New to racing – learning how to study form help?

[urbanhermit]

Steeplechasing wrote:

How long did it take you to learn to read races? I know you’ll still bel earning to some extent (we all are) but I’m particularly interested in how you progressed in understanding which horses travelled well, which looked under pressure, which were keen, how their action was on different ground etc.

Mainly I’m trying to grasp how long it would take a newcomer to read a race when the obvious visual clues are not there. By this I mean that an experienced race-reader would know a horse that is under pressure before the jockey resorted to vigorous action. The reader would also spot when a horse is travelling well even though to the less experienced eye it appeared to be going no differently to many of its rivals. Again, a horse who is obviously keen but its enthusiasm is being disguised perhaps by a jockey with particularly good hands or by the fact that it hasn’t yet began pulling but is definitely the type.

Hi Joe

Good to hear from you as well.

In terms of the race reading I do when applied to trading, it’s two-fold:

For any trading before the off, I simply trade the numbers on the screen.

For any in running trading i.e. when the race is taking place, I’ve given up using live pictures – case in point the delay on the Betfair Live video earlier was 30 seconds and on a 6f race, the race is over halfway through before the pictures so it’s started. So, again, I tend to look at the money coming in i.e. if lots of backing money appears than I know the horse is travelling well.

I should stress that I’m still very much a novice.

THat all being said, what I’ve found really helpful is to read the ProForm race guides that give an indication of how the race may be run i.e. X horse is a front runner, Y horse is prominent and Z is held up.

I then go over to the Racing Post and look at the notes from previous runs and then watch replays of the race so I can match those notes to what I’m seeing on screen ie:

“Led for 3f, travelled well, pulled up 3f out”

What I am finding is that when I watch the Racing on ITV or At The Races on my television, I can sometimes see when a horse is out of stamina but again, I reckon I need to watch another 10,000 races before I consider myself an expert.

It’s interesting you talk about race reading as nowadays a lot of in running traders will actually trade from the course due to the 2 – 3 second advantage they have over ‘live’ pictures. But I read a post by an experienced racing trader (and racing fan) who said that it’s amazing how many of these guys at the track have no idea of how to read a race i.e. the horse comes under pressure and they lay it immediately only to keel over as the horse goes on to win

I think the highlight for me so far was watching Arrowgate winning the Dubai World Cup – a sensational ride.

Best wishes,

Chris

[Steeplechasing]

Thanks, Chris. Good luck to you.

Joe

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