How to Turn a Losing Ticket into Handsome Profits
Posted on 8/26/2008 12:45:22 AM
By Pete Mitchell
Racebook Betting – Turning A Profit
In my preview of the
Travers Day All-Stakes Pick 4 (see Friday’s article), I laid out a
racebook betting plan to cash a winning Pick 4 ticket that included singling a horse in the first leg. That plan was scuttled when 2-5 favorite
#5-Indyanne (who had won all four of her starts by a combined margin of 32 ½ lengths)
couldn’t overcome a poor start and finished second.
Not willing to leave all that good
racebook handicapping work by the wayside, I turned my attention to the
horse racing odds in the Pick 3 and Daily Doubles (races 9, 10 and 11). For those of you who didn’t read my preview, the losing Pick 4 ticket (which cost $80) used the following horses in races 9, 10 and 11:
2,5,6,7/1,5,7,10/1,2,6,9,11. This approach might not work as well on a normal day of racing, but with the promise of higher-than-usual payoffs on Travers Day, I simply used the same racebook betting horses in the Pick 3 and Doubles that I had selected in the Pick 4. The results were as follows:
#6-Shakis won Race 9 going away, paying $14.80.
#5-Visionaire won Race 10 with a last-to-first move, and paid $15.60.
#2-Colonel John won Race 11 (The Travers Stakes) by the slimmest of noses over #9-Mambo in Seattle (both horses were used). His
racebook odds paid $10.40.
The first
$2 Daily Double (6-5) returned $118.00 on an investment of $32.00 (4 X 4 X $2 = $32). That’s a net profit of $86.00 with an ROI of 269%. The second
$2 Daily Double (5-2) returned $111.00 on an investment of $40.00 (4 X 5 X $2 = $40). That’s a net profit of $71.00 with an ROI of 178%. The
$1 Pick 3 returned $458.50 on an investment of $80.00 (4 X 4 X 5 X $1 = $80). That’s a net profit of $378.50 with an ROI of 473%. To sum up, the total investment (including the losing Pick 4) was $232.00 and the total net profit was $455.50, for an ROI of 196%.
The handicapping didn’t change. The selections didn’t change.
The only thing that changed was the type of wager. By using the
racebook handicapping work I had already put in,
I turned an $80 loss (ROI of 0%) on the Pick 4 into a $455.50 gain (ROI of 196%). The moral of the story is that
you can’t let a tough loss throw you off your game. Just get off the mat and come back firing!
When it’s time for you to fire away, do it at
BetOnline.com, where you’ll receive
full track odds and generous rebates.
Pete Mitchell has been handicapping horses since his teenage years. He has been a professional horse player for many years, and came to BetOnline.com’s attention through multiple referrals from industry insiders/sportsbook owners. Pete is revered for his horse handicapping opinion and industry experts acknowledge his impressive career winning record. Thoughts or questions? Email Comments@BetOnline.com.
