Horse Handicapping

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Horse Handicapping - Success and Luck

 

Ruling out pure gambling - like lotteries, dice, bingo, etc. - what's called "luck" or "lucky" is usually: Obvious success where the reasons for that success are not evident.

In horse handicapping, I'd go further and say that "being lucky" also contains an element of the relative ease of a handicappers success and how fast it came. 

Instant gratification is what people really want. 
Having things like . . .

- winners at the track
- money 
- the admiration of others 

. . . come to them easily with little or no effort on their part - that's what most would call being lucky.

That's often how we view others that we call "lucky" - that good things just flow to them naturally without them seemingly even trying very hard to get those things.

But then there is the other camp - those that say, "You make your own luck.  Luck is nothing more than the results of lots and lots of hard work and effort put in before the 'lucky' results show themselves."  

This is a millennia old style of thinking that comes from the Old Testament - from Genesis I believe, where  there is a statement that has profoundly affected all western thought since - (to paraphrase)        'By the sweat of thy brow shall thee earn thy daily bread.'

. . . In horse handicapping, and betting the races, the truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between.

An important question - one of the most important any of us will ever ask ourselves . . .   

Is there a means to achieve success (and here we are specifically - though not exclusively - concerned with handicapping the horses and accumulating betting profits) that doesn't require us to be "beasts of burden" toiling our lives away to the bitter end?  But also a way that doesn't rely on pure providence, or windfall strokes of fortune that are unrelated to our own efforts?

One part of our basic philosophy here at Horse Racing Gold is that handicappers must put themselves in a position to have a chance at the very good payoffs.  

Can a player then also put himself in the path of luck - and let each of the successive smaller instances of luck catapult him into a permanent pattern of success?

The answer is yes.  Without doubt, success at horse handicapping, and race betting (or almost anything) can be fairly easily achieved.  It won't often be an overnight miracle, but neither need it be a multi-year struggle.

---

 

Any wooing of Lady Luck - i.e. - any success to be had from horse handicapping and race betting - needs to be broken down into 4 steps or categories:

• There are the things that we need to do -

• There are the things that we need to stop doing -

• There are the skills we need to have, or cultivate - and

• There are the beliefs we need to have, or cultivate.

 

I'll address each of those above - in order - below . . .

1.  There are, of course, things that we must do on a day-to-day basis in  our attempts at success:  the record keeping, the study, the diligence - all the pragmatics of any successful endeavor.  This 
falls under the old category of, "Dotting your i's and crossing      your t's."

2. Then there the things we shouldn't do.  This second part is the 
killer - these are the self-defeating things that we do habitually 
and that most often sabotage any chance at real and glorious 
success. Among these are:

- Blaming others for our own failures and weaknesses

- Not learning from our failures - thus repeating them again
  
- Letting failures affect our self-confidence, or worse, 
  our sense of self-worth 

- On the other end of this scale is having too much  
   unfounded confidence that causes entrenchment in 
   one's own little rut and precludes true open-mindedness.

3. We need to have the skill - verging on art - to recognize those things which are truly advantageous to the gaining of our goals.  We need to be able to distinguish between what is efficient for our      purposes, and what isn't.

4. There needs to be a belief: That the goal can be gained - that      
the gaining of the goal does not require great struggle - that we only need a strong desire and a strong will to achieve it - that it can then be turned over to the subconscious -  that we are thereby assured of attaining our goal, or even exceeding it.

Okay - so how does all this relate to our immediate concern for handicapping the races and gaining betting profits?  

 

For brevity's sake, I'll just "list" a few points below.  And please remember, I am not coming from a place of absolute authority here.  I am passing on things that I have learned, and things that I do.  They work for me - adjust and interpret as you feel best for you . . .

For #1 above:

Keep decent records - there's just no way around it. Find the profit points - cull the weak tracks, and less productive bets, concentrate on only the best producers.

Continue to study horse handicapping materials.  Choose from the best authors, and even then take from them only what seems to make sense - what "feels" right to you.

Treat handicapping, and race betting with the seriousness you'd treat your "other" businesses or jobs.

For #2 above:

Don't blame jockeys - though they occasionally turn in terrible performances.

Don't blame bad racing "luck" - though it can sometimes rear its ugly head to snatch away profits that were seemingly "in the bag."

Don't blame yourself - though you might have just committed a costly error.

- Rather, note each of these incidents mentally, or better yet in a notebook kept specifically for this purpose.  Little by little, you can wean yourself away from the emotional satisfaction of venting your anger and disappointment on others - on "outside" causes.  This way, the blaming and energy draining "bitching and moaning" will be transmuted into a simple, positive, and calm noting of facts.

For #3 above:

An oft-used quote applies here, "Don't work harder - work smarter."  Narrow the focus without going all the way to tunnel-vision. Become expert in a more refined niche - take on two or three tracks only, or one or two circuits and/or specific kinds of races and wagers.

Learn to put things into logical groupings and then distinguish and apply priorities to them.

For #4 above:

The belief that success can be yours - is often an elusive one.  In horse handicapping, and race betting - more than in almost any other venture - nagging doubts can persist. 

This is caused by the volatile up-and-down nature of betting.  One day nothing can go wrong - the next nothing can go right.  One week you make thousands - the next you can't buy a winner.  It leads to frustration, and diminishes the confidence that it can actually be done at a high level of consistency and profit.

 

The absolute truth is - we possess the power to accomplish anything we can imagine!

Here are a few facts about the unlimited power of our brain that have been verified in the latest research conducted by Computational Neuroscientists: 

"A typical human brain performs a million billion computing operations per second - about 10 million times as many as the world's fastest super computer."

"A single human brain is 1000 times as powerful as all the electronic computers on earth put together!"

"The brain is so massively complex that the only outer-world system that comes anywhere near to matching it in number of connections is the world-wide telephone system."

 

So - to wrap it up . . .

Luck, success - whatever you want to call it - is in your hands. Cultivate the attitude you need to win - learn the things you need to know to win - and  . . .

WIN!

 Horse Handicapping Articles

(click to view/read)

 Horse Handicapping 1
(making a betting line)

 Horse Handicapping 2
(success and luck)

 Horse Handicapping 3
(turn time, the hidden fraction)

 Horse Handicapping 4
(track specific spot plays)

 Horse Handicapping 5
(finding false favorites)

 Horse Handicapping 6
(advantaged spot plays)