Uncle Clyde’s Horse Racing

Over the decades, this horse player has tried many techniques to get an edge over the crowd and come home a winner. There was once a time when this writer’s daily schedule did not allow for in-depth study of the horses’ past performances, so a quicker method involving jockey, trainer, and sire tendencies got a try.

One day at a local satellite wagering spot’s bar, I met a gentleman in a cowboy hat sipping a small beer. We spent the day talking about which horses to bet each race. I say horses plural because I was playing three horse exacta boxes (once referred to as a “baseball”) in an attempt to make some money without doing too much work. The conversation consisted mostly of me saying which horses I liked and the gentleman in the cowboy hat sipping the small beer saying which ones looked good on the track. Thanks to him, I hit seven exactas in a row that day.

Horse race handicapping offers many ways to become confused with statistics and it offers many superstitions to help lighten the less knowing bettors’ wallets. This website exists to help horse players unravel the statistics and understand what to do in order to come home a winner. Win or lose, playing the horses is fun, but if knowing some tried and true basics about horse race handicapping turns it into a winning day, then that makes playing the horses is even more fun.
 
Good horse race handicapping makes the day at the race track more fun, so go to the races to have fun. Buy a past performance rag and do the speed points beforehand; it takes only a few minutes. Watch the horses in the paddock, walking ring, and post parade. When you see a horse with its ears right, tell people around you that it looks ready. Do not worry, they will not believe you and then bet down your odds. No one at the race track believes anyone is smarter than them. When the race is running, yell things like “Go speed, go,” mumble about the “Mark of Secretariat,” or mention how easy it is to bet the horse with the longest tail. One time this writer saw two ready horses in the walking ring and decided to bet the one with the longer tail. Yep, it won.

Readers looking for deeper insights into which horses will win should consider keeping their own statistics. Some jockeys give up if they are not going to win, so why bet them in exacta boxes? Some jockeys never win anything but claiming races. Some jockeys win a lot, but never on Fridays. Some tracks favor closers every Wednesday, and speed horses the rest of the week. At some tracks, speed wins all the time, but closers come in second all the time. Collecting in-depth statistics takes time, but it really can pay off. Just do not collect information that is already offered in the past performance rags, because that is only reinventing the wheel.