Thoroughbred Horserace Betting and my Experiences
One of the most challenging things I ever did was make money betting on thoroughbred horseracing. Actually it was on thoroughbred horserace betting and I did well. That means I made good money betting. It is, however, a very challenging task to keep up with winning strategies. During the many years of research I used the largest, most powerful Mainframe computers and PCs, to see if any horse selection systems could make money consistently and did research for over 25 years. That included working with a partner the last 5 years of that testing commercially available computer programs for selecting horses.
In spite of their sometimes high cost, especially the computer programs, none of the many programs we tested made a profit on their own, or enough of a profit to say you could make money with them. There were a very few, however, that could make money if a GOOD Handicapper used them and selectively made bets from the programs picks. Even the artificial intelligence programs we tested didn’t show a profit. I was hoping they would, but was very disappointed. All those systems tested advertised good to exceptional profits. Don’t believe such advertisements!
A lot of my later research on thoroughbred horserace betting comprised creating databases of past races, reading dozens of books on betting/gambling/horseracing, some by professional betters, and going to the tracks in Southern California for many years. Lots of experience and research were part of being able to win consistently. Being a computer programmer definitely had its advantages in finding out if any published system worked or not. Most did not. Even using artificial intelligence programs didn’t beat the races – unless you were an expert handicapper and knew money management and could modify them to make them produce a winning advantage.
Sometimes I would fly to Las Vegas (1 hr. flight) and make a bunch of bets at several different tracks, fly back home and collect my profits a few days later when the casinos mailed me my winnings. It is definitely possible to make a very good living betting on horses, but it takes consistent learning to keep on the cutting edge of what’s working as far as profiting from betting. I created 7 different racing systems for thoroughbred betting, but never sold them due to the death of my brother who was working with me on the project back when the internet was new. One day I may revisit them, update them, if necessary and sell them. That’s a big maybe, however.