How to start making money from horse racing

You've decided to have a go at betting on horses. Whether its just for fun and getting the thrill of having a winner once in a while or you seriously want to make money from betting on horses where to start? I've written my own thoughts on this page and I certainly hope these will help you.

1 Discipline: - You will never make money without this. Never ever get emotional about loosing money over the course of a day a week or a month. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever, that means never ever chase losses. No matter what you call it, martingale, grand martingale betting more money on the outcome of the next because your selection lost the last race is the fastest way to loosing everything. You can buy systems that will have catchy sales pitches along the lines of "YOU WIN NO MATTER WHAT THE OUTCOME OF THE RACE IS" BULL*#&$. Whatever name it comes to you as don't do it you will get bitten and you will loose everything. I guarantee by about race eight or nine you will be betting about 10% of your betting bank on the outcome. A 20 horse loosing run is not uncommon, so unless your surname is Ladbrokes or your dads name is William Hill you won't be able to afford to bet for that long to recoup your losses DON'T DO IT, you are a fool if you do. One final word on this I very rarely give back selections for the last race of the day. This is because most people who get emotional about losing money will stake virtually everything on the race favourite trying to recoup what they've lost. If I know this with my limited resources so does the bookmakers and the odds for the last favourite of the day do become, how can I put it, very colourful? Don't fall into this trap.

2 Betting system: - Design a flexible system of your own and stick to it. This can be a little daunting knowing where to start for someone new. I 'll give you an idea of what to look for. The follwing is my own spin on what called the Curtis Rating System. Its been around for donkey's years (no pun intended.) Make sure you paper trade to get used to it before commiting any money.

You can use the System both in the National Hunt or Flat Seasons.

Eliminate the follwing races :- Apprentice, Ladies, National Hunt Flat

Now we have our short list take each race in turn and award points for the last three races

Last race :- win 9 points, 2nd place 6 points, 3rd place 3 points.

Last race but one :- win 6 points, 2nd place 4 points, 3rd place 2 points

Last race but two :- win 3 points, 2nd place 2points, 3rd place 1 point.

This where I have changed the rules slightly. If it is over 4th place in the Racing Post betting forcast no bet. If the selections SP is over 4.50 no bet.

All right it isn’t much of a system but it’s a system and it will find winners. But why does it need to be complicated, simplicity is the key. You'll find lots of tipsters telling you they use computer programs designed for NASA to find horses and if you pay they're subscription fees each month they'll email you each tiime the computer has a system selection. You can also remove other parameters to increase the strike rate as well such as distance, amount of runners, position last time out, when was the last time the horse ran, what’s the jockeys record like, whose the trainer. You can go on until it takes 2 days just to find a system selection. Keep it as simple as possible. While your designing your system you can use some of the free tipsters that are out there for your selections use minimum bets that you feel comfortable with. You'll find some of the links website links page.

3. Discipline (see rule 1)

4. Betting bank: - Get a betting bank it can be as small or as large as you want but make sure you can afford to loose it all because you just may do just that. NEVER BET MONEY YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO LOOSE. This may seem obvious but there are people out there that put this months mortgage money on the first favourite, use a betting bank. A betting bank is a sum of money you keep solely for the purposes of betting. How much to bet on each race is up to you I personally go for 1% of my betting bank this allows me to place at least 100 bets without a winner and I don't think even I could do that. Some people I know use 5% but I don't see myself a prolific gambler. You must work out what you feel comfortable with using for each race.

5 Discipline (see rule 1)

6. Staking Plan: - These can be really complicated or very easy you can also buy staking plans just go to one of the search engines and type "horse racing staking plan" and you'll get more then you could ever wish for. Stick with something the simple to start. The two most simple are level stakes and bank. With level stakes all you do is choose what stakes you want to use and that’s it so if you have a £100.00 betting bank and want to use £1.00 on each race that’s your stake it never goes up or down until you decide to increase or decrease it. The bank staking plan is very similar but gives you a bit of flexibility and its the one I use personally all you do is take a percentage of your betting bank say 1% which on a betting bank of £100.00 is £1.00. But this time goes up or down according to the result of the last race or days racing so if you place a £1.00 bet on a 10/1 shot and it trots in 3 lengths clear your betting bank is now £110.00. The stake for your next race your is £1.10 however if your 10/1 shot lost your betting bank would be £99.00 so the stake for the next race would be 99p get the idea? It’s very simple.

7. Discipline (see rule 1)

8. Recording Results: - This is the most tiresome and one I still struggle with, there are times when you'll just want to forget the results let alone write them down. But it will help a great deal if you can keep track of your bets and the result. Small patterns will emerge and you can fine-tune your system to bring even more winners.

9. Discipline (see rule 1)

10. Patience. You will need this to make it in betting on racehorses, keep the stakes to a minimum and win small amounts. Believe it or not within a few months you will struggle to remeber what your starting bank was all you need is a half-decent selection system, simple staking plan and DISCIPLINE. You won't be able to retire any time soon and sometimes you'll wonder why your system selection came 16th out of a 17 horse race, but that’s horse racing. Finally enjoy your horse racing, its ment to be an enjoyable pastime.