One of the most obvious benefits of having a racebook account at Bovada or another online wagering platform is the convenience of being able to bet big races from home or even on your mobile device.
Horse Betting Information Online
Horse racing fans who know where to look can also go online and find a wide range of websites and tools to help when it comes to handicapping, from past performance information to race video analysis and trainer statistics. Since you can never have too much information when it comes to handicapping the races, here's a look at a few resources available online for horse betting.
Equibase Online Horse Statistics
Just as it sounds, Equibase is the premier online database when it comes to North American horse racing for both thoroughbred and Quarter horse racing.
With the Search function on the Equibase.com website, handicappers can look up statistics on trainers and jockeys, for both the current year and all-time, as well as historical information like past winners and record times for Graded Stakes.
The most important function with the Equibase search feature is the ability to look up the full race history of any horse that may be running in an upcoming race. All you do is enter the name of the horse, and Equibase provides the horse's complete racing history, including lifetime record and current year results. By clicking on the Results tab for the horse, you find a full list of every race the horse ran to that point in its career, with track, date, the name of the race, where the horse finished and what its "speed rating" was for the race.
There is also a full chart available of for every race, and clicking on the chart tabs for the horses's past two or three races gives a handicapper a great idea of how the horse has been running in its most recent races - not only where it finished, but the list of every other horse in the race and how they all ran, what the split times were, the postion of each horse at the split times and distance behind the leader, the final odds for all horses and the payouts. There are also "footnotes" that give a brief description of what each horse did in the race.
If the horse you are researching is entered in an upcoming race, you can click on the Entries tab and it will take you to the full lineup for that race, as well as morning line odds, and you can click on each horse in the race and check its past results and charts.
Although it takes a little while to figure out what all the information means, using Equibase information is an invaluable tool for analyzing the form of horses prior to making a bet.
Video Replays and DRF TV
In addition to using Equibase charts, it's always a good idea to watch the actual replays of the horses' past races to see exactly how they ran. This is particularly useful if the charts indicate a horse had trouble in the race - such as having to check at a certain point - and how that affected the outcome of the race.
Most major stakes races can be found with a simple seaarch on Youtube or else quite often at each race track's homepage.
While you need to have a membership to access most of the written material at the Daily Racing Form's online site, there is no such requirement to access their video handicapping information, and it's also a good way to get an overview of particular races.
Another nice feature on DRF TV is their Weekend Wrap segment, where they look back on the the most significant races of the weekend and recap exactly how the races were run and won.
Online Past Performance Information
The Past Performance - detailed information on the "conditions" of a specific upcoming race and the recent past results of every horse in the race - is the most important tool for handicapping. While it's difficult to find free past performance information online (although a Google search for 'free past performance' will provide results, there's usually a catch), major horse racing information sites such as Equibase, DRF and others like Brisnet or Twin Spires all provide low-cost PPs.
The advantage of having the PPs as opposed to just the Equibase charts is that the PPs will give you all the horses' information in post position order, with morning line odds, how the horses have performed at different track distances and racing surfaces - including wet surfaces or turf - all together on one or two pages for every race, so you can go through the list and easily do your handicapping all at once.
The cost of accessing these PPs is negligible, often starting at $1 or $2 for the basic PPs - which is usually all you really need to handicap a race - to more expensive versions that provide things with titles such as Power Picks or Insider Info. If you want this kind of information it will cost more, but the simple fact is a small investment in basic online PPs is a must for anyone wanting to make money betting on horses.
Of course, all of this is just to suggest some guidelines for accessing handcapping information. The most important tool of all for making succesful bets on the races is to bookmark , and check in regularly for our race previews and picks!
See below the top sportsbooks where you can wager online and choose the best one for you:
