I kinda figured that out after Barb and Charlie commented. I think for me the short answer is, for the time being anyway and seeing as I'm new to handicapping, if I've never heard of the track, I'll consider it minor. Pimlico I know; Fairplex, not so much.

In the short time I've been handicapping I've had zero success at the "minor" tracks.

The races I've played where I've had success have all been at Santa Anita and zipola at Mountaineer and Penn National. It hasn't been costly, only $2,00 bets, but I think trying to handicap 6 year old Maiden $4,000 Claimers is not a challenge I'm up to as of yet. Baby steps are still in order. I chalk this up as a learning experience and that I need to be more selective of which races I choose to handicap.

The races I played tonight were at Penn National. I think the results were the oddest I've seen in my short handicapping career.
- Race 1 the winner paid 35.20 (16/1) Favorite ran third
- Race 3 the winner paid 22.60 (10/1) Favorite ran sixth
- Race 4 the winner paid 13.20 (6/1) Favorite ran seventh
- Race 7 the winner paid 92.20 (45/1) Favorite ran second
- Race 8 the winner paid 14.60 (6/1) Favorite ran second

My horses are all still running. I swear one of my horses even stopped to have a cigarette!!

Hi Bill


If Santa Anita is the place you've had succes at, then i'd say stay on that circuit for your apprenticeship as doing well helps build confidence. Once your doing ok, you can then maybe start looking around for more betting opportunities at other tracks which offer similar racing to Socal


Think of yourself as being a little toddler again. First you had to learn to crawl, then walk, then run.

Thanks Charlie. Sticking with a known devil is good advice.

I find it disturbing to think of myself as a toddler. Yow!! A wrinkled, bald, and ugly toddler, ugh. Come to think of it I do look like a very ugly baby.

Bill

Dont knock MTR or PEN..i know a few guys here that relish it.;)
But thats someting for later

mike

I'll echo Mike on that. I regularly play both MNR and PEN.

Barb
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My favorite tracks are the lower class tracks as I feel that they are where you can find good longshots. i.e. pen, ded, evd, ct. My favorite track is lone star - I'm only 15 minites away but seems like a lot favs win.

I think that the advise in the previous posts are very good advice. However the best advice that I could give is get very good at picking pace lines, learn wagercapping and don't be afraid to pass, pass, pass if there is no value.

Oh, and practice, practice, practice.

Welcome to the site and good luck.

Bud

If someone has been successful at PEN these last two nights I tip my hat to you. I just got eaten alive.

I agree, not the last 2 nights. After a couple I skipped to CT. Did pretty good there this week. But I do look at PEN . You can get a good turn sometimes for 2 or 3 days. I usually look for the first three or four races and then make up my mind whether not I'm going to play the rest of them.

Keep doing what you are doing Bill. I'm pretty new to this myself. I'd never even seen a race or knew anything about racing and handicapping until two and a half years ago. I've been told this is a distinct advantage because you don't have any old habits to get rid of.

Of course it helps that I have Ted as a son and mentor, and Richie P also as a mentor. But these guys on this site are all so helpful. They will guide you along anyway they can. all you hae to do is ask, as you have been doing.

Have a happy Easter

Barb

I just happened to come across and article on the DRF site that said last year at Lone Star "there were 261 winning favorites over the 616 races run, for a 42 percent strike rate" (win rate), a phenomenally high percentage of winning favorites!

On average about 33% of all races are won by favorites and another 25% are won by second choices. The majority of second choices pay less than 5/2. For those looking for value, this only leaves 42% of all races with which to find a winner with value.

If the second choices at Lone Star won anywhere near that average, there was VERY LITTLE room for those looking for value. Of course, those stats could completely turn around this year.