The concept is simple, a handicap horse race is similar to a regular one except the horses carry different amounts of weight in order to make the race “fair”. The best horses will carry heavier weights, giving them a disadvantage, while the slower horses carry much lighter weights in order to give them a fighting chance. These weights are designed and assigned by the handicapper and the handicapper’s goal is to make all the horses finish the race together – the so called “dead heat”.
The true secret behind the trade is having the skills and ability to accurately determine which horse can overcome its handicap. As simple as it sounds, it takes an immense amount of knowledge and practice to handicap successfully but the reward for it is an equally ridiculous amount of profit.
Now that you’re up to speed on what horse racing handicapping is, let’s dive deeper.
Before anything else, you need to know which of the 2 available paths of horse handicapping you’re going to take: Do It Yourself or Done For You. This means that either you’ll learn and practice handicapping yourself, or you’ll pass that work on to the professionals and simply get the information and picks from them. Both choices have their pros and cons, of course, so it’s up to you to decide which one fits your style better.
While doing it yourself brings the obvious advantage of being in complete control, developing your own strategies and not having to rely on someone else, it also means that you’ll need to learn a ton of information, practice a whole lot and then spend hours crunching mountains of data before reaching a conclusion. This can be intimidating and highly time consuming but the rewards are great.
If you want to learn how to do it yourself – click here to read our full how-to guide.
On the other hand, due to the steep learning curve and true dedication needed to be a successful horse handicapper, you can always get the research and picks done by a hardened professional instead of doing it yourself. This is especially helpful when you’re short on time to both learn and apply the methods. If you identify with this, make sure to read this article – it shows you the best handicappers in the game so you can choose which one to follow.
If you want to get handicapping done for you – click here to read our article on the very best handicappers you can choose from.
Regardless of which path you decide to take, there are other essential subjects that you should know about if you’re interested in the world of horse race handicapping. Thankfully, we’ve already written excellent articles on them to help you as much as possible. Below we’ll show you their title and a quick introduction to what they’re all about, if you want to read the complete article then simply click on the “read more” below each one’s intro.
Let’s take a look:
Index
As you know by now, handicapping is not only a complex task that needs effort and dedication but it’s also somewhat of an art. You need a real feel for it.
Due to this, some people simply opt to trust the opinions shared by experts instead of doing the research themselves. This saves an insane amount of time and effort but to be successful you need to make sure that your source is trustworthy, professional and accurate.
To help you choose the best ones, we’ve compiled a list that you can read by clicking the following link: best horse handicappers.
Now obviously, most handicapping picks have a cost to them – afterall, they’re a ton of work and it’s only fair that the creator gets compensated.
Even then, there are a few kind souls that offer it for free either because they simply want to for the fun of it or because they’re paid by the media to do so. Either way, it offers a great opportunity for you to get a few solid tips without paying a cent.
There are lots of frankly subpar free tips out there but thankfully, we’ve been able to find and review the very best. To take a look at them, be sure to read our article on free horse racing handicapping picks.
Learning how to handicap horses takes time and effort but the rewards are fantastic. It takes hours and hours to practice due to the need to delve into in-depth numbers, statistics, elimination steps and much more but even though you need some serious dedication and talent to do it successfully, it opens the doors to massive profits.
If you want to dive deeper into it and start doing it yourself, be sure to read our excellent guide on how to handicap horses.
If you want to learn how to handicap properly, a great way to do so is to read a few books on the subject. They give you insight into how the pros do it and due to their format, they’re very in-depth and able to guide you step-by-step.
To take a look at the very best ones you can get and read, be sure to read our best horse handicapping books list.
Making the whole handicapping process easier, faster and concise, handicapping software is an excellent tool for the modern handicapper. Most software gives you access to mountains of detailed historic data, making research a breeze, while also giving you real-time updates on every race. They allow you to quickly analyse a lot of data, create selections, and even automate your betting process.
Although they come with a cost, as expected, they’re more than worth it if you’re going to become a serious horse race handicapper. We’ve already written an article that goes into detail on the subject and presents to you the very best choices when it comes to software.
If you’re interested, be sure to take a look at the top horse racing handicapping software.
Systems, a combination of strategy and strong principles with the purpose of achieving consistent and accurate results, can be an awesome tool in your arsenal. There are hundreds upon hundreds of them out there, some paid and some free, and you can also easily create your own. They’re a simple form of “automation”, designed to make the process go easier and faster for you – much like software.
Just like before, we’ve gathered a selection of the best ones and presented them for you in our best horse racing handicapping systems list. They’re reliable, deliver consistent results and have the records to prove it.
When talking or learning about handicapping, you’ve most likely heard of a few popular tracks in particular that are deeply related to it. Kentucky derby handicapping for example is highly popular, so is aqueduct handicapping or even Santa Anita handicapping.
Due to their fame, you can find a lot of tipsters that focus on these tracks in particular and the helpful guides out there for them are solid and can be of real help when starting.
These are other little details and information that might be interesting to you.
Horse Racing Handicapping Forums
Here are a few well known and respected horse handicapping forums that you can use to talk with similarly interested people
Horse Racing Handicapping Contests
There are a lot of high quality horse race handicapping contests. Here are a few places where you can learn when they happen, their rules, their entry-fees, their prizes and everything else you need to know.
Conclusion
Although horse race handicapping is an extensive subject, it’s more than worth it to learn. Whether you want to dive deep and do it yourself or just want to get some awesome handicapping tips delivered to you, I truly hope these articles help you.
Thanks as always for reading and best of luck with your handicapping journey!