@blinkersoff420
February 24, 2021
Dark Day Thoughts
Back in 2014 my mind would wander during the summer when Saratoga was dark (non-race day). At the time it was only one day per week, Tuesday. To me though it was an eternity and a dreaded day each week. Now dark days from the two tracks I mainly bet can be looked at as opportunity. Not only to prepare accordingly for the upcoming race days at Santa Anita and Gulfstream but to do some side work to make myself a better handicapper.
Figuring out what you are good at is something simple and owed to yourself to do as a handicapper. After ignoring this for years it finally hit me to look up my bets and to dive into the data. Acceptance is key, the data will be there for you to think about and if you accept it as well adapt you might see more coin heading your way. 1. Go to your AWD or if you play at an OTB get the paper out and write your bets down. Lots of leg work doing it that way but still worth it. 2. Usually, you can pull up 30 days or X number of days per time and export the data into an Excel sheet. 3. Apply filters to data, if you are unsure how to do so you can hit up YouTube, tons of easy videos to guide you. 4. Explore the data, filter out tracks, certain bet types and get yourself familiar with what you have been betting. 5. Make charts, break it down by bet type for example. Make the data visually easy to see so you can pound it in your head to either play more or avoid.
Above are a few ways to approach breaking down data to figure out what you are good at betting. A new tracker I am going to start recording on my own this week is bets and what surface they are raced on. Feel free to tweet at me with other ideas or suggestions to improve all of our handicapping skills. @blinkersoff420 and @inthemoneymedia for your horse racing content.
Thanks Peter. Enjoyed your thoughts. I tracked my bets for a couple of years. Showed small profits each year. One year it was in triples. Another year it was exacta’s. The one constant was that I was always around even in WP betting which made it possible for me to avoid long losing streaks. I am not betting to make a living so this style works for me.
Just a point of clarification- I merely posted that piece for @blinkersoff420. But thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Aaron, it is Mike here (@blinkersoff420). You summed up perfectly what my intentions were from the article.
Nice work and keep betting the way you need to bet so your personal goals as a horse player can be achieved. My personal discovery from pulling all of my 2020 bets is to avoid pools where I literally made no money, as simple as that really. As well, evaluating place bets to make sure they are worthy and weighing out the win / place bet accordingly. I see a lot of folk bet 50 win / 50 place, but why? If your horse is 10-1 you want to max out a win price the best you can. So 70 / 30 would be more favorable to support your opinion , while still making profit on the place price if your horse runs just short.
Thanks again for the feedback and for the read.
Mike (@blinkersoff420)