The Use of the "Energy Rating" - It Can Help Turn You Into a Winner at Thoroughbred Race Tracks

Speed ratings, time off between races, breeding, connections, size and weight - are all factors that horse race players - like you - use to handicap a race and uncover a winner. And, while all of that information is helpful, there is still more you need to know if you hope to win more often than you do now. You need to know how to figure out a horse's "energy rating"... information that will tell you if a horse is in shape and ready to run a big race.

Energy Ratings can help you Uncover "Golden Nuggets"... Long Shots that are ready to Win

Standard handicapping techniques, whether used by you or employed by a professional handicapper, tend to lead you in the direction of the "Morning Line Favorite," a horse that is likely to go off at short odds. The "Morning Line Favorite" is the horse picked by the track handicapper, a man (or woman) that is paid to help you make winning bets. But Morning Line Favorites lose their fair share of races... actually, they lose many races.

Long Shot Winners can put Lots of Cash in your Pocket... Every time you Visit a Race Track.

You can - and will - place bets on horses that go off at long odds once you know how to uncover a horse's "energy rating." This little bit of extremely relevant information will separate you from the great mass of thoroughbred horse race players and enable you to fill your pockets with cash... perhaps not on every trip to a thoroughbred race track, but frequently enough to put a smile on your face.

Energy Ratings are not a Radical Handicapping Idea... just a Very Smart Way of Finding Winners.

Face facts. If you opt to continue with your old "tried and true" handicapping methods, you will spend some time at the window cashing tickets... often at very short odds. If, however, you are willing to learn a new, improved handicapping technique - "energy ratings," you will spend even more time at the windows of your favorite thoroughbred race track... cashing big winning tickets.

Remember: "Energy Ratings" help you Locate the Horse that is in Shape, Fit and Ready to Run.

Not all thoroughbred race horses are in shape for every race in which they are entered. If you can find those "unfit" horses and eliminate them, you increase your chances of winning. Use the "Energy Rating" system to locate the best horses in every race. You will win races much more frequently.

Are you a horse handicapping enthusiast or just a lover of the sport? Either way, you should definitely make a visit to HorseHandicappingEnthusiast.com. It is nothing fancy, but is place where all things horse racing related are talked about!

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Be First In Horse Racing

Horse racing is widely popular all over the world, and it is the most bet on game, large wagers change hands every day on the sport. The horses that race are all what we call throuhgbreds, that means they are born for this sport all out of good stock. The sport itself derives when two or more of these horses ridden by jockeys "professional and amature" compete against each other on who is going to be first past the winning post.

Those that are watching this race then put a bet or wager on who will be first past the post, they will bet also on who will come in second or third.

What you will usually hear in this betting game is the term horse racing odds. If you follow racing, these terms are easy to understand but if you are a newcomer to the sport it can be a bit difficult to pick up.

Horse racing odds refers to the probability of which horse will come first in that race is shown on a tote board. The tote board shows the odds that are based on the amount of money you will win in relation to the wager that you put on.

How these odds are worked out is determined by deducting the amount of bet and its percentage in the total amount of money that was bet on the horses less a portion of the tracks fee which is estimated to be between 10-20 percent of the sum total.

Now if you find it difficult in reading a tote board, you can follow this simple procedure in computing the odds on a horse. To have an accurate calculation, you need to draw on some of the other figures in the tote board. This refers to the overall amount of the win pool and the sum of money bet on that horse. You must understand that the total pool is the money bet on all the horses in the overall. It does not pertain to the amount that will be paid up to the ones holding the winning tickets. The take that is from the winning ticket holder is deducted between 14-20 percent. This may vary depending on the state where you are in. All the money that is derived from the "take" goes to the local taxes, the horsemen, track expenses and the horse racing earnings. The payoffs employ the actual figures which are usually reduced to the nearest dime. This may vary depending on the rules that are shown at the race track.

If you are still having problems understanding what the odds for horse racing are all about you can go online which is full of resources giving you the correct information that you desire.

Choose the online resource that will best meet your requirements. Consider some of the most important elements you need to know such as the basics of horse race betting - how the whole wagering games goes and how you will pick the winning horse in the race track.

