There are many books on the market that claim to teach neophytes how to handicap horse races.  Some, by the big name writers, are insightful and offer some good information.  Others are worthless or even worse, dangerous because they are filled with misinformation or out dated statistics.  So how do you find the best horse racing handicapping books?

One way, of course, is to read the reviews.  The problem with that, of course, is just how reliable are those reviews?  On the biggest online sites for book sales, anyone can review a book, that includes the author’s wife, cousin, girlfriend, boyfriend, mother, you get the idea.  On the other hand, the competition can also sink your book by writing scathing reviews or hiring other people to do it as well.  Therefore, unless a review tells you something that you can verify, I advise you to pay them little mind and think for yourself.

You can open the books and look inside.  If you are using the biggest bookselling site on the internet, you can read a sample of the book even if you are looking at eBooks.  You will know very quickly by looking inside if the book has anything that interests you.  Here is what to look for…

Start with the author’s name and bio.  If you don’t see one, that’s a huge red flag.  My advice, pass that one by.  Handicapping authors are public figures and sell their books based on their experience and personality.  Let’s face it, the author is a very big part of the reason you buy a book.  If he or she can’t supply some basic information so you get to know him or her a little, then he or she obviously lacks credentials.

The next place to look is the table of contents.  No table of contents?  Pass it by.  If there is a table of contents, look at the subjects and see if any interest you.  Also think about how they are laid out before you and how orderly they might be.  When you are learning how to handicap horse races, you want your teacher to be able to express himself or herself clearly and methodically so you can follow along and learn.

After checking the table of contents, look at the first few pages and read what the author has to say.  Is his or her style readable?  Does he or she offer any actual examples to support the things he or she says?  This is the way to check out a book so you wind up with the best horse racing handicapping book and get what you pay for.

You will probably find some books that are well written, but just don’t cover the subjects you want to read about.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  Just make a mental note about the book so that if you ever want to read about those particular subjects in the future, you’ll know where to find the information.

One of the best ways to increase your knowledge and learn how to handicap horse races is using eBooks.  There are more electronic books available now than ever before and some of them can help you to cash more winning tickets.  The reason that they are so effective is that they are inexpensive and can be downloaded instantly.

Instead of waiting around for a book to arrive in the mail, you get the information on your screen right away.  While some people read the book right from their computer, digesting one bit at a time,. others print the book so they can read it just like a regular hard cover of paperback.  One of the best features about a digital book is that it is current and fresh.

Another feature that digital books offer is that many of them are compatible with ereaders such as Amazon Kindle and Sony’s ereader.  The Amazon Kindle is not only a high quality reader with a backlit screen, but it also is wifi capable so no matter where you are, if there is wifi available, you can download a handicapping book and work on improving your game.  If you don’t have a Kindle, that’s no problem.  You can download the Kindle reader software to your computer for free and get the same great features, and you’ll be able to sample Kindle books for free.

One of the biggest challenges facing modern horse racing handicappers is to continually hone their skills and stay ahead of the crowd.  Digital products are the best way to do that.  Book for horse players that have  been around for a long time are stale and anything in them that could improve your game has been picked up and used by the crowd.

As savvy horse players know, once something becomes common knowledge, its usefulness and profitability plummets.  Speed figures are a prime example of a handicapping angle that was valuable before the publication or Andrew Beyer’s books, but became much less valuable as a tool for finding value plays.

Because an eBook doesn’t have to go through the usual time consuming process that a regular book goes through, once it is written, it can be made available within a few days.  That is such an improvement over the conventional publishing process that many top flight horse racing authors are now going the eBook route.  It isn’t just horse racing writers who are flocking to digital books, either.

Barnes and Noble and Borders have seen a sharp increase in sales of eBooks while regular books have kept up a slow decline that started years ago.  The fastest growing segment of the book publishing market is digital books in almost all genres.

If you’re looking for the best horse racing writing that is fresh and relevant today, electronic books are your best bet.