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Originally Posted by miraja2
If I am going to play a card, I do the majority of my work the night before. I probably spend an average of about 20 minutes per race.
I use this time to go over the PPs, charts etc. and I figure out what horses are absolute tosses, and I scribble a few notes on the horses that MIGHT be playable the next day.
However, I NEVER determine my actual bets the night before. When I get to the track, I obviously have the work I did the night before with me, but I wait to determine my actual wagers until I know some of the following:
1) Are there important scratches in the race that will affect the probable pace scenario?
2) Is there a track bias?
3) Is it raining?
Etc.
These are things you can't know for sure until you are at the races. If you have determined your bets the night before, you are not taking these very important factors into account.
I hope this helps.
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This is very similar to what I do, except that I probably make more notes (I'm the nerdy guy at the track with the legal pad). Also, I write down
tentative bets, though these often change as conditions or odds change. I do more prep for certain types of races, like maiden races, where I check breeding. For some races, I do a more in-depth early speed analysis, checking the on-the-lead win percentages of the riders and trainers as well as checking the horses' running styles (especially if there's been a claim or a rider switch). And I maintain a "horses to watch" list. I used to keep a list of all claims at the track I'm folllowing to see if I could spot patterns (like if a certain "good" trainer often wins after making a claim from a certain "bad" trainer), but now I rely mostly on memory for that. Takes me about 30 to 45 minutes per race. I do all my handicapping the day before. If I plan to go to the track on a Saturday, I'll take that Friday off from work to handicap.
If I wrote this anywhere else, people would just think I was obsessive-compulsive.