When we handicap a horse race just how far do we have to dig to find a good bet? When a neophyte goes to the races it appears there really isn’t much to the game. Just pick the fastest horse and after all, that’s spelled right out for you on the odds board or the program, right? Well, if that new comer took the time to look around he would find that there were many men and women who had been coming to the races for years and still struggled to pick enough winners to make a few quid.

Is it because those people aren’t very bright? While it’s true there’s no intelligence requirement to enter the race track, it’s probably a safe bet that most of the people are smart enough. They’ve just run into the same problem that new comers eventually encounter. They find that if you try horse racing handicapping for very long, it is a challenge to pick enough winners to stay ahead.

They’ve been looking at the tip of the iceberg. They think all you have to do is figure out which horse is the fastest. While it is true that the horse with the highest rating or the most money bet on it does win often, it isn’t often enough to make a profit.

To find the real key to making a profit betting on horses you have to go much deeper than just the tip of the iceberg. You have to dig and dig and dig. Brother do you have to dig! The more you go to the track the more you realize those other people aren’t so simple minded after all. In fact, there will be some days when they all bet the horse that wins while your horse is up the track. That’s when you will wonder what piece of information they had that you missed. That’s when you start digging and looking under that iceberg.

The fact of the matter is that if you want to be successful at betting on horses you better understand that a lot of things in life, like handicapping, are more complicated than they first appear. As for that tip of the iceberg, sometimes the only way to make money is to ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist. Sometimes it is better to ignore the good looking favorite and find enough reasons to bet against it.

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