By Bill Peterson

One of the most overlooked sources of real valuable information when handicapping horseracing is the clocker’s comments. You’ll find them on most tracks workout pages or in the Daily Racing Form. The great thing about clocker’s comments is that the clockers themselves are expert horse watchers.

They watch horses for a living and can recognize horses on sight. Try that yourself sometime and you will see how difficult it is. One brown horse looks pretty much like any other brown horse unless you are a real horse expert. That is just what clockers are, horse experts.

If you are trying to show a profit at horseracing handicapping then you know how hard it is to know if a horse is fit and ready. Each horse has a long form cycle and mini form cycles as well.

Despite their size, thoroughbreds are actually quite fragile and susceptible to lameness, and indigestion. The best way to know if a horse is ready to win is to have an expert look it over and tell you if the horse is feeling well and healthy.

When a clocker sees a horse work and is impressed by the horse they will often make a comment. Those comments are like gold. You literally have a great, professional horse watcher who is telling you that the horse is feeling good and looks healthy. Start keeping track of clocker’s comments and you will find many long priced winners. The clockers are second only to the trainers in knowing when a horse has perked up and is ready to win. They are the best insiders to listen to. Without inside information like you find in True Handicapping you are going to have a tough time beating horseracing.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to Whats a Willie and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to Bill’s handicapping store

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By Bill Peterson

Everybody likes to have a winner and racing tips have been a good source of winners for many people over the years. Some people sell tips. Sometimes the tips they sell are based on inside information and other times they are nothing more than fabrications made up to separate some poor handicapper from his or her hard earned dough.

Tip services have to do a pretty good job because they can’t stay in business for long without at least coming close to showing a profit. But let’s face it, if they sell you a tip they are also selling it to other people, too. How many people have the same tip you have? If you all bet the same tips how low will the odds be and what will the bet be worth?

So public services that sell tips may send you winners, but the odds will be so low that the payoffs won’t cover your bets, not to mention the fee for the tips. So overall, tips from services have little real value.

In order to be valuable, a tip has to have a very limited number of people playing it. Otherwise, it will be bet down to nothing. Many stables set up horses to win at good odds. They are betting stables and after a while the word gets round that they are a betting stable and their runners get lots of attention. But they do many things to hide the action when they have a live horse. Some of the ways you can discover how to tell when a betting stable is sending a horse to win are in True Handicapping

Just because a horse is bet down below the morning line odds, it doesn’t mean that the horse is being bet by inside money. The public can drive the odds down and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as more and more people see a lot of money bet on a horse and keep betting it more and more figuring the horse is being sent. So it is absolutely imperative that you know whether the only people who count, the barn and connections, are betting the horse. The biggest tips you will ever find are on the tote board, but not always easy to spot.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to True handicapping and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to Bill’s handicapping store

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By Bill Peterson

This is the second in my series of Golden Rules of Horse racing Handicapping. I realize that each person has to make their own rules for how they will handicap horse races, but I am sharing what I have learned after many years of experience and you may be able to pick some gems from what I have learned. Obviously, the old saying, rules are meant to be broken does apply. But before you start breaking rules, it is a good idea to learn them and why they are important and also the price for breaking them at the wrong time. It can literally mean the difference between a winning or losing day at the track and if you break them often enough it can mean the difference between a losing or winning season or year. Ouch!

Hehe, okay, I can hear some of you know, “Tell us oh great Guru, what is rule number two?”

Rule Number Two of the golden rules of horse racing handicapping is, “Keep Records and Old Racing Programs.” Any document that you have that you have made notes on or done calculations on is worth a lot to you, even if you have been losing.

Picture this scenario, you have just had a losing and particularly frustrating day at the track. Nothing seemed to go your way no matter how hard you tried. You have no idea of what went wrong. You angrily throw your program and losing tickets away and walk or storm out of the track. I don’t know what mistakes you may have made before that lead to the losing day, but I can tell you the biggest mistake you made of the day, you threw away the only pieces of evidence that will help you solve the riddle of why you lost. Now I am not saying you should take that program and exhaust yourself poring over it to find out what went wrong while sitting in your car in the parking lot.

I am saying this. Take a deep breath when you have one of those days and let it out slowly. If you have some way of relieving tension or pressure that is legal and not self destructive then now would be a good time to do it. It may be a round of golf, yoga, sitting on the beach, or watching a sitcom, but whatever it is, remove yourself from the track and everything that happened, but do not throw that program and any other written evidence you may have away.

