Betting mistakes - Just because you have the winner all picked out that does not guarantee you will make money in the race! Don't make these betting mistakes.

Not Betting to Win

Picture this: You're handicapping a race and like a nice 9/1 long shot. You make all the right decisions. You hook the horse up in daily doubles, a pick 3, and trifectas. You watch the race and see that your horse is going to win, so you start looking for the second and third place horses to fill out your trifecta. You have the second horse, but wait - some improbable long shot runs third, and you don't have it on your ticket. You lose all your trifecta bets.

Not to worry. You're live with daily doubles and the pick 3. In the next race, you have four horses - a couple logical horses and a couple pricey runners - in an eight-horse field. One of the horses you left off the ticket wins, and your daily doubles and pick 3 go down in flames. You've turned a $20 winner into a total loss.

It's okay for any horseplayer to go for a score in trying to win a lot of money.
A $20 horse to start a pick 3 promises a nice payout even if the favorite wins one of the next two races or even wins both of the races.

The mistake lies in not making a win bet on the horse you like. The story would be different if the horse you like has 5/2 odds. But when the horse is good odds, you should start with a win bet. Then you can make additional exotic bets to try to really make some money.

Some horseplayers I know bet half of the amount of money they intend to invest in a particular race to win. I know others who bet one-third. For example, if you're going to invest $50 in a race or races on a horse, your win bet should be between $16 and $25. You then put the rest on exotic wagers.

A $15, $20, or $25 winner is nothing to sneeze at. Too many horseplayers overlook win betting and put all their eggs in the exotic wager basket.

Betting too many race tracks- This is why we have a select few tracks each day. I have no idea how other sites have every track every day. Who is doing the handicapping?

In a simpler era not long ago, the only races you could bet on were at the local racetrack. You had a menu of nine or ten races with about 30 minutes between each race. You had plenty of time to handicap and reflect on your decisions.

Now in the age of simulcasting, where tracks transmit their races via satellite for wagering, scores of races fill your horse-racing day. I consider today's racing a parimutuel buffet with lots and lots of choices. You have too many races to choose from and not enough time to give them all what I consider "handicapping justice."

Don't spread yourself out so thin that you do a poor job of handicapping and betting all the racetracks. Focus on your strengths. Remember the object is to make money, not make a whole bunch of bets just to have action on them.
You have to be able to show discipline and patience.

Betting on Bad Favorites- We try to beat the favorite in every race!

To make money betting on horse racing, you need to beat favorites much more often than you bet on them. When you bet on favorites, you're in with the majority, which depresses your odds and your value. So the favorites you bet on better win.

Known by veteran handicappers as "sucker" horses, here are two of the worst kinds of favorites to play:

II" The first is the professional maiden, a horse that has never won a race, that shows a steady diet of second and third place finishes but never wins. The thought that he'll win the next time may be appealing, but it seldom ever occurs. And when he does win, his odds are no value at all.

The only time you should even consider betting on a professional maiden that never wins is when it's running in maiden special weight races and drops in for a claiming price for the first time. That class drop is so big that even the herd mentality, the natural instinct where horses prefer to run with the pack, may not be enough to prevent this horse from winning.

The second example is a horse stuck in a non-winners of two races lifetime condition. The whole field in this type of race is usually ugly, because all the starters have only one lifetime win.

In this situation, the betting public gravitates to the most consistent horse, meaning the one with a lot of second and third place finishes on its resume. That angle isn't strong enough for me to play the favorite at short odds, though. I suggest trying to beat the favorite instead by betting on other horses in the race that are juicy overlays.

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