Learning Your Horse Racing Handicapping Strengths and Winning …

If you want to make money betting on horse races, then you are going to have to learn how to handicap horse races and how to manage your money. Almost anyone would agree with that simple truth. But while handicapping and money management are essentials to making money off the horse races, many people still struggle to find a way to profit from their bets.

The problem is that there is more than one way to make a living from horse racing. Though none of them are easy, depending upon your personality and gifts, some may be downright impossible for you while others are accessible.

What you really need is a handicapping aptitude test. You need a way to find out what strengths and gifts you have and how to develop them into profitable habits and systems for betting on horses. No one is going to tell you how you can beat the races, so you must figure it out yourself. Here is a simple method to develop your own system based on what you are good at. Before we go any farther, though, let’s make sure you understand that you may not really know what you are truly good at and may over value some traits or skills that you have.

There is only one way to find out how to make money betting on horses and that is to put it to the test and to keep records of your performance.

Start by writing down any gifts or strengths that you think you have and then make another list of weaknesses. First you will have to think of what it takes to handicap a race. Here are some obvious choices…

1. good math skills
2. knowledge of horses
3. good memory
4. good trip watcher
5. enjoy knowing about bloodlines and breeding
6. like to read latest horse racing news
7. enjoy budgeting and managing money
8. operate well under pressure making quick decisions

There are many other skills you may think of and the list above is just a suggestion, but will get you thinking about the traits that a good handicapper might have.

Now start keeping score based on the list you develop. Every time you make a bet, write down which skills you used to make the decision to bet. After several weeks of this, depending upon the frequency of your bets, you should have a good selection of bets and enough information to see which traits put you in the plus column and which ones were duds. For instance, you may find that last minute decisions cost you money, or perhaps you made a profit on them. Maybe your intuition is good and you can go with a gut feeling at the last minute that usually works out well for you.

The point I am making is that you will be able to see where your strengths lie. Now, start asking yourself how you are making the decision to bet and start eliminating bets that rely upon your weaknesses and start making more bets that rely upon your strengths. You will soon find yourself with your own system of decision making custom tailored to your own gifts and talents.