Horse Betting World

HBW 101: Getting Started Betting the Ponies

By Michael Dempsey

This is a first in a series of handicapping articles presented by Horse Betting World to help new and intermediate horseplayers to make money playing the ponies.

These articles will help you make smarter handicapping choices.

Today we are going to talk about three very basic topics to help you prepare to make money:

1: Your handicapping arsenal
2. What tracks to bet on
3. Where to bet

By handicapping arsenal, I mean what tools you use to help you find winners and make money.

All too often, I see people at the track with nothing more than the program, the entries cut out of the newspaper, or the Equibase program which gives you limited information.

To be a successful horseplayer, you need the tools that give you the most information.

There are two main providers of past performances, BRIS and DRF.

BRIS offers past performances for as little as a $1 a card, and if you wager with Twinspires, they are free.

DRF offers past performances for less than $3, and much cheaper if you use a monthly plan.

I use the DRF Formulator, which is more expensive, but offers me instant access to race charts and replays, which as I’ll show you in future articles, can uncover plenty of winners to make the small investment in premium past performances well worth it.

Don’t be a cheapskate. You have to spend money to make money.

There are also plenty of places to get free information. You can look up the race charts of any horse at www.equibase.com.

If you want to look at pedigree, a good free site is www.pedigreequery.com.

There is plenty of information out there, and by using it you will have an edge over fellow horseplayers.

So you have your information, now what tracks to bet on?

For relatively new players, I would recommend sticking to one or two racing circuits. You need to know how the track plays, and who the top trainers and jockeys are.

If you do not play the races every day, www.DRF.com is a good source to go through race charts from the previous few days of racing to see who is winning, and whether you are seeing the track favoring speed or closers. I will get into track bias in a later article.

One aspect of choosing a track many horseplayers overlook is how much the track charges to place the bet, or what the takeout rate is.

It can vary greatly. The win, place, and show takeout in NY is 16%. At Turf Paradise it is 20%.

If you want to play a trifecta at Keeneland the take out is just 19%. At Penn National, the takeout rate in trifectas is a larcenous 31%.

If there is $100,000 in the trifecta pool, Penn National is only giving back $69,000 to bettors. At Keeneland, $81,000 is handed back out to horseplayers.

Where do you think you should play?

You can get more information about takeout at Horseplayers Association of North America website at www.horseplayerassociation.org.

The third aspect that is very important when starting to wager on horses is where to bet.

There are many online Racebooks that will give you a generous bonus and rebate, which there are others that actually charge you 25 cents a wager.

a href=”http://partners.twinspiresaffiliates.com/processing/clickthrgh.asp?btag=a_316b_84″ target=”_blank”>Twinspires, a U.S. based Racebook will offer you a $100 sign up bonus and will give you free past performances, but a very small rebate.

There are offshore Racebooks that will give you a very generous rebate. At Sportsbook.com you can get 3% back on all of your win,place,and show bets, and 8% back on exotics.

Even a small player can reap the rewards of a rebate. If you are just a $25 bettor and play the horses three days a week, you are talking about a couple of hundred of dollars a month in rebates.

Another good way to make smarter choices when playing the ponies is to visit horsebettingworld.com more often, and check us out on Twitter and Facebook.