Gambling debts can cause all sorts of personal and financial problems. All too often, racetrack spectators place bets beyond their means. (This doesn’t happen often, but I nearly always returned from the horse racing track with more cash than I had before.) If my chosen horse came in first in his race, I won big. However, when I used to play the horses, I preferred to pick longshots, with high odds. Many horse racing enthusiasts choose to bet on the favorites, those racehorses who seem statistically likely to win. Usually, this data may also be accessible online. Contents may include each horse’s breeding data, pedigrees, past race performance evaluations and more.
Horse racing spectators can select the racehorses on which they wish to bet, based on research, personal preferences and even hunches.Īt the track and off-track betting centers, printed racing forms and other information may be available to help spectators determine how they wish to bet. A racehorse’s odds may change right up until the starting gun goes off, when bets are closed. Basically, this means winning payouts are proportionate to the total amount bet on a given horse race.Įach racehorse is given statistical odds of placing first in the race, and those odds determine the amount of the possible payouts winners might receive. Horse racing wagers are based on a pari-mutuel system.