Longshot Tips For Winning Horse Racing Handicapping Strategies , Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 2:07 PM, in

Playing long shots will test the patience and resolve of even the best horse racing handicappers, but if you want to make real big hits and profit from betting on horse races, longshots are one way to do it. But just betting on a runner because it is at long odds is financial suicide. There are a few keys I like to use to find good long shot bets.
The first thing I want to see when I bet on a long shot is a race with a favorite and other contenders who are suspect. In other words a phony favorite. Since favorites win a third of all races, if you can eliminate the favorite, you are one step closer to a race with a big winner.
The next thing I look for is a horse who has a reason to be better than it was in its last effort. Now that may sound awfully simplistic or obvious, but you would be surprised at how many horses win at big odds when the reason for their improvement was staring the crowd right in the face.



Ask yourself this question, "How many times have you seen a horse win at a good price, and when you looked it over again in the form, after the race, you realized you should have bet on it based on what you read?"
We all do it and that is why every day, all over the horse racing world, longshots continue to surprise and pay big win tickets. So here is a tip on how you can avoid getting burned by longshots in the future. When you handicap the races, anytime there is any reason for a horse to improve, no matter how bad the horse looks on paper, put a great big question mark beside the horse.
The next step is to take another look at any question mark horses and look for these things, a top trainer, top jockey, top breeding. If you can't figure out why a horse is entered in a race it seems to have no chance of winning, but it has any of those three things going for it, you can bet that it has a chance to win, especially if there is a question mark beside it.
The business of training horses and winning with them is one of being able to see promise in a horse and then bringing it out. The best jockeys and trainers do it all the time and the trainers do it by making changes in equipment, training such as workouts, or surface or distance changes. One of the amazing things about longshots is that they often have a top jockey or trainer.
There is no shame in getting burned by a longshot who is ridden by a no-name jockey or trained by a lousy trainer, but don't get burned by an entry that is conditioned by a top trainer or ridden by a top jock.

Longshots are the best bets when you know how to rate them with Bill's Longshot Rater at http://williewins.homestead.com Bill has been around Horseracing for 50 years and knows how to spot a good bet and loves to teach others.



He is a former race horse owner and professional handicapper. He comes from a horse race handicapping family and as he puts it, "Horse Racing is in my blood." To see all Bill's horse racing material go to Horse Racing Handicapping Bill's handicapping store.