Handicapping 101

"What is handicapping?" 

Handicapping is the art of picking winners. All that you need is a track program, a pencil, and your mind!

After reading through the "race review" page of the program, you can glance over at the right page. This side contains what we call past performances - descriptions of each horse's last few races. The object of the game is to pick the horse that looks like he or she is ready for a winning effort.

No two people handicap races in the same way - but all of the fans are aiming for a winner! At the track, most people handicap using similar information. Those who can best interpret this information often end up going home winners.

Some popular methods of handicapping include: 
1. Trip Handicapping: Trip handicapping is a bit tougher than speed handicapping, since it doesn't attempt to boil a race down to one figure. It entails watching a horse's last few races (in person or via race replays) and searching the track program or racing form for excuses for any sub-par performance.

For example: Sometimes you will see that a horse went wide around both turns, or was shut off in the stretch (couldn't find racing room), or maybe a driver made a mistake. After finding a good explanation for a sub-par performance, you would wait until the next time the horse runs, and assuming that they weren't in over their head, make a bet.

The Skinny: When it is done right, trip handicapping can be a highly successful method of picking winners. Since the majority of bettors don't keep detailed "trip notes," you may very well find a "live longshot" in one or two races per day.


2. Pace Handicapping: This method of handicapping requires a lot of patience and an affinity for math. A typical pace handicapper calculates the velocity of each horse at various points-of-call during their past few races. After crunching numbers by hand, calculator, or with sophisticated computer programs, he or she comes up with a few highly-precise figures (measured in feet-per-second) which tell the handicapper how fast a horse was moving at designated stages of the race.

The Skinny: Why in their right mind would somebody want to do this? It's simply a matter of preference. Many experienced handicappers feel that this is the best way to analyze races. The point of any "handicapping system" is to gain an edge over other bettors. Some people are willing to work very hard to find an edge, while others prefer less-rigorous tactics. If you have just discovered handicapping, you should put off pace handicapping until a year or two from now. There are quite a few fundamentals to be learned before we can dive into advanced handicapping techniques.


3. Class Handicapping: Around the racetrack, you may hear one or two popular definitions of class. Some people attribute a horse's class to his or her desire or ability to prevail under less than ideal circumstances. From a handicapping standpoint, class is the level of competition that a horse has been racing against. When someone says that a horse is "dropping down in class," they mean that it looks as though the horse is facing weaker competition than in the recent past. The opposite can be said for a horse "stepping up in class." Such a comment means that a horse (who most likely has done well against lesser competition) is facing tougher horses than in the recent past.

The Skinny: The most popular method of class handicapping is to note the conditions of today's race, and compare them to a horse's past races.

Driver / Trainer Angles 
Some people like to keep track of how trainers' horses handle different situations. After analyzing racing statistics, they come up with a list of "angles," which tell them how profitable or costly it would have been to bet on a trainer's horses in a given situation.

For example: Trainer Joe Schmoe ran fifty horses at the Meadowlands Racetrack last year. Twenty five of his horses ran first or second whenever they were dropping in class. His other horses stepped up to a higher class and did not fare well. If you had bet $2 to win on all of Schmoe's horses that were dropping in class, you would have earned a profit of $175.

Whenever such an angle exists, it is said to be powerful, since it produced a $175 return on a $50 investment.

The Skinny: Horses and trainers are individuals, possessing their own strengths and weaknesses. Trainer angles can help you make a decision by providing a trainer's success rate in various situations.  Like any other system, trainer angles do not guarantee winners, but at the very least will provide you with a deeper understanding of the game.

Equipment Changes: Very few people will make decisions based on equipment changes alone, but they can be a powerful addition to one's repertoire. The most common equipment change is blinkers on or off. Blinkers are highly visible because they cover the upper half of a horse's head and shield his or her eyes on either side. Naturally, this causes horses to focus most of their attention on running - not on other horses or fans.

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