Horse Racing Basics

Thank you for choosing Horse Racing Hottie’s School. Here you will find all you need to know in order to be a successful handicapper. We will start with the most basic aspects of the sport and work our way up through the more difficult factors.

Horse racing has often been called the “Sport of Kings.” Dating back to pre-Roman times, man has raced horses for sport for over 2,000 years. And man has been betting on horses for almost as long. In 2008, the sport saw over $115 billion dollars wagered worldwide.

Thoroughbred horse racing is filled with jargon terms that many people unfamiliar with the sport do not understand. Don’t worry; this section will explain all of the terms you need to know. Other concepts will be explained in detail as they become important.

• Win, place, and show: These are the most basic bets you can make. A win bet covers the horse that you think will come in first, a place bet covers first and second place, while a show bet simply means that you think the horse will finish in the top three. The winnings for these bets is displayed in a chart that looks like this:

Horse	Win	Place	Show
A	$5.40	$3.30	$2.10
B		$7.80	$3.90
C			$4.60

• Odds: This refers to the return that betting on a particular horse will give you. For example, if you make a win bet on a 5:1 horse and it comes through for you, your return will be five times your original bet, plus the amount you wagered. The pools for place and show are kept separate from the win pool, but as you noticed above, they pay out a lesser amount because they cover more than one horse.
• Pari-mutuel: This is the type of system that determines final payouts on a given horse. The pari-mutuel system revolves proportionally around how the public is betting. This creates an interesting opportunity if the public’s opinion is wrong, a possibility this site will teach you to take advantage of.
• Exotics: An exotic bet entails any bet that includes more than one horse. This can be multiple horses in a single race, or a parlay that involves picking the winner of two or more races.
• Class: A horse’s class is the quality of the other horses he is running with. For example, a horse who has not won its first race yet, called a maiden race, is not in the same class as a graded stakes winning horse.
• Purse: The purse is the prize money up for grabs in the race.

These terms should get you started in the right direction. Now that you have a concept of the basics of the sport, you can advance to our Kindergarten level class. As you work your way up through the grades, the concepts will become more advanced, until finally, you graduate. There are college level classes included in Horse Racing Hottie’s School that are available for a small tuition, if you wish to seek higher learning.