Horse Racing Tips for Today

It’s been said before, but if it wasn’t for betting, horse racing as we know it wouldn’t exist. Just about every person who’s interested in horse racing either has, or plans to, put some money on the line.

If you’re completely new to betting on the horses you’ll wanhead to our beginner’s guide: How to Bet on Horse Racing. This article will give you the basics of everything you need to know to start making some educated bets. Once you know what you can bet on, and how, the final step is figuring out which horses to back.

This page will give you all of the basic horse racing tips you need to know to begin putting together your personal horse racing betting system. If you’d rather leave the tipping to the professionals we’re happy to suggest a number of world-class horse racing tipsters found at the bottom of this page.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #1: Choose Your Battles

Unless you’re doing this fulltime, it’s just not possible to confidently put your money down on every race. You need to carefully examine every race on the horizon, and pick the ones which you have the best information.

It’s better to make a few solid bets, backed by reason and statistics, than to make many weak bets by feel. Be an expert on a few races, instead of a spectator for many.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #2: Make the Correct Bet, Not the Cheap One

Part of choosing your battles includes ensuring you have enough money to make the correct bet on the races you like. If you’re looking to play exotic bets, such as pick 4’s, pick 6’s and superfectas you’re going to have to put down a significant outlay to give yourself a realistic chance at actually hitting the bet.

If your betting money (known as your bankroll) isn’t limitless, you might have to choose between dropping horses from your exotic bets or betting on fewer races. Dropping one or two horses from what would have been a winning pick 6, can be the difference between making a few bucks or a few thousand in a day.

If you simply can’t afford the larger exotic bets, then don’t make them. Stick to the more basic win/place/show, exactas and doubles.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #3: Devour Information

Except for some extremely odd scenarios, any horse in any race you plan to bet on will have a pile of articles, stats and forms published. Spend the time to get to know the history and record of the horses in the race.

Only once you know everything there is to know about all of the horses in the race, can you honestly begin to make an educated pick. Read horse racing blogs, news, forms, results, interviews and tips. Every bit of information you can get your hands on should be studied.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #4: Work the Workout

Sure, it’s great to know the history and stats of every horse, but that can mean absolutely nothing on race day. You need to pay attention to the workouts. It’s only at this point you can evaluate the horse’s true current form. This is where you can get a true feeling for the horse, which can be the difference between getting close or hitting a big score.

If it’s not possible for you to watch the workout, find a service or blog covering them. While seeing something in person is obviously ideal, getting a report from an expert eye witness is a close second.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #5: Turf or Dirt

It’s no secret that most horses only perform well on one surface or the other. While there are exceptions to every rule, you typically want to avoid backing a horse in a turf race with poor turf results, despite tremendous recent success on dirt.

This goes the same in reverse. A horse’s ability to run on a specific surface has as much to do with pedigree as it does experience. Beware the horses which have never raced on the surface before, as these horses can be unpredictable.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #6: Track Condition and Weather

Some horses excel on wet, muddy, sloppy tracks, while others completely fall apart. You need to know the conditions of the track, and the forecasted weather before you can begin to make your picks. Track conditions are almost identical to the turf or dirt variable: you probably don’t want to back a dry-track horse when the ground is slick mud.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #7: Mind the Field

It’s important to understand the details of all the horses in a race, and how they all like to run. A race with two horses who like to run out front can often see those horses tire each-other out in a constant battle for the lead, causing the 3^rd favourite to take first prize.

You need to look into who’s in the race, and how they like to compete. Look for conflicting personalities and assess how that can affect the outcome of the race.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #7: Have Some Class

Horses all race in specific classes. These classes are meant to define the general size and ability of the horse. Naturally a horse will move up and down in classes as their career progresses. This is a very important thing to keep an eye on. If a horse has dominated their last few races, but then moves up in class, you need to try and figure out how that horse will perform against the better, faster competition.

Often a horse moving up in class is a wild card. Without any previous races at the class to look at for comparison, it’s extremely difficult to predict how this horse will react. Unless you have a very good reason to do so, you should often avoid betting on a horse in this scenario.

On the reverse you should also keep an eye out for horses dropping down in class. You need to look into why they’re dropping down, and if that reason will detract from their general performance. It’s common to see a horse significantly drop down in class for their last race, often a horse in this scenario will  dominate the field.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #7: Medication, What a Bute!

There are two main types of medications given to horses: Lasix and Bute. These medications are legal at some tracks, and illegal at others. It’s important to look up what medications the horse has been running with, or without prior to your race, and what they will be running with on race day.

Without a doubt, any horse that has never run on Lasix will perform far better at their first showing on the drug. Similarly, if a horse has been winning while on Lasix, but will not be using it on race day, you need to take that into consideration.

Bute is a different thing altogether. Some horses can only run well with Bute, while others can’t run at all with it. You need to be sure you know what the horse has been on, and what they will be using on race day, as it will often have a notable affect on their performance.

Horse Racing Betting Tip #8: Bet on Horses, not Jockeys

Here’s the deal; a jockey can never make a horse run better than its natural ability, but a jockey can make a horse under-perform by giving it a bad ride.

While a change in jockey can have an effect on the race, it’s rarely worth taking much note. Most professional horse handicappers will tell you the same thing: The best jockey on the worst horse will never win a race, but the worst jockey on the best horse will probably fare just fine.

Pay attention to changes in jockeys, but don’t put too much stalk in it.

Horse racing is a very dynamic and extremely intricate beast to try and figure out. While you can grasp the broad strokes without much difficulty, one could spend a lifetime at the track, and never actually master the art of handicapping.

This article of horse racing tips gives you all the information you need to follow the broad strokes, but if you want to delve deeper into the racing world you might want to check out some of the tipsters below. Not only will these guys help compile massive amounts of information into easy to digest portions, but they’ll help lead you in the right direction to inundating yourself into the game.