When making a bet for the famous Melbourne Cup Day horse race seasoned betters usually pay close attention to Melbourne Cup jockeys. Since Melbourne Cup jockey and horse are the main stars of the day it makes perfect sense to analyse their state of well being to determine whether betting on them is a good idea or not.

How to learn more about Melbourne Cup riders and why it is a good idea:

For a layman it is hard to make an informed decision about any of the Melbourne Cup jockeys and horses since most of us have no idea which one of them are in top form and which are not. Unless you follow the build-up to the Cup with a close eye chances are you simply place your bet on a whim which can or cannot be a winning ticket.

To increase your chances of winning you can start out by researching the Melbourne Cup riders by looking at the various resources at hand. You can find information:

• Online
• In Newspapers
• In equine magazines
• Through horse-loving friends
• On TV
• Or on the radio

What to look for when researching Melbourne Cup jockey and horse teams:

For starters, the team has to be fit and free of injury. It also helps to pick a team that has better odds, even so by doing this you will forfeit some of your winnings. Higher odd teams fetch less money than lower odds (learn more about odds later in this article.)

When looking at Melbourne cup jockeys make sure you know about their race weight and whether it falls into a good category or not. When researching horses know if they are injured or too young to have reached mature age which often undermines their winning odds.

Keep your eyes and ears on the ball right up to the big race, the actual Melbourne Cup if you want to bet big to increase your chances of winning.

How to read betting odds and what makes an odd good or bad:

Betting odds are a mystery to most part time betters. Most people come out of the wood works for Melbourne Cup day and they place bets without understanding how the system works. Naturally most of them lose.

If you want to increase your own odds at picking the winning Melbourne Cup jockey and horse team then start by learning about odds and how they work.

The odds quoted on each horse tell you what the horse will pay. 8-4 means you will get $8 profit for every $4 you bet. 60-1 means you get $60 profit for every $1 wagered. Most Australian tracks have a $2 minimum bet.

The toteboard will announce the odds at any stage during the race up until there are no more bets. You can calculate your own odds if you know how by taking the total win pool and the amount of money bet on a horse.

The total pool relates to the money bet on all the horses to win. But don’t mistake this to be  the amount that will be paid to the winning ticket holders. Before winners get paid the bookies will deduct their “take” which generally is between 14%-20%. Each state has different laws.

This money pays local and state taxes,track expenses, purse money for the horsemen, and the track’s profit.

If you want to calculate the exact odds on a horse, deduct the take from the total pool, then deduct the amount of money that was bet on that horse to show you the amount of cash to be paid out. Now take that figure and divide it by the money that was bet on the horse to get exact odds.

Example odd calculation:

Total pool: $1000
Amount of money bet on horse: $250
Take amount: 15%
$1000 – 15% = $850
$850 – $250 = $600
$600 / $250 = $2.40

If you round this up to 2.5 for what is called ‘breakage’ you get odds of 2.5-1 or 5-2.

As you can see, analysing Melbourne Cup jockeys and their horses is quite straightforward if you know how. Hopefully this will increase your own betting odds for the 2009 Melbourne Cup.