The favourite looks like the safest bet in Australian horse racing, and across 660 races counted one at a time it lost 25 per cent on turnover — even though the first favourite won 174 of them, more than any other rank on the card.

📘 FREE e-book — "Those Top 6 Favourites": download it free and keep every angle, every strike rate and every return on turnover beside you every race day 👉pp.practicalpunting.com.au/top-6-favourites/

In December 2006 a Practical Punting writer counted every one of those races himself, 7,363 runners in all, rather than take the experts' word for it. Only one of the first six favourites came out in front, and it was neither the favourite nor the roughie.

If you want to know how to win at horse racing through steady, sensible form study — not hype, and not luck — this episode is one man's count of 660 races and what each favourite in the market actually gave back.

What you'll learn:
• Why the horse most likely to win is not the horse worth your money — 174 wins for the first favourite across 660 races, and a 25 per cent loss on turnover to go with them
• The full count down the card: 128 wins for the second favourite, 106 for the third, 70 for the fourth, 65 for the fifth and 31 for the sixth, with strike rates falling in order from 26 per cent to 5
• The only one of the six that finished in front over the whole block — the fifth favourite, at 6 per cent profit on turnover
• What the same 660 races said when they were re-cut four ways: a short first favourite (262 races), fields of ten to twelve runners (269), metropolitan tracks (304) and country tracks (356) — including the one cut where another rank made money as well
• The caution the article ends on, and it is the easiest thing in the piece to miss: place betting was not profitable for any one of the favourites in any one of the angles

This episode is built on an article Mr Money wrote for Practical Punting in December 2006. The tote boards have changed since; the counting has not.

📘 FREE e-book — "Those Top 6 Favourites": download it free and keep every angle, every strike rate and every return on turnover beside you every race day 👉pp.practicalpunting.com.au/top-6-favourites/