posted September 3, 2008 at 16:45 in Horse Racing Betting Trends
Belmont Park Horse Betting Preview
Saratoga is still fresh in the minds of online racebook fans, but New York doesn’t care! Belmont Park will open their doors this Friday, September 5th. The two biggest races on the card this weekend will be the Grade I Ruffian and the Grade I Garden City Stakes. Both will be run on September 6th.
The reason that the Belmont Park Fall Meet is so important to online horse betting fans is that it’s the last chance for a lot of us to make profits on horse bets before the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championship this October 24th and 25th at Santa Anita.
For online racebook fans, making enough money to attack the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships the right way is an absolute must. No other day during the horse racing calendar, which is practically 365 days a year, will provide larger pools and higher pay-outs than the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships.
Hopefully, the information that I provide below will help online racebook fans as they enter the Belmont Park Fall Meet looking to make some nice online betting scores!
Let’s get to it!
2008 Belmont Park Fall Meet Preview
The first thing that online racebook fans must recognize that the Belmont Park dirt racing strip is, well, dirt. It’s not artificial. That means that fast dirt horses that can get an easy lead can carry their speed around the Belmont oval to a victory almost every time. The dirt surface isn’t as fast Monmouth’s but it’s plenty fast enough for a horse loose on the lead to wire a field. Always look to lone speed horses when making online wagers in dirt races at Belmont Park. They win more races than they lose.
Another great angle to use when handicapping races at Belmont is the trainer angle. Now, by trainer angle I’m not implying that the trainer who wins the most races is automatically the guy you should throw your online wagering dollars behind. I mean, that you need to know what trainers do well under what circumstances. Here are a few things to remember:
1. Barclay Tagg is excellent on the turf at Belmont - - Tagg is just a good trainer, but at Belmont he is much more successful with his turf horses than at Saratoga. This has a lot to do with the fact that it’s easier for horses to wire races on the turf at Belmont than Saratoga. Look for horses that Tagg takes dirt to turf that have shown speed in their dirt races. That’s a serious angle for online racebook fans.
2. Richard E. Dutrow and Todd Pletcher are almost always “live” - - This means that no matter how bad their horses look on paper, if the horse is in the race, it has a chance to win. But you should be judicious when putting money on either one of these guys at low online odds. They can lose races. It’s better to take a swing on a horse going off at big online odds then to bet one at low online odds as everybody knows that Dutrow and Pletcher are money. So, their horses usually get bet down to nothing. A horse that looks “bad” but comes from the Pletcher or Dutrow barn is an automatic online bet in my book if the online odds are better than expected.
3. Bruce Levine is terrific off the claim - - A lot of online horse betting fans know this one. So, you may not get the price that you want on Levine’s horses. However, if you do see a Levine horse going off at higher than expected online odds and Levine just claimed it, then you had better pay attention.
4. Gary Contessa should have a huge Belmont Park Fall Meet - - Contessa is one of the best trainers in the United States. He had a terrible Belmont meet this past spring. He had a so-so, less than stellar, Saratoga meet this past summer. Contessa won’t stay down for long. I expect his horses to win at between 25% to 35% during the Belmont Park Fall Meet.
There are going to be a lot of underlaid horses running in stakes races all during the Belmont Park Fall Meet. The reason is that a lot of horses will be prepping for the Breeders’ Cup Thoroughbred World Championships. Because of that, always look to make an online bet on a horse with overlaid odds, maybe even a horse not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup in these races. Horses that have already made it to the Breeders’ Cup will no doubt use these stakes races, even the graded ones, as preps for the big prize in late October. Be wary of overhyped horses at low online betting odds.
Good Luck!
