Free Horse Racing Tip: There Is No Such Thing As Inside Information

August 9, 2009
By Profitus Maximus

Here is a free horse racing tip: "Inside Information" is overrated.

Often when a horse goes off significantly lower than its morning line odds, handicappers assume that the insiders know something that the betting public does not – that they have what is sometimes referred to as “inside information “.

The fact of the matter is that there is no secret society of expert handicappers who have extra special insight over the general public that make huge profits from first hand information direct from the owner, trainer, or jockey riding the horse.

Horse race handicapping is the hardest game out there. It is easy to become frustrated and sooner or later come to the conclusion that “somebody knows something”, or “they know something I don’t”. It simply isn’t true that certain people have access to all the inside information all the time.

That is not to say that no one can ever come by a useful free horse racing tip that is invisible to the public through the past performances, but even then it should serve only as a guide or maybe as a tie breaker when trying to decide between two horses that seem close in ability.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine who is close friends with the trainer based at Monmouth Park called me to let me know that they had a horse coming off a layoff that was ready to run big, and that he had matured and gotten stronger, and that he would be at least 6-1 when the betting windows closed. The horse closed at 7-1 and I placed $10 to win on the horse and he ran well, but he came in a second, beaten a couple lengths by the favorite.

It was a good tip in general, and there was likely value in it, but the result goes to show you still have to do your homework and handicap the race. Despite getting information from the probably the best source (direct from the trainer), it wasn’t a sure thing. It was really just one more factor to weigh in against all the other information contained in the past performances.