Horse Betting Online

Epsom Derby is a term that usually refers to the Derby Festival of racing that takes place at Epsom Downs racecourse every June. The festival spans two days: the Friday is known as Ladies Day (because lots of ladies make a point of attending the Epsom Downs racecourse in all their finery, which means plenty of big hats) and the Saturday itself is known as Derby Day (because of the feature race on that day, which is referred to as the Vodafone Derby). The 2009 Epsom Derby runs from 5-6 June.

Those who enjoy horse betting online look forward to the Epsom Derby as a particularly exciting racing festival because it attracts plenty of top-quality runners which makes for good competition and some tasty betting odds. The basic principles of picking winners apply here at the Epsom Derby just as much as they do to any other race meeting, but there are some additional guidelines that you would do well to observe. These are:

• The Epsom Derby is a flat racing festival, so the speed of runners is always worth considering. It can be useful to get a copy of the Racing Post instead of relying on your usual newspaper form cards because the Racing Post publishes speed figures for each runner (these are known as Topspeed Ratings) and these can help you identify the runners in each race that have the best turn of foot. As a rule, a horse with good recent form and a high Topspeed Rating (relative to the other runners) is a better bet at the Epsom Derby than one with mediocre form or an average speed rating. It sounds like an obvious point, but you’d be surprised at how many people participating in horse betting online fail to consider speed in the slightest.

• The feature races at the Epsom Derby festival will be the most challenging as far as picking winners in concerned. Again, this is an obvious point as far as seasoned horse betting enthusiasts are concerned, but many amateurs make the mistake of concentrating on the headline races whilst at the same time ignoring the potentially easier pickings of the smaller races. By all means have a stab at the Vodafone Derby itself, but be sure to take a look at the other races on both Ladies Day and Derby Day to see if there isn’t an obvious form pick to get your teeth into.

• The higher odds available about Epsom Derby runners make it possible to bet on several runners in a race and still make a profit if one of them wins. For example, you could bet £10 on each of three horses priced at 3/1, 4/1 and 5/1 and if the 3/1 shot won you would make £10 profit overall (you would make £20 or £30 profit respectively if the 4/1 or 5/1 shot won). This approach is just as valid as betting on a single selection to win outright, so if you think it would be more useful to you, feel free to give it a try as you see fit.

Make no mistake, the Epsom Derby is one of the biggest festivals in the racing calendar, and even if you don’t place a bet you’re sure to enjoy the thrill of the event as a spectator sport. If you do decide to place a bet on the Epsom Derby, take a look at our Bookmakers page so that you can collect a nice bonus in the process!

Money management in the world of horse betting online is the ability to manage your betting money in such a way that you stand the best possible chance of succeeding. The aim of anyone who bets on horses is to make money rather than lose it, and although you will need to know about picking winners to do this, you will also need to adopt sound money management principles.

The most important money management principle is never to bet more than you can afford to lose. You will of course hope to win, but nobody can pick 100% winners so it is inevitable that a certain percentage of your selections will lose you money. Adhering to this first principle of only betting money that you can afford to lose will help you to avoid the possibility of going broke when one of your horse bets lets you down.

The next most important money management principle is to establish a betting bank. This is a sum of money that you are willing to set aside for horse betting online. It could be £20, £100 or £1,000, but whatever the amount you must ensure that if you lost this sum you wouln’t be plunged into poverty. Remember, horse betting online is a potentially profitable hobby, and not something that you can rely on to pay the mortgage.

When you have established a betting bank, you need to decide how to use it effectively. The two most popular approaches taken by horse betting online enthusiasts are as follows:

Bet level stakes. This involves dividing your betting bank into a number of equal smaller amounts and then betting those amounts on each of your horse betting online selections. For example, if you have a betting bank of £100 you might divide this by 20 and place a £5 bet on each of your selections. All of your profits should of course be added to the betting bank as you go along, but no matter how big your bank gets, you would still continue to bet level stakes of £5 per selection.

Bet a percentage. This money management strategy involves betting a fixed percentage of the available betting bank on each horse betting online selection. For example, you might decide to bet 5% of the available balance on each selection. This would mean a bet of £5 when your bank is at £100, £7 when your bank is at £140, £10 when your bank is at £200, and so on. The benefit of this strategy is that your stakes increase as your bank gets bigger, but if your bank gets smaller after a few losers then your stakes are reeled in to reflect that.

There are other options that someone horse betting online could consider, and we will present details of those more advanced ‘staking plans’ in a future article. In the meantime, it is a good idea to focus on improving your ability to pick horse betting online winners and to make money with level stakes or by betting a fixed percentage of your bank.