As a gambler myself I've tried a few horse racing systems. On my site first for horse racing I have given you the best that I have come across. Enjoy.
http://www.horseracingfirst.co.uk/

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The Best Way to Bet on Horse Races

It wasn't long ago that many horse players agreed that the best bet in horse racing was the straight bet to win. Now, as the scramble to attract more players to the race track heats up, that isn't necessarily the case. The problem of making a profit wagering on the ponies is twofold and that is where the complications begin.

It isn't enough to just successfully evaluate each runner's chances to win by handicapping the race. You must also find a value bet if you're going to make a profit for your hard work and risk. While finding value starts with being able to accurately access a horse's chances of winning, that information must then be converted into a morning line.

The process of computing accurate fair value on just one horse is difficult enough, so it has often been thought that trying to play exotic bets with multiple runners or even multiple races, is just too difficult and fraught with risk. That is starting to change, however, as race tracks try to offer better value to their patrons.

With the advent of the fifty cent trifecta, pick three, pick four, and even pick five, things are starting to change. It isn't just the amount of the minimum bet amount but also the fact that tracks are lowering the takeout on these exotic wagers, sometimes taking nothing at all out of the pot.

Any savvy horse player will tell you that the number one reason most players can't beat the races is because of the takeout or "vig," as it is sometimes called (short for vigorish). Back in the golden days of horse racing legal bookies competed for business and would lower their takeout to the very lowest figure they could and it was possible for a shrewd handicapper to make a profit. With the advent of pari-mutuel wagering and the outlawing of bookmaking, that changed.

Race tracks had a monopoly on legal betting and since the gambling opportunities for most people were so limited, the tracks had it their way and horse racing suffered. In my opinion, the number one reason that horse racing has been in decline is that you just can't beat the vig. Now that race tracks are lowering that figure on certain bets, however, it is possible to make a profit and the wise horse player who shops around may find that multiple race wagers are the sweetest deal in town.

The best bet in horse racing is the one that allows you to make a profit. The best way to make a profit is to find a bet that doesn't cost more than the actual price of the bet. No hidden fees and no takeout are the ways you can finally start making a profit betting on the races.

If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://horse-racing-handicapping.co/ and get the truth about betting on horses and winning. Bill Peterson is a former race horse owner and professional handicapper. To see all Bill's horse racing material go to Horse Racing Handicapping, Bill's handicapping store.

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Bill Hartack - A Controversial, Provocative and Great Jockey

American jockey William "Bill" John Hartack, Jr., (1932-2007) was characterized by the media as rude, arrogant, provocative, controversial, outspoken and a great jockey. Looking back on Hartack, none of it was as black and white as that, other than his talent and masterful command of a horse.

At 19, he won his first race, and seven years later, following a meteoric rise to prominence in the irons, he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. Hartack won the Kentucky Derby five times, a record shared with Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro, and led the nation's jockey standings in earnings on two occasions, four times in number of races won. He'd been aboard Northern Dancer, Kelso, and Round Table, among other great thoroughbreds. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine, twice on Sports Illustrated's cover.

Following Hartack's retirement from riding, I worked with him for a time when he was a racing official, and I could see why the media had conflicted feelings about him. His intelligence was intimidating, and he was curt with any journalist who interrupted his work on a race day, for example, or any journalist who'd otherwise been rude to him.

Shortly before a race meeting in Southern California, I picked him up at LAX, and we went out to dinner before he crashed on a sofa at my place. Hartack made several memorable observations over dinner.

'You use your speed early, or you use your speed late.' This referred to the 1964 Kentucky Derby, when he piloted Northern Dancer from well off the pace to win in track record time.

'I never had a good day at the race track.' Hartack's hatred of losing was beyond description. If he had six mounts and won on five of them, the day was ruined.

His most provocative observation during dinner arrived late: 'The public is an idiot.' As I grow older, and consider the popular vote in several recent elections in America, I begin to see the wisdom in this.

But of course, he was referring to the racing public, and the story he told to support his statement goes back to Maryland's Laurel Race Course, now Laurel Park, when he was a young rider and had a mount on a mare he'd ridden several times before, winning on one occasion.

She was sore in the post parade, but then, she'd been that way in times past and had warmed up out of her soreness in a gallop before reaching the starting gate. Not this time, however. An odds-on favorite, the mare was still sore at the gate. Believing it was unfair to the betting public if she started, unfair to the mare, unfair to the owner and trainer, Hartack refused to ride.

