The Best Horse Racing Betting Books and Handicapping Systems

People sometimes confuse handicapping books with handicapping systems.  While it is true that the best books on the subject of picking wining horses may teach you the factors and a systematic method, they are not necessarily a system.  Some books on horse racing may be hundreds of pages long and yet they only really teach you one angle.

At first, that may seem ridiculous, but when you take the time to look into the subject, you’ll find that some factors are so complicated, they really do require a whole book.  The reason for that is that there is really no stand-alone handicapping factor.  Each one is related to the others and each one is affected by the others.

For instance, can anyone really consider figuring out the speed of a race without looking at pace?  If you think that you can merely compare speed figures and find a profitable angle, you’re mistaken.  Recreational handicappers and weekend players are sharp enough to read a form and notice a runner with a speed advantage.

But what if that speedy one gets into an early pace battle?  The weekend players may not have handicapped that far, but a horse player who has read the right books will know that the race isn’t always to the horse with the highest speed figures.  The reason a good horse player knows that is because he or she knows that pace makes a difference.

Following that line of thought one step farther, there are good handicapping books that teach bettors how to use the class of the horse to determine how it will handle the speed of the race.  A horse that scores a 80 speed rating in a $10,000 claiming race may come right back and score an 85 or even higher at a lower claiming price.  The reason, of course, is because the cheaper horses may set a slower pace.

That is an example where three factors all work together to determine the winner of the race.  Using a combination of factors and finding good profitable bets is a process that may require lessons on handicapping that are found in several books.  The more of these good horse racing handicapping books you read, the more you will understand how each horse racing factor plays against and with another.

But then again and this is the critical part of this whole learning process, you must also know when enough is enough and stop trying to add new angles to your playing.  Just because you read something written by a top handicapper, it doesn’t mean it always applies to every situation.  You have to figure out which bits of knowledge to use and what to leave out.

People often ask, if that handicapper is so smart, why did he write a book about it?  Why doesn’t he just go to the track and make a fortune?  The truth of the matter is that some handicappers also like to teach and sometimes teaching is easier than doing.  No matter how good you are at picking winners, there are still times when you will lose and it is more profitable in the long run to teach others.