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ABOUT US: Meet the Horsemen We are two friends that share the same passion - horse racing. There is nothing like the thrill of hitting a good exacta or trifecta. Nothing else comes close. You can bet on other sports - football, basketball, etc, but these can either go one of two ways. Imagine the thrill of having a $2500.00 trifecta on a $2.00 bet! But its not easy when you are looking at a field of ten or more horses, all working and striving to hit the same goal: the winner's circle. This is what makes horse racing the toughest of all sports to handicap. Hello, my name is Matt, one half of the Horsemen team. My partner Rich and I have been handicapping horses privately for years, with a lot of success in spotting overlays (A horse going off at higher odds than it appears to warrant based on its past performances). We live in Upstate NY, in the "shadow" of the Saratoga Race Course. Online-Horsemen is a new site, we have only been up and running since June of 2003. We have, and will continue to work hard to earn your respect by being straight forward with our selections. E-MAIL US AT: **************** We concentrate on New York tracks, and only handicap the weekend races, as this gives us time to properly handicap the races. This simply means more winners for you. Too many other sites offer a dozen or more tracks. Ever wonder how they do it? Its all done by a computer program, and your money is relying on the information put into the program. (And as the saying goes: "garbage in, garbage out.") When you sign up with us, you WILL NOT be receiving picks spit out by a computer program, which are fallible in comparison to any real handicapper's picks, as they're just numbers randomly spit out by microprocessors, not the quality picks and analysis you get from us, the Horsemen.
BETTING EXACTA'S AND TRIFECTA'S STRATEGY by Matt A lot of handicappers believe the best way to play exotics, exacta's or tri's is to box a combination of horses. And I agree, as long as the horses you are boxing are at odds of 5-1 or more, due to the cost of the bet against the possible return. Example: the cost of boxing 3 horses for a $2.00 exacta box would be $12.00. Most of the time I prefer to play exotics the following two ways: the "exacta key" this bet allows you to "key" one horse to finish 1st with one or more to finish 2nd. Example: $2.00 Exacta Key #5 with / #6, #7, #8 the cost of this bet is $6.00 but the "key" horse (the 5) must win with one of the other three finishing 2nd. Another bet is the Exacta Wheel bet, Example: #5 and #6 with / #7, #8, #9 this bet would cost $12.00 on a $2.00 bet and would win if the 5 or 6 won, with any of the bottom three running second. A lot of experienced players will also play what is called a "saver" bet to back up their main bet in case the main bet loses. The idea is that the "saver" bet will cover some, if not all of the cost of the main bet. When playing exotics, this is normally done by playing one or even two horses to either win or place. I basically stick to the same strategy for the tri-fecta's as well. I have seen sites that have suggested tri plays by boxing 5 horses! Talk about putting yourself in a hole quick! Here is nice tool for calculating the costs of exotic bets.
WORK OUTS by Matt 9-24 -03 One thing to remember is that these horses are athletes and like all athletes condition themselves so that they are able to compete at the best of their abilities. This is the job of the trainer, to have work-outs, to get the horse in condition to compete in the race. This also gives handicappers a good idea of the condition of a horse. Generally, I like to see a string of good works prior to a race. Even better if the works are kept on a strict schedule, say every 6-7 days, with the same number of days rest before the race. I do not like to see a horse with a workout 3-4 days before the race, whatever the distance. This is not enough time off for the horse to recover from the work. A good example of this rule was this past weekend at Belmont. On Sept. 20 at Belmont, there was a total of 11 horses on the card with a workout on Sept. 17th. Only 3 were able to "get in the money" and only at 3rd, or show. 2 other horses had works on the 18th, one also placed 3rd, while the other 9th. On Sunday Sept 21 there were 22 horses that had works either 3 or 4 days prior. This group did slightly better with 4 winners and 5 finishing 3rd. This should not be used as a way to quickly eliminate a horse from consideration, but to help you to keep an eye out for this, and to be aware of the possible outcome.
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ONLINE - HORSEMEN
