- Favorites and Long Shots
As a rule of thumb, you may want to avoid horses that are either extreme favorites or complete long shots. It is good to find the middle ground. This will increase your chance of collecting substantial winnings. - Hurdle Racing
In hurdle racing, give preference to experienced hurdle-racing jockeys over flat-racing jockeys. A jockey’s ability becomes very important in hurdle racing, since even a single mistake can cost the rider the race. If a jockey falls off or a horse doesn’t make it over a hurdle, there is no chance that that the jockey can even place in second or third. - Specialize
There is just too much racing and you can’t master it all. You must specialize by narrowing down the population of racehorses you’re interested in backing. - Bookmakers
Try to analyze the bookmaker’s price for a horse and compare that with the value you give that horse. You want to find value bets with good odds. The trick is to find winners who are not extreme favorites. - Value
Using your experience, come up with a price for every selection. Then compare that to the bookmaker’s price. The bigger their price is than yours the more you can stake. Sometimes find value by using a negatives list of certain horses, trainers and jockeys. Try to avoid backing favorites where possible. - Form
When betting on lightweight, handicap races, it is good to find horses whose overall forms show that they are capable of winning in any racing competition class. More than two wins in the form is a good indication that the lightweight has a chance of winning big. - Value Bet
When looking for a good value bet, try to find a horse that has a fair chance of winning and that is not overly backed. On odds of 8:1, for instance, you need to win once in eight tries to break even. Winnings beyond that belong to your net profit. Conversely, horses that are backed too much will be poor value bets.
