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BETTING ARTISTRY

Where basic betting proficiency has been evident, the transition to betting artistry is possible. Indeed, the successful leap can make a tremendous difference, especially for recreational handicappers.

Needless to say, where incompetent handicapping endures, artistic betting will be meaningless.

Betting artistry depends upon an awareness of advantageous betting situations that arise numerous times a season. Of the opportunities that follow, the top three might occur anytime. When the final two do occur, how handicappers respond tells the tale of the financial tape for the season underway.

1. Backing strong contenders that are overlays, whenever two horses, or three, have roughly comparable chances to win.
If Horse A has a slight edge over Horse B, but A Is 9-5 and B is 5-1, Horse B deserves the wager. It's an incredibly crucial point. The situation develops regularly. Go to the overlay every time.

2. Finding outstanding overlays in exactas.
As low-probability bets, exactas must provide good value, not just fair value. Good value means a minimum 20 percent overlay. Frequently, exactas connecting key horses and contenders provide overlays of 50 to 100 percent. Those combinations represent outstanding overlays.

3. Sensing when a maximum bet is appropriate.
Knowing when to risk a maximum bet is strictly an intuitive skill. It develops only with repetitive prior success. Normally, the prime horse and all the circumstances of the race will be ideal, and the odds will be seductive. Suddenly, as if impulsively, an overwhelming intuition envelops the situation. Yet the intuition has sprung from a rational base having a relentless emotional force. Handicappers feel the moment is ripe for the kill, and the mental sensation is undeniable.

4. During losing runs, reduce the bet-size to a bare-bones minimum.
Practically everyone realizes that handicappers should bet more when winning and less when losing. All handicapping texts unite on the principle. Fixed-percentage betting methods are predicated upon it.

But during losing runs that have become abnormal or extended, handicappers benefit by stretching the principle to the extreme. Bet-size should be reduced to a bare-bones minimum. The objective during losing runs is to minimize losses.

5. Press a winning streak by escalating the bet-size.
Unreproducible windfalls aside, if recreational handicappers intend to make substantial profits at the races during the course of a single season, this is the optimal way. The best of racetrack bettors have learned how to press a winning streak, and do.

Winning streaks develop when sharp handicapping, excellent opportunities, and good fortune coincide, The streaks last for a few days to a few weeks. They occur once or twice a season. The earlier a winning run is sensed, the better. Bet-size should be increased, routinely by 20 to 50 percent of the normal amount, and to the limit occasionally.