There’s plenty of factors that go into deciding whether or not you’ll be able to make a good win while betting – the type of bet, the amount you give the bookmaker, even the weather itself! But, let’s be completely honest here for a second, the most important part is betting on the right horse. I mean, that’s why the idiom exists in the English language in the first place! Of course, that’s easier said than done, because how do you even know who is the right horse? Well, you can’t. The hard truth is that you can’t reliably tell which horse will win, because if there was then there wouldn’t be any gambling at all! But with that said, I’ll give you a couple of methods to increase your odds and make a more informed decision so that you don’t have to just bet on the horse with the cutest name or the prettiest mane.
The two first and easiest ways you can “grade” a particular horse is his history and his odds. Whenever you enter the racing track, you’ll usually (always in my case, but I’ve heard that some friends didn’t) receive a small pamphlet called a program that’s filled to the brim with information on the competing horses. That program will become your best friend, as it tells you everything you need to know. Think of it as the bookmaker giving you insider tips. First of all, take a glance at the history of the horse that’s racing, more specifically the leagues in which he’s competed. There are four different leagues, or class levels, that a horse will race in – from top to bottom, stakes, allowance, claiming and maiden. These can tell you way more than you assume. For example, if you’re watching an allowance race and you see a stakes horse in there, you might think he’s the obvious favorite, literally outclassing all other horses… But, well, there’s usually a reason he was brought down. Same goes for a horse that was brought up a class – it’s good that he’s doing so well, but he might be outclassed by these bigger and badder folks. Look for horses with consistent winning streaks in that particular class!
The second method involves looking at the odds. Some sites, such as The Mirror, give odds for your local race track every single day, and you should definitely be looking those up if you want to gain an edge. Of course, odds aren’t just available online, they’ll definitely be in the program as well, but it’s good to come prepared! Horse racing odds are typically presented as decimal, meaning that the lower they are, the higher the chance that the horse will win – but also the lower your winnings would be. To learn how much you’ll earn, all you have to do is multiply your bet by the odds. For example, if a horse called Rainbow Dash has odds of 2.0 for that particular race, and you bet $2, you’ll walk away with $4 in case you win. Higher odds will, of course, give you way, way better earnings, but the possibility of a win also decreases dramatically, so it’s just not worth taking that risk. Betting on the horse with the highest decimal odds might seem like you’re cheering for the underdog, but 99 times out of 100, you’ll just lose your money.
If you’d like to go a bit deeper in your research, you can always look at the jockeys and the terrain. The terrain, or the type of track that is currently being used, is really easy to explain, so I’ll start with that. To put it simply, horses don’t just run on dirt – it’s possible they can run on grass, or an artificial surface. And horses, much like humans, have their own preferences. If a horse always places first or second on dirt, but falls behind on grass, and the track you’re currently on is grass, then despite the win streak that’s not a great indicator. And while it’s easy to forget, horse racing is a team effort, and a talented jockey that has often placed first, even on different horses, will inevitably end up having an advantage. And if a horse and a jockey have a shared history of winning, then that’s always a great sign to look out for. Honestly, that’s about it as far as I’m concerned. While admittedly there are hundreds of sites and resources dedicated to calculating the exact mathematical outcome of a race, at the end of the day betting on horses isn’t an exact science, not by a long shot. Sometimes you need to take the information you’ve got and eye it a little bit. And sometimes you just have to go with the horse named after a “Game of Thrones” character. That’s part of the fun, after all!