Horse Racing 101: When should I place my bets?

Horse race betting is a far different animal than sports betting. From differences in handicapping, more variety in outcomes, fluctuations in odds, scratches, etc., horse race betting and sports betting are poles apart at times.

Let’s discuss the differences in approach to horse race betting that sports bettors might need time to adjust to.

The biggest difference between sports betting and horse betting

One of the biggest gulfs to cross for sports bettors attempting to cross over into horse racing is the race day approach. For many horseplayers, the race-by-race approach is the way to go, whereas sports bettors typically load up all their plays for an NFL Sunday at once before settling in and watching the games.

Sports wagers are typically placed hours in advance of a given event, and at fixed odds. In horse racing, bettors are given a “morning line,” or an approximation of what post time odds might be by the track’s oddsmaker. However, no one truly knows what odds they’ll get on their runner(s) until the race actually goes off.

Bettors are allowed to fire in plays on raceday for events hours ahead of time, if they have somewhere else to be perhaps, but this is an unusual practice for most horseplayers.

When should I place my bets

Due to the nature of parimutuel wagering, serious horseplayers typically don’t fire in all their wagers at once at a given track. Disciplined, professional bettors will wait until one minute or even zero minutes to post to place their bets for each race, holding off as long as possible for any late fluctuations in odds.

Once that one race is over and declared official by the racetrack stewards, the odds open up for the next race, and horseplayers go through the same process they did for the race that preceded of evaluating the odds and finalizing their picks and plays before submitting their bets.

Sports bettors may find familiarity in multi-race wagers

Not all wagers at the racetrack require monitoring of probable payouts. Bets like the Pick Four, which require the bettor to pick the winner of four straight races, have become immensely popular.

These multi-race wagers function much like a parlay in sports betting – the bettor needs to have the winner in each event in order to cash, otherwise the ticket goes up in flames. But the payouts are usually worth the risk.

Much like an NFL parlay, if you lose a Pick Four in leg one, you can still hedge your bets with intra-race wagers in legs two, three and four. This is akin to a sports bettor who hedges his bets with in-game or second-half wagers.