Race Reading

There are many professional punters in the United Kingdom who specialise in what is known as race reading in Horse Racing. This is the process of analysing races and seeing how horses fare both in terms of performance and how they shape up in certain races. It does take considerable experience to be able to watch a recording of a race and then be able to predict just how horses like to run in certain races.

For instance I know one punter who can tell if horses prefer leading or whether they like being held up. He also knows if a horse is strategically positioned for the optimal effect during a race and if the jockey has made a mistake or not during the early phases of the race. Usually he bets on sprint events and races up to a mile as these are races where mistakes get punished the most.

If a jockey makes an error in a 5 furlong race and gets boxed in and has no clear run then at the speed that the horses move then he hasn’t got enough time to correct it. Race reading obviously involves watching races in running with Live horse racing and even though there is a time delay in what you are seeing on your television screen and this can vary depending on the feed then it is no more than one or two seconds usually.

During the early stages of the race then this isn’t critical if you act quickly enough. This has never been a method that I have done personally simply because my knowledge of horses is simply not up to that level. But let my quote a classic example here of what I am talking about. Let us say that in a five furlong race that a certain horse prefers a fast paced race. Usually this is because the horse lacks a sudden burst of speed at the end and is quite one paced.

So it likes to lead and set the pace but in this particular race, the horse does not leave the stalls ideally and gets sandwiched at the back and by the time the jockey tries to extricate himself from his bad strategic position then it is too late and the crucial pivotal moment of the race has passed. The horse in question has not been able to force the pace to their liking and because other horses have far faster finishing kicks then it basically has no chance of winning.

But to know this then you really need to study horses. This means watching races repeatedly and then understanding how certain horses like to run and what types of pace suit them. Usually the odds compilers squeeze this into their prices at the start but they cannot control events that are in play. If you have an experienced eye and are quick on the trigger with regards to betting in running then an astute punter can make money in this situation. But there is a world of difference between someone who knows what they are talking about from someone who doesn’t.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson