Horse Racing: An Introduction

New to this platform, I know bits and bobs from a few fields of interest and one of these is horse racing. A good number of people uninitiated in 'the turf' say to me "You can't win at gambling can you?"

"The bookies always win" is quite a mantra among non-gamblers. Have I disproved this theory? No... but I've got quite close.

A few things have changed to how it was years ago, especially with the advent of the internet. Digital exchanges for trading between individuals certainly livened the game up, causing some serious concerns for the big bookmaking operations (Hills, Ladbrokes, Corals, Bet365).

Betfair was the exchange to revolutionise betting on horse racing. It enabled individuals to request prices and bet against each other through an anonymised exchange system. Betfair, unlike many big name bookies, doesn't close winning accounts. And by betting with Betfair you generally get access to the most competitive prices.

On Betfair, as with bookmakers, you can of course bet on football, golf, snooker, election results and much else. This article is about horse racing so I'll stick with that. It's my specialist betting field and (outside crypto) it's really all I bet on.

Aside: I did give it up for 18 months actually after reading Rebecca Cassidy's magnificent sociological study 'The Sport of Kings'. The book lays bare the extreme class and gender prejudices that the horse racing industry, more than many other sports, tends to reinforce. It's not a modern sport. It doesn't really much try to move into the modern age, probably because there's a cruelty in running horses against one another as sport or for profit. Anyway, I don't wish to dwell long on these aspects any more than they want to discuss what crispy pork crackling really is on Masterchef.

I'm passionate about horse racing. I really enjoy the thrill of a winner. Watching a race is always a thrilling experience and it can be quite beautiful to watch the landscape roll by and see horses stride out and boldly jump fences.

Studying (as opposed to watching) racing is a different matter. It has been compared to the challenge of a cryptic crossword. It reminds me more of computer programming actually. Even if you're just scanning a race quickly from the newspaper you're dealing with methods and variables, working algorithmically; problem-solving. Form study or handicapping (both terms are used to mean studying an upcoming horse race and trying to pick the winner) is data analysis at any level. There are mysterious teams (known as syndicates) of many numbers of people employed to run major data analytical operations on horse racing form (the records of previous races).

You can find any amount of information online regarding handicapping. I'll recommend a couple of books beginning with 'How To Win At Racing' by Spectator, a slim guide which Raceform published for many years. This contains the basic fundamentals of handicapping and opens with a great quote from the late Aga Khan:

"If the punter takes the trouble, he certainly will win... he must work very hard; look it up, follow form, follow form, follow public form."

A more modern text that I highly recommend is Nick Mordin's 'Winning Without Thinking: A Guide to Horse Race Betting Systems.' This is the best of a lot of books I've read on the subject of horse racing. It's particularly good on approaching the sport from a modern perspective, utilising databases and letting a computer do the hard work for you.

If you're interested but concerned about losing money I'd also suggest OLBG, a fantastic website where you can learn your trade and pick winners and earn prize-money in leagues (a bit like fantasy football) without risking a penny.

OLBG is made up of a friendly, cheerful community of horse racing fans who will welcome a newcomer in. You can study Horse Racing 101 or their similar start-up guide to betting on horse racing.

With all this preamble over I hope you'll join me for my next article which will cover the fundamentals of studying horse racing form.