Horse Racing: Check the going first. - By: Dazza Walker

As a person that enjoys horse racing and therefore listens in the morning for the radio report on the days conditions, it occured to me that if someone was getting into horse racing for the first time and they listened to a guy on the radio giving out the jargon for the track conditions they would think ' what's he on about?' and 'Why do I need to know that?' Well I am going to tell you why.

Firstly the conditions are known as the GOING.

Horse tracks can be descibed as:-
• Hard
• Firm
• Good to Firm
• Good to Soft
• Soft
• Heavy

This is quite self explanetory and tells the punter what the course is like under foot for the horse running that day.
The reason why you need this is because the going is possibly the most important element you need to know to pick a potential winner.
Some horses will noticably prefer heavier ground and softer going and if there was heavy rain the night before a meeting then you could get high odds on a horse that will fancy the going far better than the so called favorite.
Other horses are speed merchants and like the ground as hard and as quick as possible so without the rain the horse that likes the heavy conditions will warrant its high price and experience and knowledge will tell you to steer clear.
This information is all only as reliable as the information that you are given and that is the job of the clerk of the course. Unfornately, on many occasions this would involve nothing more than poking a stick in the ground and giving a vague diagnosis which, depending where on the course it was down, was open to a lot of criticism and rightfully so. In certain countries and certain meets the measurements are a little more advanced now but can still be duff advice when you think the going suits a horse when it doesn't.

My advice on this situation is to check the whether sites closest to the course and how many millimetres of rain, if any, has fallen and decide on the ground condition yourself.
The last couple of bits of advice on checking out potential bookie busters is to check up, and it will tell you in the programmes, how good the drainage is on a course then you will know, coupled with the forecast, how heavy the ground should be. Secondly, if you wait to last minute and see the horse in the paddock before hand you will tell by its behaviour if it will fancy the race or not. A horse may sweat alot showing that it is over heating and will blow itself out before the run in, or a horse might get spooked where the media attention etc is affecting its behaviour and therefore will might not run its best.

All these thing can have a factor but if you do your homework you can win your fair share and not leave it all to luck.

About the Author

Check out more advice at http://www.your-hobby.co.uk/horseracing and another hobby site at http://www.your-hobby.co.uk/hunting

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