HORSE RACING TIPS

Reading horse racing form is a lot easier than you think. The numbers 1-9 tell you where the horse finished in a race, while '0' means it finished outside the first nine. P or PU means the horse was pulled up by the jockey and didn’t finish, while 'F' means the horse fell. The symbol '–' separates racing seasons.

This depends completely on each punter. The most profitable bet is often a single win bet. This means backing one horse to win a race. If it doesn’t win, you will lose your stake. A safer option is to back a horse each way. This doubles your stake - but you will still receive a partial payout even if your horse only places. You can also have a bet with multiple legs, such as an accumulator, yankee, or lucky 15.

Researching horse racing can be very complex. It involves taking things like form, weight, weather conditions, distance, the competition and bookmakers’ odds into consideration. There are countless other factors, along with gut instinct, that tipsters take into account when picking a horse.

There are a number of abbreviations and symbols you need to know when trying to understand horse racing form. The numbers beside each horse indicates where it finished in recent races. Some important letters to understand are; ‘F’ means the horse fell, ‘R’ indicates it refused, ‘BD’ tells us it was brought down by another horse and ‘U’ means it unseated its jockey.

Predicting horse racing winners is not an exact science. If it was, every favourite would win. The horse’s current form, fitness, experience at the required distance and other horses running in the race all have to be considered when trying to predict which horse will win a race.