When you hear people talk about speed figures in horse betting they are likely talking about the Beyer Speed Figure. There are many different figures, but the Beyer is the most widely used and commonly available. The ratings were developed by Washington Post columnist Andrew Beyer in the 1970s, and have (more…)

In horse racing and betting, the track is important and there are more than a few differences between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. The size of the field, the media attention and the public interest all spring to mind. One of the biggest differences, however, is in the two host (more…)

The pick six is highly attractive to horse racing bettors because the payoffs can be so high. If it is a particularly popular betting day like the Triple Crown race days, or if there hasn’t been a winner and there is carryover in the pool, then it is quite possible for (more…)

Making winning bets on any Triple Crown race can be tough. The good news is that winning the Belmont Stakes is a heck of a lot easier in almost every case than winning on the Kentucky Derby. In fact, there isn’t a horse race in North America any harder than winning (more…)

Breeding is perhaps the biggest single contributing factor to success in the Kentucky Derby. The mile and a quarter Derby distance is a huge challenge for horses – well beyond the range of ability for most. You can never truly know how well a thoroughbred will handle the distance until they try (more…)

Betting the exotics – like the exacta, trifecta or superfecta – is a great way to bring home big profits in the Triple Crown races. The fields are so big and the public attention is so strong that big payoffs are very possible. In order to seize those big payouts, you (more…)

In a lot of horse races the post positions are very important. A poor draw can seriously hamper the ability of a horse to perform, and have to seriously be considered when handicapping the race. The Preakness is, for the most part, not one of those races. The post position at (more…)

The Kentucky Derby is far and away the biggest race of the year for horse racing bettors both serious and casual. Interestingly, it’s also the hardest race of the year to bet on successfully because of the massive amounts of public money, the size of the field, their inexperience, the challenging (more…)

I love betting on the ponies. I have been going to the horse track since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, though, so all of the terminology and concepts are second nature to me. I fully realize that if you aren’t particularly familiar with horse racing it can seem very complicated (more…)

Interested in betting a few bucks on the Preakness Stakes, but not really sharp as a horse racing handicapper? Here are a few shortcuts you can use to point yourself towards some likely winning bets and away from some horses with little chance of pulling off the win:

Ignore the longshots – (more…)

Each year in the Preakness there is approximately half the field that didn’t run in the Kentucky Derby. It can be a real betting challenge to compare these new, fresh horses to the ones that survived the grueling Derby just two weeks earlier. Luckily, we’re here to help. Here are seven (more…)

Jockeys are little men and women, but they have a big impact on the outcome of horse races and your pari-mutuel horse racing bets. They can’t make a bad horse good, but they can make the difference between a win and a loss for a horse that is talented. In the (more…)

As many veteran horse race bettors know, the Kentucky Derby is the home of big longshots winners – horses like Giacomo, Mine That Bird, and Monarchos have paid huge prices in recent years, and winners of 20/1 or more happen so often that it isn’t even surprising anymore. In the Preakness, (more…)

Picking a winner in the Preakness Stakes is typically not nearly as difficult as finding the winner of the Kentucky Derby is. If a bettor isn’t careful, though, there are some mistakes that are easy to make that can get in the way of finding that winner, or which can make (more…)

Whether it’s one of the Triple Crown races or the Breeders’ Cup, there are a few times each year when people who are not likely to make a bet on a horse race any other team are drawn to pick a pony and lay down a few bucks. If you aren’t (more…)

Whether you are handicapping a major horse racing event like the Breeders’ Cup or a regular day at a major track chances are pretty good that there will be dirt races and turf races. It might not seem like a big deal – it’s only the surface the races are run (more…)

For people who are looking to make a nice profit by betting on the Kentucky Derby and are willing to do a bit of extra research, one of the best ways to seek out the best chance at profit is by betting inter-race exotics. We’ll look at what they are in (more…)

When you are trying to handicap the Preakness Stakes successfully you really have to start with one crucially important question – is the Kentucky Derby winner any good? For two weeks the Derby winner is the best known horse on the planet, so he is going to get a whole lot (more…)

The Breeders’ Cup is usually a great weekend for longshot thoroughbred bettors. With so many races spread over two days, and with fields that are so deep and talented, you can be all but certain that at least a couple of horses are going to pay huge win prices. The challenge for (more…)

Betting on the Kentucky Derby is really hard. Actually, betting is easy – it’s winning that is hard. In fact, I say without qualification that it is the hardest single race to bet on successfully all year. It’s full of very young horses running further than they ever have – and (more…)

Whenever you talk about handicapping the Kentucky Derby you always have to talk about the distance of the race. This isn’t the longest of the Triple Crown races – the Belmont is a mile and a half while the Derby is a mile and a quarter – but it’s a very (more…)

Experienced race bettors know that the Kentucky Derby is truly the greatest two minutes in sports. It’s also the day that a lot of casual bettors make their only horse racing bets of the year. That makes sense in that it’s the biggest race in the world, but it’s also the (more…)

