Picking winners comes down to what has changed about a horse, and what everyone else has missed. Writing in Practical Punting in January 2004, US professional Barry Meadow and Practical Punting editor Brian Blackwell carried on their conversation about the fundamentals of handicapping: where a horse's class comes from, what might make it run better today, how the track and the draw decide who gets the run, and the hard part, knowing when to bet. This is Part 3 of six.
FREE e-book: The Fundamentals of Handicapping – Part 3
Barry Meadow and Brian Blackwell on where a horse’s class comes from, Barry’s eight questions about improvement, and when to bet and when to stay out.
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What you'll learn:
- Where class comes from — breeding and the sale ring, and why a sire with a $100,000 fee is more likely to produce somebody great than one who stands for $1000
- Barry's eight questions — a new trainer, a longer race, blinkers, a new surface, a gelding, a change of track, a long break, a better jockey, and why the more you rely on that guess, the more price you should demand
- Plotting the race — Brian's three basic questions for every horse, and why Barry says “horses are not numbers”
- Track bias and the big test — where the winners come from at each track, why Brian backs horses drawn wide, and knowing when to bet and when to stay out