When you are rested and have had time to calm down, take that program and slowly and methodically go over it. Remember what you thought and felt when you made each decision and bet. That’s right, I said thought and felt, because whether we admit it or not, our emotions do play a part in our handicapping and decision making in life. Once you have discovered some things about what you felt and thought, look for a pattern. Now here is another important key and one that must not be overlooked. We all have losing days despite making the right decisions. The right decisions are the ones that lead to long term profits though they may also result in some losing days. Did you just have a day when though you made the right decisions, it was the other guy or gal’s turn to win? If so smile and relax. Your turn is coming and in the long run you’ll be okay. If, on the other hand, you made some poor decisions and see a pattern, you have just bought yourself some valuable information. You could have thrown it away, however, and had losing day after losing day, if you hadn’t saved that program.

But even a stack of programs with copious notes isn’t enough sometimes. There has to be a way of keeping notes accurately and comparing each handicapping factor to weigh its relative value. Visual aids are the best but we’re not all proficient at Excel Spread Sheets. Even a simple method like Ladder Handicapping can help. It takes a little time and more effort, but just think of the edge you’ll have over the competition, when they throw their old programs away and storm out of the track or OTB.

When you follow rule number two, what you are really doing is handicapping yourself and your performance. In the end, that is the toughest, but most rewarding part of this game.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to True handicapping and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to Bill’s handicapping store.

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By Bill Peterson

Rules are meant to be broken and one person’s rules may not mean much to you. But after years of handicapping and being around horseracing, I have come up with some basic rules that have made a big difference in my ability to show a profit at the track, albeit a slim one at times. There are no get rich quick schemes in these rules, just some basic things that have stood the test of time.

I have chosen this one as Rule One, though truth be told there are several that are probably just as important, but you have to start somewhere and this is a good place, so here goes…

Rule One is “Know Your Track.” How and why follows.

Each track has its own peculiarities that can make you or break you. Sometimes the difference between a profit and a loss is one winner and sometimes the difference between that one extra winner or a loser is knowing something that a lot of people who don’t know the track haven’t figured out. It can also be knowing the track’s trainers.

Statistics don’t tell the whole story for most trainers because they move from track to track in a circuit or even from state to state or even between countries. So you have to know the specifics about how that trainer does at that track, which when you think of it is as much about the track as the trainer. So know the track. Know the bias after a lot of rain. Does it favor early speed after a heavy rain? Does the rain drain toward the rail? Does it freeze and get hard at a certain temperature? Does it change with the seasons? Have they just added a new surface or regroomed it? Any of these can mean that one extra winner and a profit or a loss.

The problem most people have in learning these things is how to compare them and keep good notes without going nuts. It is hard, but not impossible. An easy visual system like Ladder Handicapping can help. It takes a little time and more effort, but just think of the edge you’ll have over the competition.

There are certain things I wait for every year that are little money makers for me year after year. One of them is the switch from Belmont to Aqueduct. When they switch to the Big A I start paying more attention to early speed and every year I am rewarded with some beautiful payoffs because horses that seemed to quit after flashing early speed at Belmont, cruise around Aqueduct and keep it going down the stretch. I will guarantee there are many people who play the NY circuit who are amazed by this phenomenon every year like they have never seen it before, why, because they weren’t paying attention and have no good way of keeping track of just how important it is. So for my money, “Know Your Track” is a good Rule One in your arsenal of golden rules of horseracing handicapping.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to True handicapping and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to Bill’s handicapping store

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By Bill Peterson

One of the challenges we all face when trying to handicap a horse race is comparing different distances and surfaces and tracks. Though speed figures and dosage and breeding stats have helped, they are still not perfect or even always reliable.

When you really think about it, that is all that handicapping consists of, it is just comparing each horse to the others and figuring out what each runner’s chances of winning might be. If you have a reliable way to compare runners and a good money management plan, then you should be a successful handicapper. The problem is, there is no magic formula and each person must figure this game out for him or herself.

There are ways to minimize the effect of so many variables in horse racing. One way is to limit the number of runners in a race that you will play. Only playing races with 7 or fewer horses will make it easier to sort things out, but usually the bigger the field the better the odds, so you may be giving up value for the sake of making your job easier. Another way to make things easier on yourself is to try to find races where there are fewer variables. Finding a race where none of the runners are shipping in or changing distance or barns is a big help, but once again, you will really be limiting yourself as far as the odds. Let’s face it, if the race is easier for you to handicap then it is easier for the competition, too.

My suggestion is to find a way to make comparisons and weight them based on past experience. A good way to do this is with a visual aid, like a ladder such as is found in Ladder Handicapping. Being able to use past history to know how important a class drop, distance change, or other change is to the outcome of the race gives you a big boost over the competition and you can still play races with large fields and many variables.

