Why Do Most People Lose Money at Horse Racing?
by Christopher Temple
The majority of punters lose money. You are probably one of them? In days gone by your losses invariably found their way into the pockets of the bookies, more recently a fair proportion will have been trousered by smart punters who use the betting exchanges to take you on. Today, even with an even chance against fellow punters, you and the other 98% still lose.
Why is this? There is a huge amount of useful data available to you, and with the advent of the personal computer you are able to freely download and process that data in order to help with your selections. Yet still you lose.
I believe that it's the system you use (if you use a system at all). A first class system makes all the difference. Once you come up with a system that really works (and works for you - which is even more important), you will be well on your way to enduring success.
It is commonly thought that only the proficient and the professionals can craft, progress and finally achieve a winning horse racing system, this is not entirely true. Almost anybody can design a wining horse racing strategy. Including those who know very little about horse racing betting systems.
Could you be one of them? Well, it takes a calm, logical approach, and if you are not calm and logical, and bet using such unscientific parameters as a horse's name or a jockey's colours, then you are going to have to change your habits.
There is a huge amount of form surrounding each horse, and all of that data is readily available to you in order to make your selection. There is also a huge amount of statistical data, and the best winning horse racing systems tend to use some sort of combination of the two. The last and sometimes the most important facet of any racing system is intuition, and this you can only develop with experience. You can't bottle it and sell it, and it's very hard to teach or transfer. It's all about experience.
Form (data) relates not only to the horse you are researching, (whether it's improving or not, whether it likes the conditions, whether it likes running after it's had a long trip etc) but particularly to the form of all the other horses in the race. It's no good just picking a horse which is coming into form and then ignoring the knowledge that some of the other runners are also coming into form too (which is very likely).
Then there are stats relating to other factors like the weather (is it going to rain, does he thrive in heavy going), track (has he won here before, and if so -how recently?), quality and reputation of its jockey, the draw (is the horse drawn near the end of the line or in the centre, and if so is it the better side or will he be at a disadvantage).
Also take into account the quality and recent form of the trainer - are his other horses doing ok too? Is he in the top 20 or (even better) top 10 trainer lists?
Another piece of information which is always wise to understand is how far the horse has travelled to take part in the race. A trainer is not going to subject his horse to a very long journey in a dark and heavy horsebox just to get some on-course training. No, if he is taking his horse a long distance (say 200miles in the UK), then he probably believes his horse has an excellent chance of winning (and his information must be better than yours).
Other random but important data includes the horse's age, sex, how long since its last race, its best distance compared to the distance it is running this time), and so on. The secret is in deciding which stat to take notice of, and how much importance to give to it in relation to the other stats you are using for your new system.
I design winning horse racing betting systems, I also review and test other people's systems too. I can tell you with certainty that some of the very best and most profitable racing systems currently available were developed by interested or gifted amateurs (well I suppose we're all amateurs really, you can't go to college to learn this stuff).
To me, system-creation is an evolutionary process. I rarely start with a clean sheet (even when I try to). Invariably I use characteristics of other systems when I start out - however hard I try to avoid it. It is sheer madness to ignore what works well just so that I can claim that my new creation is totally new. In any case, users are not interested in totally new, they are only interested in totally profitable!
Final comment: - If I gave a winning system to three other testers and asked them to use it for a month, exactly as I designed it, they would come back with significantly different winnings! Peculiar eh? It seems that however hard we try, even when using the most mechanical of systems, any human interaction with that system leads to widely varying performance. But that is for another editorial
A deduction I almost always make after testing a horse-racing system, (and I have carried out several), is that the biggest difference between a winning racing system and a losing system is the character who uses it!
If you would like to hear about my newest systems, or see my reviews and comments on other horse racing systems, do please visit my sites. They also contain a large amount of useful and interesting horse racing articles, information and betting system resources.
Chris Temple is a successful forex trader. He has authored several books on Forex, winning horse racing systems and on choosing the best winning horse racing betting systems Don't reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
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