Popular Horse Racing Betting Strategies

There are many strategies to horse racing, and the majority of them are gameplay tactics. The money side has always been researched and is basically unchanged irrespective of the sport. More importantly, when betting at bookmakers or online horse racing betting sites, it is important to be conservative with bankroll management—betting on high probability events can raise variance and bankrupt one instantly.

Before we proceed to specific strategies, some common-sense advice:

• Never use the "chase" or Martingale method. Doubling your stake on a loss and expecting to recover your losses in no time will eventually lead to disaster.
• Don't bet on every horse race—study race cards diligently.
• Don't select favorites among horses simply because they used to win you money.

Strategy: Betting on the Favorite

This approach is never valuable in its pure form. Otherwise, punters would all just take bookmakers' advice or ratings from sources like Racing Post and always win. Instead, it is all about being sensible in one's selection—choosing favorites with solid form all year round, more rested than their rivals, not changing jockeys recently, etc.

Strategy: Betting Against the Favorite on Betfair

This is rather a general betting trend than an actual strategy. The idea is to spot overrated favorites and enter a "lay" bet against them on the Betfair exchange. To minimize financial risk, it is recommended not to bet too much with liabilities.

Strategy: Follow the Money

One of the most intriguing and successful long-term strategies. It requires patience and draconian fiscal discipline. The principle is backing plain certainty underdogs whose odds collapse on the day of the race. Hence the name "follow the money."

On the day of the race, you read the race cards. For example, you notice that a morning price of 55.0 dropped to 24.0 a couple of hours before the start. Two things to notice:

• The favorite's price cannot alter.
• The outsider should be coming into improved form.

This suggests that a lot of money is not being put on the favorite and that there is potential with the outsider. Even if the horse has not yet won, there may be signs of improvement in earlier finishes.

In order to reduce variance, there is a variant of this strategy using "each-way" bets—betting on either a win or a place finish.

Most horse race betting systems also use different types of accumulator bets. The idea is that a winning bet will survive through the losses beforehand. The largest failure once more is variance—there is no method of determining how long it will be before a winning streak is achieved, and if the bankroll will last. 

Horse Racing Today

Horse sports (dressage, show jumping, vaulting, eventing) are well-liked everywhere. But where it is a case of racing, this horse sport equals football, tennis, and other leading sports—especially in English-speaking countries such as the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

A few of the world's most famous and most important races are:

• Melbourne Cup – "the race that stops a nation." It is customary to view the finals live across the country. The race is seven days long and uses hundreds of horses. The golden cup and big prize money are given to the winner.
• Kentucky Derby – one of the three glorious races in the US, popularly referred to as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" or "The Run for the Roses," with the winner being awarded a rose garland. It hosts celebrities and VIPs for two weeks of extravaganza.
• Royal Ascot – the British crown jewel of horse racing, operated in royal patronage and formal dress with national interest. It consists of 18 races and is very traditional.
• Dubai World Cup – renowned for its unmatchable extravagance. It has a high entry fee to go in and the pay-out is one of the highest in the world with the winner receiving an astronomic share.
• Japan Cup – the most recent high-level race of a length of 2.4 km and with a decent prize purse. Horses must meet a certain age prerequisite to be eligible to compete.

There are also high-level races in France, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Ireland, and South Africa with millions in prize purse.