Betting systems for horse racing provide those involved with horse betting online with strategic ways of picking more winners than they might expect to achieve by chance. Betting systems can be very simple or very complicated, but it is important to understand that a more complex system is by no means guaranteed to be any more effective than a simple one. In fact, in many cases a simple horse betting online system consisting of just a few rules can make more money more consistently than a system that takes hours to work out.

In this article we will present you with two simple betting systems that you can use to put this observation to the test. None of them require a great deal of time or effort to follow, but you will need to know how to read racing form, which is covered in our article entitled Reading Horse Racing Form.

Horse Racing System 1

Horses that have previous winning form have a much better chance of winning their next races, and if you focus on betting on horses that won their most recent races you will find an awful lot of winners with a fair amount of ease. The rules for Horse Racing System 1 are therefore as follows:

• Look at all the races of the day and identify those where just one runner won its most recent race (indicated by a 1 at the end of the form section of the form string). If there are no such races then there is no bet today.

• In each race you have identified, see if the horse that won last time out is also the forecast favourite according to the odds available from your chosen horse betting online sportsbook. If it is, it qualifies as Horse Racing System 1 selection.

Horse Racing System 2

This system doesn’t look at the form of the horses, but bets according to newspaper betting forecasts. It is a more speculative system, but if you check through past racing results you will see that it does provide plenty of winning days. The rules are as follows:

• Identify the first five non-handicap races of the day.

• Identify the forecast favourite in each of these races using the Daily Mirror or the Racing Post. This will be your selection in each race.

• You now bet on each favourite in turn, increasing stakes after a loser and stopping betting altogether after a winner. Use the staking progression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. In other words, bet 1 point on the first horse and stop betting if it wins, otherwise bet 2 points on the second horse, and so on. Be sure to stop betting after a winner or after five consecutive losers, in which case you will have lost a total of 31 points.

It is highly recommended that you start with micro-stakes and only increase stakes as your profits allow. This prevents you storming in with big money on a losing day.

More Betting Systems To Come!

These two simple systems are provided only to get you started and should help anyone to start making money from horse betting online. Other systems that focus more on form assessment are on the way, so be sure to bookmark us and check back often. In the meantime, you have enough information here to start picking winners, so good luck in finding the first one!

Reading horse racing form is not nearly as difficult as many people assume at first glance. Racing form is generally presented in newspaper and online as a string of information, and once you understand what each part of that form string means, reading form is very easy. In fact, by the time you finish this article you’ll be able to read a basic horse racing form string as good as anyone.

Let’s start by showing you what a horse racing form string looks like. Here’s one for a fictional runner called Potential Winner:

321  Potential Winner  14  [C]  6  11-3  T Rainer  J Ockey  132

There are nine separate items of information in this horse racing form string, so for ease of discussing we will now take a look at each in turn, from left to right:

Form – The first piece of information (321) tells us the finishing position of the horse in its previous races, with the result of the latest race appearing last. We can therefore see that this horse came 1st in its last race, 2nd in the race before that, and third in the race before that. As a rule, the form for the last two or three races is far more useful than form for earlier races.

Name – The second piece of information is the name of the horse. In this case the name of the horse is Potential Winner.

Days Since Last Run – The third piece of information is the number of days since the horse last ran. In this case, Potential Winner last ran 14 days ago. The number of days since the last run is important because it gives some idea of how fit and ready the horse is likely to be for the coming race. Generally speaking, the more recently a horse last ran, the better, and avoiding horses that haven’t had a run for more than 40 days will help you to avoid plenty of losers.

Course & Distance Wins – The fourth piece of information tells you if the horse has previously won over the same course and/or distance as the race in question. If it has won over the course then this is indicated by a [C] and if it has won over the distance then this is indicated by a [D]. Previous course and/or distance wins are always a good thing.

Age – The fifth piece of information is the age of the horse. Here we see that Potential Winner is 6 years old.

Weight – Next up is the weight that the horse will carry in the race, stated in stones and pounds. Potential Winner will carry 11st 3lbs.

Trainer – The seventh piece of information is the name of the trainer, in this case T Rainer.

Jockey – The eighth piece of information is the name of the jockey scheduled to ride the horse. Potential Winner will be ridden by J Ockey.

Rating – The ninth and final piece of information is a numerical rating that represents an assessment of the horse’s form. This isn’t always present, but when it is it can be a useful guide to how the horse compares with the other runners according to the newspaper or website publishing the form string. The top rated horse (the one with the highest rating) is deemed to be the one with the best form (and arguably the best chance of winning), and the lowest rated horse is the one with the worst form.

Now that you know what each piece of information in a horse racing form string means, you will be able to look at any form string and understand it quite easily. Even better, you will now be able to use Betting Systems to help you pick more winners when horse betting online!