Deciding if you are going to bet on the favorite in the Kentucky Derby is one of the biggest challenges in handicapping the race. Between 1979 and 2010 only four favorites ended up winning the race. Given that favorites typically win about a third of all races that’s well below expectations. (more…)

The jockeys get a lot of attention in the Kentucky Derby, and so they should – especially by handicappers. They may be tiny, but those little men and women can make the difference between a horse that has nowhere to run and flounders and one that rolls to a big win. (more…)

On the Wednesday before the Kentucky Derby every year owners, trainers, and jockeys are particularly tense. That’s because they are awaiting that afternoon’s post position draw. With 20 horses in the race there are some post positions that are favorable, others that can fit some horses better than others, and some (more…)

The Preakness is the second leg of the Triple Crown, and it follows just two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, but for bettors those two races really couldn’t be much more different. Here are five key differences between the two races that bettors need to keep in mind to succeed over (more…)

By the time Kentucky Derby day dawns most people probably have a pretty good sense of which horses they like and which ones they don’t. There is absolutely no reason to commit financially to your horses too soon, though. Unless you have a reason to bet early you are much better (more…)

Kentucky Derby day is the best day of the year to be a horse racing fan and the excitment makes it great for pari-mutuel bettors. It’s also probably the hardest day of the year to make money betting on the races. There are so many factors you have to consider and (more…)

The Kentucky Derby is, for my betting bankroll, the greatest single day sporting event of the year. It’s practically perfect. I’ve been to the race in person twice, and would go back every year if I could – there’s no better spectacle to be a part of. As a fan it’s (more…)

The Belmont Stakes is an incredibly unique race to bet. If you are not aware of what makes it unique – and don’t adjust for those changes accordingly – then you don’t stand much of a chance of making a long term profit. Here are three of the biggest reasons why (more…)

Bettors get ready beacause the Breeders’ Cup takes place this coming Friday and Saturday at the greatest of all racetracks – Churchill Downs. It’s the ultimate two day racing festival – 14 races with a total purse of more than $25 million featuring the best horses from North America, Europe, and (more…)

For horseplayers, the Breeders’ Cup Classic is by far the biggest race of the Breeders’ Cup weekend. Aside from the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont if there is a Triple Crown on the line it is the most prestigious race in North America. It’s also a very tough race to handicap. (more…)

The jockeys are always a crucial part of handicapping horse races, and one that casual bettors often overlook. On the biggest racing days like the Breeders’ Cup, though, the importance of the jockeys is even greater. When the fields are so deep and so talented a good ride from a jockey (more…)

For horse racing pros, fans and bettors, the Kentucky Derby is far more prestigious, but that’s just one race. As far as a whole day of racing – two actually – there is nothing in the horse racing world that can touch the Breeders’ Cup. Race after mega-race gives people a (more…)

One of the challenges of handicapping the Belmont Stakes is that the horses are coming off of very different paths to get to the race. There are typically a small handful of thoroughbreds that have run in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, and a couple more that ran in the (more…)

For bettors, jockeys are always an important part of any horse race. When the race is as unique and as challenging as the Belmont Stakes, though, the role of the jockeys takes on even more significance. As we get ready to pick a winner in the Belmont here are five questions (more…)

The Belmont Stakes are a challenging race to handicap. It’s the longest race most horses in the field will ever run in, and one of the longest dirt races in the country every year. With that, the uniqueness of the track at Belmont, the public scrutiny, and so many other factors (more…)

Veteran bettors know that the Belmont Stakes has been very good at producing longshot winners recently. Horses like Birdstone and Da’ Tara were shocking winners at big prices, but neither holds a candle to Sarava – the 2002 winner who shocked the world at record breaking odds of 70/1. Obviously spotting (more…)

The Kentucky Derby is a very difficult race to bet on successfully, but the Belmont Stakes are only slightly easier. In fact, these two legs of the Triple Crown are quite possibly the two hardest three year old races of the year to handicap successfully. If you want to make money (more…)

Smart bettors know that the Belmont Stakes is really like two different races. When there is a potential Triple Crown winner in the field then it is one of the premier sporting events in the country. It will be prominently featured on sports broadcasts, websites, magazines, and newspapers for the time (more…)

Savvy bettors know that before the Belmont Stakes every year the media spends a lot of time talking about the trainers in the race – especially if there is no potential Triple Crown on the line. They fixate on the big name guys, and talk about the stories they think are (more…)

Betting on the Breeders’ Cup is very hard. Anyone who makes a profit on those two days should be very proud because they have really overcome some sharp betting odds. In order to make a profit you not only have to make some good picks and have lots of luck, but (more…)

Part of what makes the Triple Crown both so interesting and so challenging for handicappers is that each of the three races is so very different. They are run at different distances with different field sizes at different tracks, and horses have different amounts of rest for each race. The Kentucky (more…)

Whenever you read about handicapping the Belmont Stakes, or you hear someone talking about betting it, you are sure to hear about how important it is to be sure that the horses can handle the distance. The Belmont, at a mile and a half, is by far the longest of the (more…)