own records, but on the basis of their competitors’ past performances. For example, if there is one horse that likes to come out early and stay in front, and he is racing against horses that all hang back and sprint at the end, he has a good chance of winning, since he can set the pace and save his strength for the finish without worrying about others passing him. If several of the horses are speeders they may tire each other out, allowing the closers to take over at the finish. Now that you have that one down pat, you need to look into class handicapping. That involves keeping track of the kinds of races they have been running in as well as their performance. You want to see a horse moving up in class on a regular basis, placing or winning at each level, but if one jumps up to a tougher race too early, he may be outclassed, and making him a bad bet. Handicap horse racing is not quick and easy to learn, and may require years of study to become proficient, but it is worth it…if you love horses, racing, and gambling. If you enjoy studying, and are detail-oriented and self-assured, this is for you. The other side to class handicapping is much harder to determine. Sometimes, for unknown reasons, a horse is dropped from higher class competition to a lower class. Before you can pick him as a winner, you need to know why he is competing at a lower level. Has he lost several races in his own class? Has he been recovering from an injury? At times, trainers put horses into races they can easily win as a boost to their confidence, or to test for strength after an injury. Go look at the horse in the paddock, and if he looks okay, check out the odds the race track has set. Bloodlines are not as important as you might think, once a horse is already racing. Breeding might suggest whether a horse will be more comfortable on grass or dirt, or even if he as what it takes to be a good sprinter, but that does not tell you that he will be able to live up to past races or his parentage in any particular race against a field of other horses. It’s not that this information is not useful; it just isn’t as useful as they other handicapping methods we have discussed. Don’t forget to take both the trainers and the jockeys into account when handicapping horse races. Bad trainers do not train bad horses, and good jockeys won’t ride them. So know the history of each trainer and jockey riding in a race and consider it along with your other information. Ask yourself how often that trainer and that jockey have won a race under the conditions their horse is racing in today. Are they introducing a first time horse? If he loses under those circumstances it does not necessarily reflect on his training skills. It is easier, when you first start handicap horse racing to concentrate on weeding out the losers than picking the winners. Look for the obvious, and then start closing in on the more elusive details. Using your pace handicapping, try to get it down to the last three entries. If you haven’t been able to get the numbers down to a reasonable choice, pass that race and try another. Stevie J Smith invites you to discover how a professional gambler uses insider techniques that are so simple, anyone can make money with the Systems To Win Money free report. If you are interested in making some serious money in a sensible, systematic way with no risk, then click here: Systems To Win Money Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stevie_J_Smith
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