Jan 2

Jan 2 Tips for Horse Racing: How To Pick More Winners

Tips for Horse Racing: How to Bet Better on the Horses

Some important tips and pointers for betting on Horse Racing

Quick disclaimer - there are no betting affiliate links in this piece, and we won’t be adding any. That’s right, there are NO FREE BET OFFERS on this page, just good old-fashioned advice.

Horse Racing Betting Basics

We’re going to assume that if you are reading this that you know what the odds are, and how a bookmaker makes a market on a race.

This generally assumes there is a favourite i.e. the horse they deem most likely to win a race, and then some horses who the bookies believe stand a chance, and then the outsiders, those who they do not think will win the race.

The Favoruite will start the race at the shortest price e.g. you stand to win the least amount of money from your stake if this horse wins the race.

The outsiders start with the longest odds, e.g. you stand to win the most money should you bet on this horse and it wins the race.

10 Red Hot Horse Racing Tips

Horse Racing Tip 1: Check out the Horse’s form

This may seem obvious but many people forget to look at the form of the horse and simply look at the name, odds or jockey on board for their guidance.

It’s crucial to see what form the horse has been in coming into the race. All racecards will show you the finishing position of the horse in question in its last few races.

On your race card you will see a sequence of numbers below the Horse and Jockeys name which will look a bit like this;

1,3,3,1,2

This means in the horse’s last 5 races it finished 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 1st and finally in its very last race, 2nd.

This shows generally what sort of form the animal is in heading into the race, if it had 5 sixth places in a row, for example, you may not think it has much chance, but this depends on who else is in the race and what their form is!

Horse Racing Tip 2: Find out if the Horse likes the Course and Distance

In Horse Racing, C&D stands for Course & Distance, in the context of the horse’s last race.

e.g. If the horse won at the same course, and the same distance, then you may consider that he or she likes the ground and as such has a better chance of winning.

What’s crucial here is to make sure that your horse likes the distance. If they have won at say 5f and for some reason, they are in a 7f race, then perhaps it’s something to watch and see what happens. They might be testing the horse out over a longer distance, or maybe looking to find a handicap mark.

Either way, when looking at results, check the C&D.

Horse Racing Tip 3: Where is the Trainer’s Yard in relation to the course?

This might not make a lot of sense but hear me out.

Especially in novice races or low-grade handicaps, where the prize money isn’t so great, check out where the horse has come from and how many others a trainer has on the entire race day card.

E.g. if a trainer from Lambourn (South West England) has entered a young horse in a handicap at Ayr (Scotland) and has no other runners on the card, then perhaps it might be worth looking at.

Why drive one horse a load of miles for poor prize money apart from trying to get a win in the book. The cost of getting the horse there alone plus staff costs would not be cheap, so there must be something in it for the trainer….

Horse Racing Tip 4: Check the horse’s pedigree

This may seem mega obvious but the amount of times people don’t check the pedigree, especially in relation to distance is astounding.

In basic terms, if the horse’s Sire (Father) won lots of races over a specific distance, and the Mare (Mother) has a similar history, you might gather that the horse in question has decent genes for the distance.

This is especially important when dealing with horses from lesser-known Sires.

When you are dealing with horses from Frankel, Galileo, Dubawi etc there is much less mystery, but if the sire is unknown or at least not as well known, it’s important to know what they did in their career.

If the Sire never won a race over 5 furlongs and only raced twice in India at over a mile, you may consider that its progeny might not be best placed to win a 5F sprint at Newmarket.

Horse Racing Tip 5: Is the Jockey in good form?

This is particularly useful when a Jockey is picking up rides all over the place, and good ones especially.

If the big owners and trainers are making an effort to get the jockey on board, then there is a reason. We all know that the big-name jockeys pick up the best rides but so do the ones who are in good form.

Their agents have a reason to get on the phone to the bigger yards and sell their client’s services. This sell is a lot easier if you’ve picked up a handful of winners in the preceding days.

Horse Racing Tip 6: Is the yard in good form?

This one seems to ring truer in jumps racing for some reason but its definitely worth looking at.

Over the previous weeks to the race you are looking at, has the trainer had a good number of winners and high places?

If so, it probably means that they have timed their training right, and horses are coming into form and fitness at the right time. Especially in the UK around the height of the flat season, June/July, you will see big yards sending horses to all corners of the country and picking up prize money.

This means they are picking the right races for the right horses and as such, may have picked the right one for the horse you are looking at.

Horse Racing Tip 7: Be sure of the competition

It can be all too easy to get consumed by the form and data available on the horse you are keen on, but not the others in the race. This can be fatal.

You may think the sun shines out of the ass of the horse (get it) you fancy, but there are a few other contenders in the race whose owners, trainers and connections think the same.

So make sure you look at the form of the other horses, especially if you are backing a favourite. Why aren’t the others priced shorter? What has happened in the competitions last few races?

E.g. You may find that a horse didn’t finish its last race (for many possible reasons) and as such has a P or a U on its form guide… but it may have also won its previous 3 races, but they can’t make it favourite as on paper there is a better last race finisher.

Bear it in mind, “Why is my horse favourite and the others aren’t?”

Horse Racing Tip 8: Jockey and Trainer combination

There are some jockey and trainer combinations that are extremely powerful, and generally, they mean business.

Think of John Gosden and Frankie Dettori. A powerhouse combo and generally a serious horse is underneath Frankie and trained by John or his son.

If you see these two in combination then it’s a pretty good sign that the horse in question has a serious interest in the race and will be in the running to win.

Horse Racing Tip 9: Check the Going - Please, check the going!

The ‘Going’, is the state of the ground on which the horses are going to race.

The range is from soft to firm with good in the middle and some other descriptors, but basically, it’s telling you whether the ground is going to be heavy, muddy, slippery, hard etc. And each horse has a preference as to the ground they like.

So please check on the morning of the race whether the going has changed, as it will make a massive difference to the prices and the potential winners of the race in question from the day or days before.

The price a week before a race is one thing, but 5 days of rain especially over jumps could change everything, so please check the going before backing a favourite that has only ever won on firm ground. This is particularly relevant at big festivals like Cheltenham where ante-post betting is very popular.

Horse Racing Tip 10: Listen to the market

Like all gossip, be selective with what you listen to, but the market generally carries helpful information.

If a horse’s odds shorten from 16-1 to 5-1 within a few hours of a race, it means it is being heavily backed and the bookies are adjusting their books to account for the extra money going on the horse.

This doesn’t mean it’s going to win, it means that for some reason, people are backing it.

It could be that another horse has pulled out, or that the jockey has been changed at the last minute or perhaps the ground has changed in its favour.

Whatever the reason, take note and see whether your horse’s price goes out as well, in which case if you are convinced it’s going to win, back it more and longer odds.

If it makes you nervous, perhaps hedge your bets a bit or change all altogether, but take note of what the markets doing, it is often a key indicator of events that are to follow.

Summing up our tips for Horse Racing

No one, and that’s a fact, can call the winners of every race. The word ‘tip’ is just what it is, a ‘tip’, it is not a guarantee.

In our case, these horse racing tips are here for you to consider next time you decide to have a bet on the horses, hopefully, they will help you look at betting in a different way and bring you some results in the long term.

Good luck!