Top Tips - Horse Racing

Many people are put off enjoying horse racing because they do not understand how the betting system works, but really it could not be simpler to get started.

A small gamble can be a lot of fun and does not have to be taxing. You do not need to learn any funny hand signals or really know anything about racing to join in. You will hear people talking about their `stake`. What this is, is the amount of money you are willing to gamble on the outcome of the race. Most bookies take bets from as little as £2, so if you just want a bit of fun or to be cautious for your first few bets there is no need to risk more than the price of a sandwich on any race.

What you get back from your stake if you are a winner is known as your `returns` and is calculated based upon the odds you got from the bookie when you placed your bets. The odds are usually the trickiest thing for betting novices to get their head around, but are not as complicated as they might first seem. Odds are, in a nutshell, a way of expressing the probability of any one horse winning the race and are sometimes called the `prices`. These prices can be referred to as `odds on`, `evens` or `odds against` and the amount of money you will win from your bet is dictated by these numbers.

Odds against means your horse is not favoured to win and has a predicted less than 50/50 chance of doing so. In this situation if your horse does win, your returns will be your stake plus the value of your stake times the odds against it. As an example, if you bet £10 on a horse valued at 2/1 (two to one) you will get back your £10, plus your stake multiplied by the odds (10 x 2) which is £20, making total returns of £30. Evens, also referred to as `even money`, means your horse is predicted to have a 50/50 chance of winning the race. If your horse is even money, this is equivalent to having odds of 1/1. In the event of the horse winning you would get back your stake plus the exact value of your stake. If the odds are on, this means your horse is predicted to have a better than 50/50 chance of winning the race. In the same way as the odds against your returns will be your stake plus the value of your stake multiplied by the odds.

As an example, a £10 bet on a horse at 1/2 will return the £10 stake plus (£10 x ½) £5 which makes £15. Sometimes you may hear odds being referred to as `long` or `short` odds, which simply means a horse is not expected to win (having long odds like 50/1 or greater) or the horse is very favoured to win the race (having short odds like 2/1). For more racing tips have a look in racing publications or on websites for some insider information.