Free past performances can help you lower the cost of playing the ponies and that is important if you are serious about making money. Let's face it, it's nearly impossible to make a profit betting on horses because of the amount of money the track takes out of the pools. It's called the vig, or vigorish, and it makes the game so tough, many give up.
Whether you actually attend a race track or play from an OTB or use an ADW, you will incur certain expenses that you have to add to the cost of making a bet. Let's say that you make a simple win wager for $100. If the takeout and breakage amount to 20% at your favorite track, then you are losing $20 right off the top. Now factor in the transportation cost to get to the OTB or track along with parking, admission, food or drinks (if you stay there long enough you'll get hungry and thirsty).
If you had to pay these expenses to work at a job, you'd take them out of your paycheck, wouldn't you? Well it's the same with playing the races. If something is unavoidable and you must pay it, then it comes out of your profit or adds to your losses.
Now ask yourself this, would I be better off going to a casino and taking advantage of their comp program? The comp program keeps track of how much you spend and rewards you with free meals and other perks, sometimes including free rooms or even purchases from the gift shop. Have you seen anything like that at the horse races?
Casino gamblers who gamble for profit and not just for fun factor in the freebies such as meals and deduct them from their cost of doing business. Getting a free program and past performances saves you money that you would have to spend. It is also money that most of the other players will spend so you are already starting out ahead of the game.
Smart horse players know that every nickel counts because they work on such a small margin, so they take advantage of the free past performances that that the trainers and stables offer. You may ask yourself, why do trainers and stables offer free programs? You will find that the actual races they offer have one or more of their runners. It is a way of promoting themselves and their horses. They consider it good publicity and good for the game of horseracing. We couldn’t agree more.
