Win. Place. Show.

Thursday Strategy Session

Playing WIN, PLACE, SHOW.

Casual horse players or novices are apt to go to the window and place a wager on the horse they like telling the clerk, "across the board".

Is that the smart way to wager?  We prefer to ladder that wager by placing $2 to WIN, $3 PLACE, and $5 to SHOW. The objective here is to protect your front end wager, the WIN, and subsequently cash to break even or come away with a small profit. Essentially you want to preserve your wagering working capital.

Of course sometimes your well though-out selection gets pounded at the window and drops to much lower odds than what you had hoped. This W/P/S strategy helps maintain your bankroll without significant losses.

We use this strategy for our Stakes Saturday selections. Usually the stakes races we look at have larger fields and most times involve larger betting handle. This helps boost payoffs on the various selections that finish in the money. 

For the Stakes Saturday race we usually pick three horse and ladder our W/P/S wagers accordingly. This is an effort to cash on all three of our selections wagering W/P/S on our first pick, P/S on our second pick, and S on our third pick. With sound selections, year over year this strategy has worked reasonably well.

It should be mentioned, however, this year we are not meeting expectations. We started out the year with minor profits and have begun to fade over the last three Stakes Saturdays. Thus far this year we have invested a total of $68.00 and have cashed for a total of $53.80 for a net loss of ($14.20). As the year moves on we hope to have dramatic improvement.

Casual, novice, or journeymen handicappers should consider this strategy to maintain bankroll and shoot for a nice profit.

To Box or Not to Box

Thursday Strategy Session

To Box or Not to Box. That is the question....

No we are not talking about the Canadian or British celebration of boxing day. We are looking at how we can put together our preferred ticket, the 10 CENT Superfecta Box.

Many of the professional handicappers are quick to pooh-pooh the 10 CENT Superfecta Box wager, reasoning that the bettor is giving equal weight to all wagering interests on their box ticket.

Yes that is true, but much of the time it is the play to make. There are several scenarios to consider when putting together your 10 CENT Superfecta ticket and boxing is the proper play.

1)  Favorites are Tepid.
We see this often where the favorites fail to win or even hit the board. If you lay out a superfecta ticket with the fav on top, you will take a bad beat. It is best to cobble together a 10 CENT Superfecta Box ticket that might include the fav.

2)  Field Parity.
Sometimes you look at the past performances and scratch your head. There is very little difference is the speed figs and they all have the same basic works. What to do? If it is a good sized field why not stitch together a nice 10 CENT Superfect Box ticket.

3)  Maiden Races.
Whether you are looking at a Maiden Special Weight or a Maiden Claiming race. Time to consider boxing your 10 CENT Superfecta. Many times these races have nice sized payoffs. Should they have one or more well intended first time starters it might be a better move to box the race.

4)  Bottom Level Claimers.
If the race comes up with a field of eight or more this could be a box candidate. Many times these races are good for a bankroll builder. With a nice payout potential of between 25 and 50 USD, these are very interesting races to look at, particularly with no clear favorite.

5)  Surface Variability.
You handicap the card a day or two in advance and then the weather changes. Surface conditions move from fast to good, sloppy or muddy or for us TURF players, it goes off the Turf. Races that maintain solid field numbers are worth a look for a 10 CENT Superfecta Box ticket.

6)  Pace Set-Up.
There could be a lone speed horse that is not the favorite, but might don the ski mask and steal the race on the front-end. Best to consider boxing your 10 CENT Superfecta ticket. Alternatively, perhaps there is a plethora of speed in the race and has the potential flame out on the front end. Such a race could be a nice 10 CENT Superfecta play.

7)  Hedge.
Yes. You have the race beautifully handicapped with the winner keyed in your 10 CENT Superfecta play and all of your other selections fall nicely into place on your ticket. Consider boxing a ticket as a hedge. How many times has the favorite failed to perform and your fourth pick strides to victory. Why not use a 10 CENT Superfecta Box as a hedge to your beautifully crafted superfecta ticket? It could be worth the $2.40 you place.

As you can see not all races should be set-up with a segmented 10 CENT Superfecta play. The 10 CENT Superfecta Box play could be your ticket to a nice bankroll building situation or a nice game changing payout.

Best of luck with all your wagers, however you set them up.