The Best Way to Become a Successful Horse Racing Handicapper is to Become a Trainer

Just when you thought you had too much to learn to become a successful handicapper and to make money betting on horses, someone is now suggesting that you have even more to learn. That's right, I am telling you that the best way to be successful as a handicapper is to understand how to train a horse. If you don't understand horses, how can you bet on them?

Knowing more about the training of horses will also help you understand the people who train them and that is very important. For one thing, how do you know if a trainer is serious about winning a race or is using the race as a form of conditioning for the horse? It happens al the time, the trainer puts a runner in the race with the intention of conditioning it or training it, not to win. In fact, jockeys sometimes have instructions not to win the race.

A trainer may something like, "Just breeze him today, he's not ready to win." In spite of what the trainer intends or the jockey will do, the public still bets the horse.

On any given race program I would say that up to 20% of the horses entered are not meant to win, and sometimes they may even be the favorite. How many times have you bet on a horse and it was never meant to win? How many of those bets can you afford?

Another reason to understand the training of a horse is to know what equipment changes will do for the horse. For instance, blinkers are often put on or taken off, but do you know why? Sometimes an equipment change can make a big difference and a horse will win.

The first step in thinking like a trainer and understanding horses is to look at horses that aren't winning and think of what you would do to make the horse win. The second thing you might try is reading a good book on horse training. The next thing you might try is reading the comments for horses and then seeing if the trainer does something differently with a horse.

For instance, if a comment reads, "waited" or "hung", when a horse seemed to lose momentum in the stretch run, it may mean the horse was waiting for another horse to come alongside or was looking for another horse to run with. The next time that horse runs, it may be wearing blinkers so it will look straight ahead and not wait for another horse.

If you see that comment and the trainer doesn't apply blinkers, what is to prevent that from happening again? Knowing that, the horse's chances of winning are probably pretty slim. That would save you one lousy bet right there. There are many bets you would not make if you could think like a trainer, and perhaps a few great ones you would make. So learn to think like a trainer and improve your chances of making money from your bets.



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