Learn to read American formAmerican racing is a little different to racing in Europe and Australia. Here are some handy guides on what to look for.
Here are some excellent guides to reading US racing form with various strategies. Each firm's formsheets are slightly different.
http://www.thorograph.com/How2Use/intro.pdf ThoroGraph - specific to their unique style of form.
http://www.todaysracingdigest/data/files/learntohandicaptheraces.pdf Today's Racing Digest
This guide covers the basics of US racing and how to read the TRD formsheets.
http://drf.com/fan_ed/winning-techniques-2004.pdf DailyRacingForm - Winning Techniques, registration required (free).
http://www.drf.com/row/fan_ed/learn-to-play-2004.pdf Learn to Play the Races, registration required (free).
US RacingIn Britain and Ireland, we are treated to a nightly dose of American racing from coast to coast. The tracks are different, the surfaces are different and the running styles are different. So how do make money from it?
How to learn the rules and better your understanding• Take your time and watch a good amount of the racing. There are different types of races that you need to familiarize yourself with. Although similar to UK, RSA, AUS, European, etc, there are certain rules that only apply in the US and certain rules that differ slightly.
• Pay attention to the commentary. US commentators go a lot more in-depth than those in the UK and will usually give a good account of how the race is being run.
• Use the free racing data from Betfair's US racing partner, Thorograph.
• Visit websites such as DRF and Equibase and look into the full results of past races. There are detailed descriptions of sectional information and descriptions on the race. These are a lot more detailed than anything you would see for racing elsewhere around the world.
• There is a lot of information available for US Racing, however you have to pay. If you are serious about gambling on US Racing then you should look into getting the information. It lists everything from horses past records to jockeys, owners and trainers records at the meeting. There can be 30 or 40 pages of information for just one day's race meeting.
Betting on US Horse Racing (Overview)The way US Racing is scheduled does not match any other jurisdiction's racing so make sure you familiarise yourself with it. In the UK for example a track may run 4 or 5 days in a row (maximum) however that is only for a festival. Usually the track will be on once a week, and not even every week. In the US tracks are open for seasons and during that time they will race four or five times a week continuously as dirt tracks can withstand continuous racing.
When one season closes at one track another season, at another track, in the same area, will open up. The best example of this is the NYRA (New York Racing Association) that own three tracks - Belmont Park, Saratoga and Aqueduct. Their 2008/9 schedule is as follows:
Belmont Park April 30 to July 20, 2008
Saratoga July 23 to Sept. 1, 2008
Aqueduct Oct. 29 to May 2009
And during this time the meeting races from Wednesday to Sunday (for Aqueduct and Belmont Park) and Wednesday to Monday (Saratoga).
One of the most successful ways of gambling on US racing is by sticking to these areas and analysing Jockey, Trainer and Owner patterns. There are over 85 tracks across the US and with as many as 40 running on the same busy days you can't afford to look at everything.
Markets on Betfair are different to those offered in the US. We offer a Win and Place market per race - the place terms are determined by the number of runners. In the US there are Win, Place (first and second) and Show (first three) markets. Betfair's place differs to the US place. Make sure you read the Betfair Market Information before gambling. Betfair have also started to provide a couple of US cards in running. This adds new opportunities that have never before been offered for US racing.
Betting on US Horse Racing (Win / Place Markets)Betting on the win and place markets require the same skills. You need to give yourself enough time to look into each of the runners and study their form. Some of the important things to look for are as follows:
• How a particular horse has performed on that 'going' before. A lot of US racing is on the dirt so this isn't as important however there are still many turf races. Some horses like it firm and some prefer when there is a bit of give so it is always worth noting the weather and ground at the start of a meeting. In the US if the turf is unraceable they do not abandon racing as they do in the UK; they transfer it to the dirt. So it is important to see how your horse acts on both surfaces as they are not usually consistent.
• The surface. American tracks are now starting to diversify. No longer is it just dirt or turf, now synthetic surfaces (Polytrack and Tapeta) are taking over tracks such as Keeneland and Santa Anita.
• Jockey and Trainers stats at certain tracks. Some jockeys 'own' certain tracks. Their understanding of all areas of the racecourse gives them advantages that can make that difference between first and second.
• Previous standard of races are important as horse are raised in class or dropped in class to try and provide improvement.
• Trainer stats with certain types of runners. With so much racing offered, trainers will often find a niche such as 2yos, low-value claiming races, horses purchased from other yards etc. You may not have heard of some trainers because they've never had Group winners, but they might specialise in $10-20k claimers on the West Coast and be very successful at it. American sport lives on statistical data and racing is no exception.
• Previous race distances. An exceptional horse may always win over 5f however if raised to 1 1/16th miles (1m 1f) there may be others better.
• The horse's previous performance on a course. All courses are anticlockwise however some are much tighter than others and this might not suit all the runners.
The information above is very difficult to come across for free, however when you pay a site it will all be listed. Previous form data for American racing is called Past Performances or PPs.
Something that is very important in US racing is sectional times. During the race the times at the ¼ mile pole, ½ mile pole, ¾ mile pole and mile pole are all shown on the simulcast of the race. This gives the users the ability to see the speed in which a particular race is being run. Certain horses will benefit from an honest gallop whereas others prefer an easy start and a fast finish. Using these times and a horse's position in the race can be very advantageous.
Links to useful In-Play articles on US racing, particularly Breeders' Cup weekend.http://www.betfairpromo.com/inplay/2004_10_07/opinion.html October 04
Each track also has its own website which can be quite useful.
Useful linkshttp://www.thorograph.com/betfair/ Thorograph
http://www.drf.com/ DRF
http://www.equibase.com/ Equibase
http://www.tvg.com/Open/RaceInformation/CurrentOddsResults.aspx Live US tote prices
http://www.brisnet.com/ Brisnet
http://www.nyra.com/ NYRA
http://www.ntra.com/ NTRA
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/ Thoroughbred Times
http://turfpedia.com/ Turfpedia
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