Let’s face it, when it comes to handicapping, easier isn’t always better and usually doesn’t pay well, either.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to True Handicapping and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” You can view all Bill’s material at Bill Peterson’s Handicapping Store

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By Bill Peterson

Have you been trying to pick trifectas and having two out of three horses in the tri? It can be very frustrating to keep coming close, but losing in the end. Handicapping methods and picks vary according to the bets you are making. Some people pick the runners they think are most likely to win and box them or key them in some way to make a trifecta bet. It seems logical at first, but is actually a flawed method. The top three competitors are not always the top three finishers and if they are, it usually pays very little.

When you are betting a tri, you are not only trying to figure out which competitor will win, but also which one will place and finally, which horse will show. There is a difference between which horses are likely to finish on top and which ones will fill the minor positions. One way to hone your skill at picking the other horses in your exotic betting is to try handicapping some races and picking horses that are likely to finish in the money, but not likely to win. This method often reveals runners that finish in the money at surprisingly long odds and that make nice tri bets.

The key is that some horses run to win while others, for whatever reason, want to finish behind the leader. Sometimes it is just that they aren’t quite as fast as the top flight horses, but are still competitive at that level and can finish a few lengths back. Other horses that try to win and run out of energy may be passed by these horses in the stretch.

One key to finding these horses is to find runners that seem to run from off the pace. They will often have racing lines that read, “passed tiring rivals.” That is a clue that the horse kept running at a steady pace and didn’t burn itself out trying to catch the front runners. Many people who play exotic bets pass these horses up and miss out on good betting opportunities. Looking at pace and computing how many lengths behind each horse will finish at will often reveal a horse that is going off at long odds and yet figures to finish the race not far behind the winner.

Another good place to look to find these types is in the stats for the horse. Some runners show many more finishes in the place and show category than wins. A horse may have had 30 races and won only 3 but have placed in6 and showed in 7. It is an excellent bet for place and show. In fact, rather than keying on the horse you think may be the top horse, it is sometimes wise to key one of these in the second and third position. This method of thinking “out of the box,” so to speak, will have you cashing bigger tickets more often.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com/truecb.html and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to http://williewins.homestead.com/handicappingstore.html, Bill’s handicapping store.

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By Bill Peterson

As summer racing in New York returns to Saratoga, it is time to shift gears in our approach to handicapping. One secret that I have learned about betting horse races at the “Spa” is that you have to look for high odds to compensate for the lack of consistency.

Like its West Coast counterpart, Del Mar, Saratoga Race Track is difficult to figure out because of the many variables. For one thing, there are many shippers and many trainers. Horses coming from so many different tracks to compete at the legendary New York track can create nightmares for handicappers who are trying to compare the merits of each entry. Sometimes it just can’t be done. This is why each track has earned the nickname, “The graveyard of favorites.”

The horse that ships in with high speed figures may run like a classless old plug and another entry that looks like it will be lucky to make it around the oval without oxygen can surprise and run like Seabiscuit. Is it the climate or the surface? Maybe it’s the ghosts of past handicappers and champions, but whatever the case may be, caution is needed when expectations of form are raised. Expect the unexpected, if you can figure out how to do that.

One thing that does hold up at Saratoga is the old maxim, “Horses for courses.” Fourstardave was a prime example of that. He was nicknamed “The Sultan of Saratoga,” because he won at least one race a year there from 1987 to 1994. In fact there is now a graded stakes race there that bears his name.

My advice, the secrets I would like to share with you are, demand a fair price and lay off favorites. Also, look for jockeys and trainers who have fared well in the past at that track. The same is true of horses who have raced there before. Finally, wait a week or so and see who is hot and who isn’t. It seems that every year finds a new trainer or jockey that suddenly takes off at the Spa. For that reason, I never bet a favorite during the first 10 days there and only bet them after that if they have proven their mettle there before.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com/truecb.html and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to http://williewins.homestead.com/handicappingstore.html Bill’s handicapping store.

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By Bill Peterson

Del Mar race track has been called “The house that Bing Built,” because of its ties to that legendary horse fancier, Bing Crosby. Known for the cooling breezes from the ocean and the laid back lifestyle of summer in Southern California, handicappers are often lulled into a false sense of security.

If you are going to do any horse racing handicapping there I think it is fair to warn you that the laid back atmosphere and warm fuzzy feeling that many patrons get there quickly fade if they bet on favorites. Like Saratoga in the East, the race track by the sea is known as, “the graveyard of favorites.”

Some people blame the surface of the track for the disappointing performance of so many favorites. It has been suggested that the ocean somehow undermines it and adds moisture to it from below. Why that wouldn’t affect all horses racing on it, and not just the favorites, has never been explained.

