Best Horse Racing Betting Strategies US Horse Racing

Now that we've covered all horse race betting online legal concerns, it's time to look at the best horse betting strategies. If you want to be a successful bettor on the horses, then you need a horse racing betting strategy that works. This is a highly complex sport with tons of variables and way more outcomes than other popular things to bet on such as football, soccer, or tennis.

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Everyone is after the same thing - a horse betting strategy that helps you find winners on the track. We kick things up a notch here. This page is all about the best betting strategy for horse racing available.

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Horse Racing Strategy 2023

• The best horse betting strategies explained to you and links to our detailed guides.
• A variety of approaches to gambling on this sport exist depending on what you want out of it.
• You will find the best horse betting strategy depends on the type of gambler you are.
• Repeat elements pop up time and again in horse betting strategy.
  Fixed odds sportsbook, pool, exchange, and in play betting all covered.

A bit like horses in a race, there is a lot of ground to cover. One horse racing betting strategy may well tie in with another, and anywhere you can use multiple techniques to your advantage should be encouraged. With a general overview of some of the approaches you can take when gambling on this sport, let’s get down to business and start looking at some of the best horse betting strategies and those that are most popular.

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Horse betting strategy - Our top 4 explained

We start our look at horse racing betting strategy with some of the common threads that run through them all. You really do need to know your stuff with this sport, because the more data you have, then the better informed your choices when gambling are. There are no real shortcuts. Studying racehorse form, including any previous performances at the same track, is essential.

Assessing the conditions underfoot and whether they are suitable for a horse or not also plays a part. The distance may be one they haven’t raced over before. Can a thoroughbred’s pedigree tell you about whether that will be a problem? Is there any chance that a horse is vulnerable to younger, improving rivals? How have the trainer and jockey been doing lately? Already you can see there are so many questions for which you need to find answers before betting.

Each horse betting strategy discussed on this page relies on you knowing such information. No good will come from you guessing because you are then simply trusting to luck, so you have to be prepared to put the effort of discovering all this in if you want to unearth those all-important winners. Certain horses are suited by specific tracks, going and ground, race distances, and types of events. You have to develop sound judgment to go alongside the best horse betting strategies, otherwise, they cannot be applied correctly.

Best betting strategy: Seek saver bets each way

Backing horses each way is seen as the best betting strategy for horse racing by many. The idea is to try and save your total stake on the bet by gambling on a horse that is a big enough price that if it places second, third, or sometimes fourth and beyond, then you will at least get your money back.

What you are doing is trying to cover more potential outcomes. When you bet on a horse to win, the only way you can turn a profit is if you have got things spot on. Sure, backing horses that finish second doesn’t have the same thrill as finding a winner but there are times when the greater value lies in finding placed horses.

When you bet each way, you are covering a horse for win, place, and show - if there are eight runners and upwards in the race. Place terms go down to second for events with five, six, or seven horses involved. Four or fewer and each way betting is not available. Any race with 15 runners plus should be paying out in fourth place too!

Putting an each way bet on is done so you at least get your money back if the horse runs into a place but doesn’t win the race. This particular horse racing betting strategy is about mitigating loss rather than ramping up a huge return. Every little helps.

Hedging your bets on big field handicaps

When there are 15 or more runners involved, the best horse betting strategy can simply be to back more than one. Even with all the study, we recommend as the foundation of all the approaches mentioned on this page, the greater the size of the field, the more margin for error and potential for something to go wrong in the run.

Stakes races don’t tend to attract big fields with the exception of mega-events like the Kentucky Derby. You are more likely to be confronted with many runners in handicaps. The key difference is weight-for-age terms don’t determine what a horse carries. An official handicapper will have their say about horses and give them all a rating which in turn helps to form the weights for a handicap race. The higher a racehorse’s rating, then the heavier their load.

Some of these types of races are genuinely so competitive that you can make a good case based on all the info you have gathered for three or four horses. Imagine if you fancied one but didn’t back it. You would be kicking yourself afterward. When you know how to hedge bets, you are accepting that one or more of the wagers you place cannot win. You are prepared to take the small loss in the pursuit of overall profit.

It could prove wise to combine a hedging strategy with the each way saver bet technique discussed above. The best horse betting strategies fit together like this. That is entirely up to you, though. You set your budget and decide whether certain techniques suit what you are trying to achieve when betting on the horses.

Pick 6 strategy - Best horse betting strategies

For all you lovers of multiple bets, accumulators, and the overall horse betting system out there, the challenge of pulling off a pick 6 bet has obvious appeals and big potential rewards. You are limited to a certain racetrack on any given day and betting through tote pools rather than traditional fixed odds services with these.

The best horse betting strategy here will take considerable skill. Getting the winners of six consecutive races is no mean feat. In some ways, it is the ultimate challenge because the way a card of racing is structured means you are betting on different events. There may be age-restricted races, claimers, handicaps, and stakes races. Odds accumulate from leg to leg like a normal acca, but tote prices are different from sportsbooks.

Be aware that the returned dividends you receive on each leg when you try pick 6 horse racing may be different from the ones received via fixed odds. Pool betting has its pros and cons, and an appropriate strategy to suit. Attempting a pick 6 bet should just be a bit of fun really because even serious pro gamblers find they often come up short at gambling sites online.

In play horse racing betting

Arguably the best betting strategy for horse racing of all is to look into placing in play bets. Gambling while horses are actually running can only be done on betting exchanges where you take and lay bets from fellow bettors rather than a bookmaker. You will be charged a commission on all your wagers. The exchanges do not provide this service out of the goodness of their hearts. This will allow you to take advantage of the horse betting system.

The strategy here is to identify certain horses who may hit a flat spot but have the class to recover and win or like to be ridden patiently and come from off the pace. It follows that horses running behind the leaders have to trade at bigger odds in play than you could get beforehand using regular fixed odds sportsbooks.

You do need to develop very sound judgment, however. This in play betting horse racing strategy can make you look foolish if you back a horse that doesn’t pick up or respond when asked for an effort by its jockey. It is only bettors with the most detailed and intimate knowledge of racehorses who can make this pay. Speed is key and the ability to spot things that other gamblers do not.

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Applying your chosen horse racing betting strategy

Now that you have an idea of some of the best horse betting strategies out there, our final word on them concerns how you apply them. There is also the elephant in the room to address. No horse betting strategy can guarantee success all of the time. Sport just isn’t like that. What the best horse racing system and strategies put forward and suggested above are done with the aim of reducing the potential for loss and to help you make better-informed decisions when gambling.

An approach isn’t bad just because it doesn’t work out the first time. Your chosen betting strategy also needs to be applied correctly. With so much information needed, it can be easy to miss something obvious or see conditions turn against you after placing a bet earlier in the day. Ultimately, betting on horse racing or any sport is meant to be a bit of fun and you should gamble responsibly when deploying a strategy.

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Best Horse Betting Strategies FAQ