sports betting advise blog

The vast majority of people in the UK today can claim that their experience of having a bet starts and finishes with the office sweepstakes for the Derby or Grand National. Without doubt, most people are put off betting by their lack of understanding of the principal factors involved and view the whole process as just a matter of luck. This is certainly not the case and I will attempt to give the beginner who is thinking of placing a few more bets than usual a quick guide to success. I will attempt here to unravel the jargon which does very little to encourage any newcomers to the game. OK, we’ll start with some of the most key points. I consider this the most important when looking at a race; The Going.

This is simply the state of the ground at the start of racing. An important thing to consider is that this can and does change throughout the days racing when it is raining. So caution should always be exercised here. Why is the going important? Well imagine for a moment how this would affect you personally. A quick jog along the beach on sand would certainly be different from a jog along your street on the hard tarmac. Equally so, the difference would be noticeable if you were to go for a run round your local sports field on the grass. All of these surfaces would have a positive or negative effect on your performance and similarly for a horse. So if you were to run against another person who liked and performed better on the tarmac surface as opposed to your liking for grass, given the fact that you are both reasonably fit, there is likely to be a difference. Getting back to our horses for a moment, they all have their preference for ground conditions. They may act on all surfaces but will perform considerably better on one or two similar conditions. Your task is to find out which. You will hear things like ‘loves some cut in the ground’ and ‘ likes hear it’s hooves rattle’. These sayings would refer to ’soft ground’ and ‘firm ground’ respectively.

So ‘GOING’ is really no more complicated than that and you should easily be able to figure this out from the racing press notes about the horse before you place your bet. Next we will look at another important issue on the Flat only; The Draw.

This is unique to flat racing as in all flat races the horses enter a starting stall. The draw for the order takes place before the race and again this information can be found in the racing press. One thing to note here is that their saddlecloth number is NOT their draw number. Never get these two numbers confused. You may be wondering why the draw can be so important. Historical data will show that at some racecourses the draw, whether HIGH or LOW can have a significant impact on the chances of a horse being able to win the race. The one racecourse that stands heads and shoulders above all others when looking at this effect is Chester. Chester is a particularly tight track bustled into the centre of the town. It would take no genius to work out that a horse drawn on the inside of this tight track would have a considerable advantage over the others in the field for obvious reasons.

The only thing that negates this advantage is the length of the race. The longer the race the less the effect of the draw is noticeable. This will conveniently bring us on to; The Trip or Distance.

Simply put, the distance of the race to be covered is referred to as The Trip. There are many different popular distances to be covered from the minimum 5f to in excess of 3 Miles [24f] and even further in some rare circumstances. The most famous long distance race, 4 and a 1/2 miles, is the Grand National. Furlongs are a traditional distance measurement in Horse Racing and apart from that there is no real reason why they are still used. You will also see that occasionally there is an additional yardage added at the end of the race i.e. 1m 6f 110yds

This must also be considered and should not be readily ignored. When a horse is reaching the end of his run and is almost ‘empty’ those last few yards can be the deciding factor whether it wins or loses. You will often see a horse that has led readily lose out to a fast finishing horse with that little bit more stamina in the last few yards. This can be one of the most frustrating events that you will encounter if you have not done your homework. Finally we can look at the last major factor; The Handicap. Handicaps are a particular event in which the ‘best’ horse in the race is given the most weight to carry. Take note that nothing will stop a horse quicker than too much weight.

When the handicapper assesses the horse he will give it a weight to carry in its next race and the theory behind handicapping is that all the horses in the race will cross the line together. Now I cannot think of one instance that this has ever happened but I guess it could. Trainers will and do manipulate this to their advantage and you will often hear of a horse being ‘well in at the weights’. This means that even with the weight it is carrying today it is reported to be ‘ahead of the handicapper’. Okay, so there you have it, my most important factors to consider when looking to place a bet. Master these and you will be way ahead of the average punter in the high street or betting exchange.

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