beginners guide to horse racing

Beginners Horse Racing Tips

Horse racing is an exciting sport. Now, you no longer need to travel to a track, or park, place a bet on the racebook, and squint your eyes to see the runners cross the line. You can bet on the ponies online and also find betting horse racing tips for beginners, as well as advice from horse wagering experts.

This beginner’s horse racing guide will enhance your chances of winning by teaching you accurate information.

It is easy to begin on fixes after knowing just a few fundamental components, so let’s take a look at how to check on the horse racing guide:

Betting Horse Racing Tools for Beginners

Racing Program


The first thing you will want to get acquainted with is the variety of different betting tools, with the most important being the racing program. This program has all the important information about racehorses, jockeys, trainers, owners, and Morning Line.  This will allow you to see each race on the day, details about the race, and the post positions and names of runners.  The program will also give you information such as the horse’s color, gender, age, pedigree, any race day medication, and morning line odds.

Daily Racing Form 

The Daily Racing Form or “Form”  allows you to study an entrant’s previous performances which is a summary of a horse’s last ten races including the type of races the horse has been running and against whom he has been racing.  It also will have stats about the horse and trainer such as record on turf or dirt and money won.  Certain horses do better on grass, dirt, or wet surfaces and trainers may be better at training turf horses to go long rather than young horses on the dirt.  

There are many things to look for in the racing form but the main goal is to establish how a race will be run and which horse will get the trip (race) that will allow it to win.  Common things to look for are whether there is only one horse who likes to be out front which is good for that horse or whether many horses will try for the lead which usually means a horse will chase down the tiring front runners. 

Making a Pick

Now that you have chosen a race and looked over the program and examined the Form, you need to know how to read the odds.  There are two different types of wagering when it comes to horse racing.  Pari-Mutual or Fixed Odds

In Pari-Mutual wagering, the odds will fluctuate based on the amount of money wagered on a particular horse Basically the bettors are competing against each other and the winner will get paid by the losers.  The other type is Fixed Odds wagering where a player will make a wager at a set or fixed price and that is the price that will be paid should the horse win. 

The Program will list a Morning Line which is an estimate of the odds that the horse will go off at but the Tote board will give you the current odds of a horse.  Keep in mind that the odds are only an estimate and the final odds will be determined once all wagers have been placed.  Wagering ends when the gate opens and the horses have started the race.  

Horse 1                    15/1+1500                      $1 wagered will return a $15 profit 
Horse 2                      3/1+300                         $1 wagered will return a $3 profit
Horse 3                       1+100                     $1 wagered will return a $1 Profit
Horse 4                     1/5-500                      $1 wagered will produce a 20cent profit
Horse 5                      3/2+150                     $1 wagered will produce a $1.50 profit

A lower number means the horse is more favored to win, which also means there is a smaller payout. In contrast, a higher number means the payout will be larger. In this example, Horse 4 is the favorite at -500, and Horse 1 is the long shot at +1500.

This is important whenever placing a pick since you don’t always want to choose on favorite. Constantly choosing one favorite drastically reduces your potential winnings, which is why it is crucial to study a program. The program allows you to see deeper than just the picks, meaning you might choose a horse based on other criteria, such as track preference or jockey.

Horse Race Types

  1. Maiden Race — Horses that have never won a race
  2. Claiming race — all horses can be bought for their claiming (purchase price).  The idea is that horses of equal value are of equal talent.  Claiming races can be for horses that have never won such as Maiden Claiming or can be for experienced horses that have run for years.
  3. Allowance races — these are races where the horses can not be purchased but they try and make a sure horses of equal skill compete such as “Horse that have not won a race in the past 6 months” or “horses that have never won a race other than Maiden”
  4. Stakes races — These races allow an owner to put up a stake (entry fee) and compete for larger prizes.

Beginners Horse Racing Tips Video

Enhance your Horse Wagering Action with Horse Racing Tote betting horse racing tipsters guide for Beginners, Intermediate Guide to Horse Racing, and Experts Horse Racing Tips. Also check our Horse Racing Glossary!

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