A quick handicap method to detect live horses on the board

The only place where the truth in horse racing is revealed is on the board and in the money. Many things may not be clear on the track when you’re doing handicap races, but one thing is right in front of your face and can be quickly scanned to pick winners. The way the money is distributed in the pools is a clear indication of which horses have “good intentions” to win, if you know what to look for.

Many people are under the impression that stables only make winning bets on their horses, and that is often true. But if you have a horse that is going to go at a good price, the last thing you want to do is drop a lot of money in the prize pool that will alert the public that your horse is alive in the race. The answer, of course, is exotics and other pools, such as the on-site pool.

Stables that stake their own horses may have a fairly high odds horse that will pay well in all positions. They may also realize that even though their horse is good, he could still be beaten by another runner in the race. Why lose the reward of a good spot if your broker gets caught on the wire? The same is true for exotics and you may find a horse with fairly high odds getting more than its fair share of action in exactas and other pools.

This is particularly true at smaller tracks where early money and big winning bets tell the crowd that something is up with a horse. Instead of just seeing the win pools when betting opens, check the place pool as well. On more than one occasion I have found hundreds of dollars wagered to place on a horse as soon as the pools opened. Obviously, someone on the “inside” knew that his horse was likely to at least place and would probably win.

I then checked the exact payouts and the double payouts if the run was part of a double set. On many of those occasions I found that the horse was being bet on exotic bets in both positions. The money wagered on the horse, particularly the starting money, was more than my race handicap calculated. Something was up with the horse. But a quick look at the odds or the profit pool did not indicate that the horse was alive.

The art of handicap horse racing demands that you not just accept things at face value and that you must look a little deeper than the crowd for answers. Don’t overlook the local pools and exotics when looking for the inside money. They have information that is not in a racing form and can lead you to very good profits.