How to Read Horse Racing Results

Reading horse racing results is instrumental in handicapping, or predicting the outcome of future races based upon historical data. By examining track and weather conditions, race times, jockey assignments and other relevant pieces of data, you can make more informed decisions about picking the winners in future races.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Daily Racing Form, or other record of race results

1. Read horse racing results by finding a publication that records such events. The most popular resource for horse racing results is the Daily Racing Form, which is available at most bookstores, news stands and race tracks. The Daily Racing Form compiles data on all horse racing events throughout the world.
2. Find horse racing results by looking under the date of the race, the race venue and the number of the race for that day. Once you have located the proper race results, you can analyze the information.
3. Look at the top section of the racing results, which notes track and weather conditions and other miscellaneous information. You should be able to see if the track was dry and hard (noted as fast) or wet and sloppy. In addition, you should be able see the air temperature at race time.
4. Note the next section of the racing results, which should give information about the type of race that was held. For instance, the length of the track, horse eligibility (such as "3 year olds and up") and the total purse, or available winnings, should be listed.
5. Check the charts of the race results, which should list information about the order in which the horses finished. Win (first place), place (second place) and show (third place) information should be recorded, along with the names of the jockeys, their weight and the actual time it took each horse to finish the course. In most cases, the other horses in the race will also be listed underneath in the order that they finished.
6. Examine the bottom part of the racing results to see the distribution of the purse to winners. This section should also list the winnings of those who place Exacta bets, where bets are placed on the finishing order of two horses, and Trifecta bets, which involve the finishing order of three horses.

Tips & Warnings

• The Daily Racing Form is now available online, at no cost to horse racing fans (see Resources below).