How do you find a winning horse? Over the years, countless books, articles, and seminars have been given on how to find and select the winning horse. However, horse betting is no easy task since it’s all about unpredictability,  so how will you find a horse worth your money?

This page covers what you need to know when placing those bets. You can use this guide, even if you’re an experienced or a beginner horse racing bettor. So how can you secure your win at horse racing bets? Look at this must-needed guide to winning your horse bets and put yourself on a winning path!

What Bets Can You Place?

A beginners guide to horse betting isn’t complete without the types of bets you can place; this page includes standard wagers like win, place, and show bets; and exotic wagers like exacta, trifecta, and superfecta bets. So let’s first talk about standard bets.

Standard Bets

• Win. It’s the most straightforward bet you can place in horse racing that’s perfect for beginners. If the horse you chose wins the race, you can win your bet.
• Place.Are you concerned that your horse won’t win first place, but you’re sure they’ll win in either of the top two? Then consider betting place bets!
• Show. Opt for show bets if you want to place an easy wager. It’s a type of bet where you’ll choose one horse that you think will win either first, second, or third place.

Exotic Bets

• Exacta. It involves selecting the two finishers of the race in the correct order.
• Trifecta. If you want another level of complexity to your betting experience, try a trifecta bet! It’s a type of bet where you’ll pick the correct order of the horses that will finish first, second, and third.
• Superfecta. It’s going one step further than the other exotic bets. You must pick the top four horses to earn your winnings accurately.

Think Carefully Before Betting on the Favorites

As a beginner, your instinct may be to bet on your favorites. However, horse racing is an unpredictable game, a notorious one at that. Securing first place in a race involves numerous factors, and it isn’t just because they’re the favorite. Also, it doesn’t mean that they’re the most likely contender to win; it doesn’t mean that you will enjoy a great amount of winning. Often, bookies will try to adjust the odds, and bettors could enjoy a small sum.

If you’re ever watching a game and thinking of betting, avoid betting on the favorites all on the same day. The chances of you ending up out of pocket are increasingly high when you place bets you didn’t do your research on.

When you do a quick search on Google and search the favorites, you’ll notice that there’s more than one horse in the same category. It would be hard to pick just one if you consider placing a winning bet. However, you can remedy it by conducting an intensive investigation on the horses of the race and their jockeys and trainers. Knowledge is power when it comes to horse racing!

Trainers and Jockeys Are Just as Important!

The horses may change in a race, but the trainers and jockeys are always seen in the arena. It’s why trainers and jockeys are still as important as the horses.

The trainers typically gather different records on different tracks. That means that some will be more proficient at preparing certain runners for a specific course they’re familiar with. Your role as a bettor is to determine the specialties of these trainers and analyze if you think the horses they trained would do good in the race you want to bet in.

Jockeys are also crucial since they’re the second living being to compete in the horse. There are horse races that forbid a horse to race by itself; a jockey should be with them throughout the race. As you can see, a jockey is also valuable. It would help if you looked into a jockey’s experience in horse races and how many first, second, and third places they’ve won with their horse.

It would help if you also looked into what surfaces the jockey most shine in. For example, when a trainer or jockey has multiple poor records at specific venues, you can conclude that you should avoid their horses. But, of course, you should look into multiple factors as well.

Get To Know the Different Surfaces

As tennis players would prefer grass or a clay court, horses, jockeys, and trainers (as mentioned above) might not do well on some surfaces. Naturally, different horses would run better on different surfaces. So, when betting, you must know the different types of surfaces for horse races.

There are dry courses, also known as ‘good to firm’ or just ‘firm,’ where you’ll see the daintiest and fastest horses. Contenders hit the ground hard on these surfaces, slightly more accommodating for horses and jockeys. However, a softer turf is valuable since contenders can get more sprinting power when gripping the ground.

So, when you’ve finally chosen the horse to bet on, look at the tracks the contenders will be racing on. Avoid going in blind without checking the preferred surfaces of the racehorses.

Final Thoughts

Horse racing has numerous global fans and bettors. With the rich history of horse betting, many people should read guides like this to help them in their horse betting journey.