I think the reason for the seemingly unpredictable nature of it has more to do with shippers, horses coming from other race tracks or even other parts of the world. There are just too many variables to take into consideration. For that reason I have a few rules, call them caveats, for betting on the ponies at Del Mar. First of all, never take a short price.

I usually won’t take anything less than 2-1, but when I am betting on horses there, I raise it to 7-2. Experience has taught me that anything less will mean a loss at the end of the meet. If you can survive on less, my hat is off to you. Secondly, be cautious in your approach and take a “show me,” attitude. Try to keep most of your bets on horses, jockeys, and trainers who have proven themselves capable of winning there.

Finally, my advice is, if you can possibly make it to Del Mar, visit that historic track and enjoy the ambiance. An afternoon spent by the sea watching beautiful thoroughbreds is well worth the trip.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com/truecb.html and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to http://williewins.homestead.com/handicappingstore.html Bill’s handicapping store.

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By Bill Peterson

One of the things that makes horse racing handicapping so difficult is trying to figure out what an animal will do when it tries something for the first time. Runners going from sprints to routes is a good example. Once a horse has raced at a route distance of say a mile or more, it becomes obvious whether it likes longer contests or prefers sprints.

But for those youngsters that are going long the first time it becomes problematic to determine what they will do with the added distance. Curiously enough, a lot of times, the clues come from the connections, i.e., the trainer and jockey. If you see a horse going long for the first time and the regular rides gets off and another rider is on, it isn’t a good sign unless there is a significant improvement in reins men.

That is the first place I look for a clue as to how it will run. Next, look for clues from the conditioner. Is the horse taking a drop in class? Have medications or blinkers been added? Now if you find that something has been added or taken away, blinkers for instance, the next thing to do is to see if there have been any changes in workouts.

Many times a trainer will try an equipment or medication change out with a good workout before entering in a real race. If you see a change was made and a good work followed, then maybe the conditioner has figured something out and now figures the runner is ready for longer distances.

The final clues may come from breeding. Usually, stamina and distance traits are inherited from the dams side of the family. Look at the dam’s sire and see if it was a distance runner. Keeping breeding stats or buying programs with these stats included will help. Finally, if you can form a real concrete opinion about what is going to happen in today’s race, you might want to pass it by. It is hard enough to handicap when you do know what to expect without making it little more than a crap shoot.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com/truecb.html and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to http://williewins.homestead.com/handicappingstore.html - Bill’s handicapping store.

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By Bill Peterson

Many fortunes pass through the windows at race tracks and off track betting facilities and racebooks every day. It is no wonder that so many people around the world try to tap into this steady stream of money. But more often than not, those people that would be richer by the experience are poorer and wiser. Gambling at any facility is like a huge magnet that always seems to suck money in, but never shooting it back out.

But the race tracks don’t wind up holding all the money. Some of it does make it back out the door in someone’s pocket. The problem is, it is usually the people who don’t need it who win it. In frustration and sometimes desperation people pour more and more cash into the game.

How can you take money home with you after a day of handicapping? There are several ways.

1. Don’t bet and go home with almost as much as you started with, just deduct your expenses.

2. Only bet part of your money and keep a few bucks in your shoe for the long ride home (this may be where the term stinking money came from).

3. Win more than you wager.

If number three appeals to you the most, you’re not alone. If you have a job, you probably go home every week with more money than you started with, if you don’t I’d recommend a change in employers. Let’s take a lesson from life and treat making money from horse racing as a job.

You should expect to need training for a job and also to have some expenses. Some job’s even require you to invest some of your own money on tools or supplies.

We’ll call your program, admission, travel cost as expenses, just like going to work any where else. You have to get there and when you do, you’ll eventually have to eat before quitting time. There is at least one more expense, it’s called the vig or track take-out. It is what the race track deducts from every wager made. Betting costs money.

Like any job, you’ll need training and then expect a reasonable amount of time in which you will make very little or even lose some while you learn the job.

Finally, if all goes well, you can start to show a profit and take home some money from the races. I recommend you bet very light in the beginning and only increase your bets when you are ready and can show a consistent profit. Start with a good system and as you learn how to use it and adapt it to your own style, you will find out if you are good enough to make money or if racing will continue to be just a hobby.

And now, finally, to answer your question, “How to make a small fortune from betting on the horses at the race track?” The old joke says, that’s easy, just start with a large fortune.

The most consistent horse racing systems have to have the basics and a handicapper must understand the basics. I have been around horse racing for 50 years including as an owner. Without the basics the rest is not going to do any good. If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com/truecb.html and get the truth.

Bill Peterson is a former horse race owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, “Horse Racing is in my blood.” To see all Bill’s horse racing material go to http://williewins.homestead.com/handicappingstore.html - Bill’s handicapping store.

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