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SWOT Your Way to Profits at the Track

 

By Ray Wallin

If you are involved with a business or business strategy you have likely been part of or heard about SWOT analysis. For those of you that are not familiar with a SWOT analysis, it is an evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to an organization. Yet we can look at SWOT from a horse racing perspective to help you improve your handicapping.

Businesses use SWOT analysis to evaluate new products, services and markets when looking at the best way to achieve growth. It is a useful tool to understand your organizations current situation. By applying these simple concepts to your handicapping, you will maximize the value of each dollar wagered by avoiding riskier and ill-advised

Horse racing betting slip.

When I set out to revamp my handicapping approach in the late 1990’s, I knew that one part of my game had always been consistent. I was good at establishing the probable pace scenarios of a race. I had been having success with picking a high percentage of winners and doing OK with exactas and limited trifectas.

Based on my ability to consistently pick winners, I saw that there was an opportunity for me to start focusing more on horizontal wagers or playing multi-race wagers such as the double, pick three, or pick four. As I started to track my performance on these multi-race wagers, I found out I was outperforming the exactas and trifectas by a large margin. This opened up a new avenue for me to bet. While I would still play my top contenders to win, I could use the outcomes of my probable pace scenarios to cover multiple outcomes in the same race. By using more contenders per race, I could string winners in more consecutive races than I could find horses that finished in second place.

By taking your strengths and applying it to a new market or wagering type you can maximize the performance of your handicapping.

Threats

The last part of the analysis you need to consider is what could cause you to lose your edge or stop you from performing at high level.

My late Uncle Dutch was ahead of his time when he spent his days at Monmouth Park. The Racing Form didn’t include the trainer and jockey stats or pedigree information they do now. Dutch kept a black and white marble composition pad with him that included his own trip notes and stats on everything you see now in print. He’d track how jockeys performed at different distances, over different surfaces, and for various trainers. He’d track the trainer’s performance by class, distances, and under a variety of conditions such number of starts off of a layoff or off a claim. He would find the predictable methods of the horsemen that helped them race a horse into shape.

As the past performances evolved to start showing more information, Dutch lost his edge. The information that he had accumulated was now made publicly available. This was a threat to his success that he never considered. While it was still valuable information horses were bet down and his profit margin shrunk.

The key to threats is evolving your approach and trying to stay one step ahead of the crowd.

When you step back and look at SWOT analysis, you can see how powerful it is for such a simple strategy. By leveraging your handicapping strengths, improving your weaknesses, minimizing threats, and taking advantage of opportunities, you will be fast on your way to fulfilling your dream of making your living playing the races.

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