A Guide to Horse Racing Tips – How to Avoid Dodgy Tipsters

15/12/2016 | Categories: Horse Racing | Published by: Andy Nelson

Updated: 5th December 2022

“Joe Punter,” the average person with a full-time job, who enjoys backing horses as a hobby, simply does not have sufficient time for effective study of horse racing form.

Given that reading up on the form for every runner in a large field may take a matter of hours, it is easy to see why, with 6-8 races per meeting and up to 5 meetings a day in the summer months, many horse racing aficionados try to find a reliable supplier of trustworthy racing tips.

Successful identification of a dependable source of racing tips can cut out much of the “spadework” that detracts from the enjoyment of horse race betting, whilst often improving the strike rate of winners.

A Guide to Horse Racing Tips

Although it would be unfair to tar all vendors of racing tips with the same brush, for the most part, buying horseracing tips is a mug`s game.

Punters need to be very careful when contemplating parting with hard-earned cash in exchange for tips.

The better suppliers of such “premium” tips only expect to be paid for supplying winners, although this might be a certain amount bet on the tipped horse at starting price, so can be quite costly.

Additionally, the better tipsters send their tips to recognised racing papers such as the “Racing Post” or “Racing and Football Outlook” to certify their validity.

So-called “inside” information is a popular scam with dodgy tipsters.

There is little doubt that genuine information from racehorse trainers is very valuable.

Trainers deal with the horses every day and are the best judges of horses` well-being and going / distance preferences.

Despite protestations to the contrary by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), the racing game is as crooked as a dog`s hind leg.

BHA rule 45.3 states,

“A trainer must not send any horse to race with a view to schooling or conditioning the horse, it must always be run to gain the best possible position.”

However, all this means in practice is that trainers need to be a little less blatant when their horses are not trying.

The prospect of being privy to closely-guarded information relating to stable gambles greatly appeals to punters and this is where dishonest vendors can prosper.

Anyone with a working knowledge of the horse racing business can easily manufacture “privileged” information from data freely available in the public domain – it is simply a matter of knowing where to look.

A common strategy that unscrupulous tipsters employ is that of the

“Late news – word just in from the stable” approach.

This method is mind-bendingly simple to operate, yet catches out unwary punters time after time.

All a tipster needs to do is keep a careful eye on the early prices offered by the online layers and on the betting exchanges.

As soon as there is continued support for a particular runner, indicated by a contraction in the odds on offer, the tipster volunteers to sell a tip, on the basis that information has just been received from the owner, trainer or jockey.

Many of these selections do actually win, so maybe I`m being a little harsh in taking the moral high ground, but the underlying principle is dishonest.

Dependable free racing tips take the hard work out of horse race betting and can help improve the number of winners, too.