What is Handicapping in Horse Racing?

[Garf79]

Horse Racing is one of the oldest sports heavily associated with betting and if you are in the know then you can make a ton of cash. Being in the know often means you will have contacts either at the stables or the racetrack and if you are lucky enough to have these then you are probably a profitable gambler. But if you are new to the sport and want to think about placing real money bets on races that can sometimes be over in seconds it is probably a good idea to get good knowledge of the basics!

                                    

What does handicap mean in horse racing terms?

Some horse races will be called handicapped races and often you will get very good prices on very good horses in these races. In a handicapped race you will get horses of all different levels competing against each other and if they were to just set out an race the higher level horses would win every time. Horses are split into categories according to height, weight and age and in order to get the different categories of horses racing each other they are handicapped. The handicap comes in the form of added weight, this means that all the horses will run at the same weight or higher rated horses will carry more weight than lower ranked horses thus giving all horses an equal chance to win, in theory. You can watch a video from the BHA (British Horse Authority) below on handicapping:

In the video it explains why horses are handicapped and the ways in which they do this. Understanding these horse racing basics is key to being able to place winning bets. If we all know the basics of horse racing on the forum then we can hopefully pick some winner together 🙂

[AlphaGambler]

So, handicap means adding weight to horses so that horses of different abilities can compete equally with each other

[Garf79]

Yes that is basically it 😄 So when you see a handicap race this you know that some horses are a higher class but will have weight added to them. I will write about horse classes and how they differ soon.

[serjua8]

I was not aware of this information, personally I consider these bets to be among the most complex, but they still leave the highest profits. 

[PupperChan]

Oh, I never knew what it really meant. This is informational!