A day out at the races - be it real or virtual - is an exhilarating and sociable activity for all. Getting the champagne flowing and the good times rolling is pretty straight forward - pour, enjoy, repeat. But before you start popping corks, make sure that you are betting ready with our top tips and tricks to use at the bookies or online with sites such as Timeform.
Get Down with the Lingo
Know your maidens from your mares and your bankers from your backwards. With a bit of knowledge you will soon be able to chat with the most seasoned of punters - and if in doubt, nod and smile along as you cheekily check out our race terminology glossary for the lowdown on the lingo. Widening your racing and betting vocabulary will not only make you sound good, it will also help you to make informed and successful bets.
Do Your Homework
Watching previous races will help you to get an idea of the horse and jockey characteristics and potential to bag you a win on a given course or surface. Put what you learn from watching clips and races together with the horse’s current form, and placing your bet becomes less about going for the quirky names, and more about knowledge and potential.
Types of Bets
There are a myriad of different types of bets on offer. Make sure you understand how they work before you start thinking about making bets. Single bets are the most common, of course, as they are simple straight win bets placed on a single event. Accumulators are pretty self explanatory and consist of four or more selections. Heinz (comprising 57 bets) Alphabet (you’ve got it - 26 bets) and the Super Yankee (ten doubles, ten trebles, four five folds and a five fold accumulator) are perhaps a bit more complicated!
Know Your Jockeys
Just like all sportspeople, jockeys have favourite events and surfaces. Researching past wins, training regimes, relationships with trainers and race day interviews will give you an insight into what the jockey is expecting of the horse. Some trainers work with more than one jockey, so it is well worth finding out who is the lead jockey - the one they rely on and favour - as he is likely to be riding their strongest horse and be their brightest hope when it comes to a win.
Study the Surface
Not all surfaces are created equal. Horses respond to different surfaces in different ways. A good to firm surface with little moisture under-hoof provides the horses with plenty of grip and therefore results in some great sprinting opportunities. Look out for the surface reports and use them to your advantage in order to maximise your payouts.
Know Your Horses
Knowing the horses, their form, their past riders and their preferred surfaces is the most important thing when betting on a winner. The more you know about the horses you are betting on, the more likely you are to see them show the rest of the pack what winning looks like. It can be tempting just to bet on the favourite, but it’s the researchers and the super sleuths that come out on top when it comes to horse racing.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
