Everything You Need to Know When Handicapping Pace in Horse Betting

Horse races are some of the best events to bet on. It has a lot of races annually, which will allow you to continue placing bets all year long.

One of the biggest annual events for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses is the Triple Crown series, which includes the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.

Aside from that, the horse racing events themselves are a lot more fun for bettors because of the opportunities it offers to them, like the pace handicapping.

Pace handicapping can be a complicated element of horse racing events. However, it’s an equally beneficial and enjoyable part of horse racing events that you need to be aware of.

To help you, here are the essential things you need to know about handicapping and why bettors handicap the pace.

Why Bettors Need Pace Handicapping

Pace handicapping allows different horses to have an equal chance of winning against each other by allocating different weights to the runners.

Handicappers will analyze each horse’s speed figures and rate them. The higher the horse’s handicapping rate is, the heavier the weight they have to carry.

Handicappers will usually base the handicaps on the horse’s previous performances. So, the horse with the fastest record will carry the most weight. The horses will start at different points in other settings, like in trotting. Therefore, the least fast horse will be in front of the line, which means the fastest horse will have to run farther than the others.

When participating in horse racing events as a bettor, take note of the handicap horse racing participants. Pace handicapping will help the bettors know which horses are more likely to go early and which would stay fast late. The handicap can significantly affect how the race will unfold.

Types of Pace Styles in Horse Racing

In horse racing events, you should know that there are different pace styles. As mentioned, it’s a well-known fact that a horse’s record can help forecast its performance in its future and current races. T

hus, handicapping is usually a bettor’s technique to deduce possible early finishers. Nonetheless, handicappers usually utilize four pace styles to describe the situation in the field.

E (Early). An E horse is the type of horse that jumps out of the gate and quickly reaches its top speed right from the start. They also tend to slow down in the stretch. E horses are also usually called pace-setters and if there are a lot of them, what happens is that they’ll try to outrun each other, which can exhaust their energy.

E/P (Early Presser). The EP horse is the one that’s usually in second or third during the early seconds and is trying to run over the leader.

P (Presser). The P horse describes the runner who runs in the mid-pack. They sometimes run close to the lead, but it rarely happens. Though, if it happens, they challenge for the lead during the opening.

S (Sustain). On the other hand, S horses stay in the back of the pack. They usually start slow and come strong during the closing run. In some countries or events, S horses are also described as the closer.

How To Spot A Pace Style

If you’re a new bettor, you can utilize handicapping to your advantage. One way to do that is to be more familiar with the pace styles of different racehorses.

So, the first thing that could help you is looking at the horse’s past performances and running lines. Nothing else could help you so much except extensive research and collected records.

To those unfamiliar with running lines, it’s the progression of their place compared to other horses during the race. It’ll present you where the horse was and their status at every call of the race—for example, the distance in lengths from the front.

If the horse is usually at first or close to first in most of their running lines, that means they’re an early-speed horse.

However, if you’ve observed that they’re usually in third, fourth, fifth, or around two to three lengths from the leading runner, they’re called pressers. They don’t necessarily need to take the lead, but they can readily strike from their distance.

On the other hand, if they’re running more than three lengths from the leader, they’re called stalkers. As mentioned, they might’ve got a slow start, but they usually power up when the race is about to close.

Depending on your betting strategy or intuition, you can try placing a bet on stalkers because the odds are usually better for them.

Final Thoughts

Pace handicapping can be complicated at first glance. However, once you’ve discovered how beneficial they are for the bettors, you’ll discover the fun ways to enjoy every horse racing event.

So, if you’re still unsure whether to participate in a pace handicapping, you can weigh the benefits and disadvantages on your part.