Free Horse Racing Tips

Free Horse Racing Tips

If you hope to make money betting on horses, you need to be a better handicapper than the next guy. Handicapping is the art of looking at the odds and figuring out if a particular horse provides a good betting value. One of the ways to learn which horses have a better chance of winning is by taking advantage of free horse racing tips that are available online.

The first thing you should know about betting on horse racing is that the odds are based what’s called a parimutuel system. Unlike casino gambling, where you’re betting against house odds stacked against you, those who bet on horse races are playing against each other. Before the advent of parimutuel betting, horse race betting was the turf of bookmakers, or "Bookies".

Under the Parimutuel system, you, and all the rest of the players, are betting against each other instead of the house. Once betting starts, the odds are determined by dividing the sum of all money bet by the amount of money bet on each horse in each category. The categories for betting on horses are win, place, show, exactas and so on; more on that later. The racetrack takes a percentage of the bets and taxes are deducted before the odds are calculated. The sum of deductions from the pool depends on the track and the type of bet. Most tracks take less from the win, place and show pools than from the exotic wagering pools for bets such as exactas, daily doubles and triples.

The simplest bet of all is the Straight bet, also known as the Single or Win bet. It is the simplest and most common type of bet. You get paid only if your horse is first across the finish line. Betting on your horse to Place means you win if your horse finishes either first or second. Show, on the other hand, means your horse can finish first, second or third. A trickier bet is the aptly-named exacta—you must pick the first and second place finishers. The Trifecta consists of picking the first, second and third place horses accurately. The trickiest bet to win, however, is the Superfecta, which consists of picking first, second, third and fourth place horses accurately!

There are other types of bets, too, such as the Quinela, called the Reverse Forecast in the UK. In a Quinela, a bet is placed on two horses but they must cross the finish line in the exact order chosen. The Daily Double is where you pick the winners of the first and second races of the day. The Jackpot is a bet wherein you pick six winners in six races. The rules and prizes will vary from track to track, however.
The Parlay, or Accumulator, is a multiple bet. It’s a kind of ‘let it ride’ bet. By making simultaneous selections on two or more races with the intention of putting the winnings of the first race onto the next one, and then repeating for all the bets. Once you know what kind of bets you want to place, you can seek free horse racing tips.