How to Bet Racing Dudes’ Picks

Looking for the best ways to bet our premium picks? Or perhaps after buying our Premium Products, you’re finding yourself wondering how to use them. Luckily for you, we’ve outlined our keys to successfully betting the Racing Dudes’ picks and increasing your chances of turning a profit.

Start the day with a predetermined bankroll and stick to it.

Like any form of gambling, betting on horse races is a risky proposition. Even the world’s best horseplayers have days where they end up eating their proverbial hats. Before you start betting, carefully calculate how much money you’re willing to wager, then make a pact with yourself that you’ll stick to it. Begin the day hoping to profit but expecting to lose every cent.

Once you figure out your bankroll, plan how you’re going to spend it. We’ll discuss it more later, but it’s smarter to bet more on the races that you feel the most confident about and bet less (or not at all) on the others. Remember, there’s always going to be another race, but if you lose your money too early, then you won’t have the chance to bet it.

Don’t be scared to ride out a cold streak.

While we try our absolute best to make every pick a winning one, sooner or later, every bettor endures a cold streak. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. The good news is that ours don’t usually last long; it’s all a matter of racing luck.

We recently had a day where we couldn’t pick our nose at Tampa Bay Downs. The results were so absurd that we never would’ve predicted them, no matter what handicapping angle we tried. Longshots that had no business winning messed up nearly every race on the card. However, we were red-hot there just a few days before, including a $680 superfecta, so some days just happen to be better (or worse) than others.

Bottom line, if our picks go cold for a day, don’t be afraid to continue playing us. We’ve built our name and our reputation on being open, honest, and producing winning selections over a long period of time.

To see where we’re currently hot, log into your Racing Dudes account. If you don’t have an account yet, you can quickly create a free one.

Don’t bet every race.

It’s tempting to bet every race, especially if you’re at the track, but we don’t recommend it. Profitable horseplayers are like a Kenny Rogers song: they know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. They scour the charts looking for value and wait to push their strongest opinions, but they also know to hold back and just watch a race that they don’t have a strong opinion, or that might not offer value. If you feel like you have to or want to bet every race, make sure to at least bet lower amounts on the races you feel less confident in hitting. 

Sometimes, it’s best to take the money that you would’ve gambled and buy yourself a beer or a cocktail to enjoy during the race that you take off. There is no harm in skipping a race where you are not confident. 

Maximize value whenever possible.

Going off of our last point, it’s okay to wait to bet a race until you feel confident in your chances of turning a profit. This doesn’t mean avoiding a horse with low odds; you can still create value around heavy favorites if you’re smart.

On the Premium Products dashboard, each card highlights the horse who we believe is the most likely winner at that track on that day. Even if this horse goes off at odds of 1/9 (the lowest possible amount), you can maximize the value by singling that horse in multi-race sequences. Longshots are bound to win at some point on the card, so if you single a heavy favorite in one leg of a sequence, then you can afford to go deep elsewhere and hopefully beat a bad favorite. 

The key is to make sure that the bet you place is ultimately going to be worth the payout that you will receive. For example, if you look at the toteboard when ready to wager and see that the horses who we’ve recommended in the exacta or trifecta have gotten pounded at the windows, then don’t make the bet. The payout won’t be worth the risk. 

That can work the opposite way as well, which is where you strike. If we have decent-priced horses involved in the exacta, trifecta, or superfecta, GO FOR IT! That’s when you want to strike. Bet a little to win a lot. 

Track your wagering history.

If you’re more than just a casual bettor, then it might be hard to keep track of your overall wins and losses, but it’s important that you maintain a record of every bet that you’ve made. Not only will it tell you if you’ve turned a profit, but it will also tell you how and where.

The how and where are just as important because you will be able to identify your best (and worst) bet types. When looking at your betting history, were you cashing Pick 3s but blowing your stacks on trifectas? Do you find yourself cursing every time you bet at Saratoga, yet you could paint a wall with all of your winning tickets from Oaklawn Park? Know your strengths, discard your weaknesses, and develop the discipline to keep to both.

Don’t play every single possible bet.

Not all bets are the same; you can check out our article, Betting on Horse Racing 101, for more information. We don’t recommend playing every single possible bet that we suggest for each race. The information is provided so that you know who we like for all wagering types, but it’s ultimately up to you to decide what you feel most comfortable betting.

A large factor in knowing what wagers to make is your bankroll. A player willing to risk $200 a day should probably focus on single-race bets; multi-race exotics can get very expensive and involve higher risks and rewards. 

We list every bet because different customers like to play different types of wagers. If you are new, start out with small amounts and stick to one or two types of wagers. Explore the types of wagers that you like to play. Betting on horse racing is a “long game” investment. If you play too many wagers at a time and miss, it can eat away at your bankroll.

Don’t forget the best bet in racing: THE WIN

We offer several single-race and multi-race exotic wagers for every track, so we have everything that you could want, including Exacta and Trifecta plays and a variety of Pick 3, Pick 4, and Pick 5 combinations. However, the most important thing to remember is to not forget about betting horses to win. It is the simplest bet in racing, and sometimes, it is by far the smartest. 

The two best bets that we’ve ever made were win bets on favorites: American Pharoah and Justify in their respective Kentucky Derby (G1) victories. Why? Because they went off at odds of 5/2 when we felt like their true odds were even-money. That’s TRUE VALUE.

Surprisingly, the same thing happened in the 2020 Florida Derby (G1) with Tiz the Law. The value wasn’t quite as solid (he was 7/5), but we believed that his odds should have been around 3/5. Again, that is true value.

The point to all of this is simple: value is NOT playing horses at big prices. Value is playing horses at odds higher than what they should be. Just remember that betting horses to win can sometimes be your most profitable option.

Time to start betting!

So what are you waiting for? The time is NOW to start betting with the Racing Dudes! Sign up for FREE or existing users can login HERE.