There was a heated exchange with the racing stewards on a walkie talkie, and in the end, an outrider escorted Hartack and the mare back to the saddling paddock for another rider. When this was announced over the PA, the fans booed and called Hartack names. Walking toward the jockey's room, he removed his silks and passed them to the replacement rider. The rider asked if the mare was all right - a question Hartack left hanging while he continued in silence to the room, the answer being obvious under the circumstances.

The fans cheered the new rider wildly as the mare made her way to the starting gate once more. After she'd run terribly, finishing out of the money, and was returned to the stands to be unsaddled, the crowd booed the replacement rider something awful. When Hartack came out on his mount for the next race, the fans applauded and cheered him as passionately as they'd earlier jeered him.

Later on, Hartack had a similar experience when he took off a horse at the gate in Florida, and that may have cemented his attitude toward a public whose betting interests he tried to protect. His opinions were as strong as they come, true, but above all, he was a man of principle and conscience, a man of spotless integrity.

A loner, he didn't have many friends, and his death from heart disease came to him alone in a cabin on a hunting trip in Texas. He didn't have a wife or children. His mother died when he was young, and although the poor relationship he'd had with his father improved greatly over time - Bill had bought him a home and enabled him to retire from work in a Pennsylvania coal mine - his father had passed away, and he wasn't close to his two sisters. When he died, he had little money and no permanent residence.

The person who owned the Texas cabin, Garrett Condra, was one of Hartack's friends. Condra and his family had several cemetery plots available in Iberia, Missouri, and William John Hartack, Jr., is buried in one of them. In a line inscribed on Hartack's gravestone, the late rider's friend phrased his tribute: 'Dedicated to Honesty and Integrity in Racing.'

Don Walters is the author of the Amazon.com eBooks The Woman Who Loved Horses and Zoe, among other works. He grew up with horses in Kentucky, where he makes his home today. Visit his website with a click here for horse-related topics and links for connecting to other readers & writers.

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Trainer Moves Must Be Weighed Against The Competition When Handicapping

We've all seen the helpful information that most past performances now supply us with regarding trainer moves. They may say something like, "Dropping in class....28% ROI +3.80." In other words, when that trainer drops his horse in class they win at a 28% clip and produce a positive return on investment of $3.80. Wonderful, it is an instant bet and all you have to do is to go wait in line in preparation to getting paid, right? Wrong.

Just flat betting horses to win that have a positive ROI according to the purveyors of past performances is a one way ticket to the poor farm. How can that be? Because that is past information and as soon as the punters see those kinds of statistics they jump on the horse like fleas on a hound. They bet the horse down below fair value odds so it becomes a losing bet.

In other words, once the cat is out of the bag it is virtually impossible to make a profit on good trainer moves. So what then is the alternative? How about bad trainer moves? How about trainer moves that have a low win percentage and a lousy ROI? Is this crazy talk? Have I been sniffing the "white out" again? No, to all of the above.

There are times when you should bet on a horse even though the trainer moves seem to indicate that it is a poor proposition. Let's face it, if all you had to do to make money betting on horses was to read the trainer stats at the bottom of the horse's lines, we'd all be rich. Horse racing handicapping is not that simple. Most of the time you will make money going against the crowd, going against conventional wisdom, and doing things that seem wrong.

When you see that a trainer has only won 5% of the time with her first time starters and she has a first time starter in the race, should you throw the horse out of your calculations? Absolutely not. If anything, the crowd will read that and they will throw it out. You want to beat them not join them. How do you beat them? By taking the road less traveled. That horse may well be a good bet after all.

It depends upon how good the other horses are. Is there a standout horse in the race? If not, then why not take a shot on a real flyer. Long shot bets are where the money is and going against the crowd is how you find them. That 5% may not be very impressive, but ask yourself this, can this trainer win with a first time starter? The answer is yes, she can and she has proven it.

Then look at the odds and ask yourself if it pays enough to take a chance. You may not win often like this, but when you do it will pay very nicely. The only way you will ever make a profit at betting on horses is by going against the crowd and avoiding those trainer moves that supposedly show a profit.

If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://horse-racing-handicapping.co/ and get the truth about betting on horses and winning. Bill Peterson is a former race horse owner and professional handicapper. To see all Bill's horse racing material go to Horse Racing Handicapping, Bill's handicapping store.

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