Decoding The Racing Form

Decoding the Racing form for picking a winning horse. They are:

1. Hone your handicapping skills. Handicapping is the process of determining which horse has the best chance to win a race. It is a test of your creative intelligence, not systematic computation. To do this, you will need the Daily Racing Form, which you can buy upon entering the track.

The Daily Racing Form is full of a whole bunch of stats and figures, which I will be discussing below. Once you know how to decode the racing form, you will have a pretty good idea of which horses should do well.

2. Look at the Beyer Speed Figures. Beyer numbers often serve as a starting point in the handicapping process. Beyer Speed Figures are the bold numbers found in the middle of each DRF, indicating the horse’s past performances. Handicappers often use the horse with the highest last-race Beyer as their focus and eliminate horses that have never run a figure close to this horse’s figure. There are two numbers: pace and speed.

• Pace projections. By scanning the past performances, handicappers try to estimate the pace of the current race and determine which horse will benefit most from it. The first bold-face number, pace, shows whether the horse likes to be on the early lead or not.

• Speed projections. This is not the same as pace. Speed (the 2nd bold-faced number) shows the horse’s ability to pass other less-speedy horses as they near the finish line. Speed does not equal consistency!

3. Look at that race’s distance. Distance is one of the biggest factors when it comes to betting. If you are looking at a horse that tires out around six furlongs and you aree at the Belmont Stakes where it is a whopping twelve furlongs, you probably do not want to bet that horse.

How has your horse run in other races of this similar length?

•Distance, pace, and speed are very powerful in tandem. Looking at how your horse runs in different distances will clue you in to how the horse will perform in races of different lengths.

4. Take into account the track and the weather. This is called “track bias”: no single factor in handicapping can change the complexion of a race like a track bias. If wise bettors detect any kind of bias in the racing surface, they incorporate it into their decision-making. What is track bias? Every horse has their preferred surface, whether it is turf or dirt. You want to know how your horse will perform on whatever your track is.

•Do not forget the weather! A little rain quickly turns that dirt into mud. Take into account how your horse has performed in this type of weather, not just the type of track.

5. Consider “form cycles.” Handicappers must ask themselves questions about each horse. Is the horse’s last race a true representation of that horse’s ability? Is the horse likely to improve or regress on race day? Which horses raced against a bias last out and can be expected to offer a peak performance today? Horses, just like humans, are never 100% consistent.

•One thing to consider is the size of the purse and where the horse is coming from. If the size of the purse is large, this is one classy horse – the horse will probably be pretty consistent. And if the horse got flown in from somewhere, her owners paid a pretty penny to get the horse there, so they will probably break out all the stops to see the horse win.

6. Look at the horse’s post position. In the list of the horse’s previous races, you will see the horse’s previous post position. Sprint races around one turn usually favor outside posts, while route races (races with 2 turns) at longer distances often favor inside post positions. What is this race? And what is your horse’s post position? Has the horse run a race like this in the past and done well?
•You may want to consider other horse’s post positions, too. If a certain horse seems to be speedier on the inside and for this race is on the inside, this horse will be serious competition.

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