Horse Racing Handicapping

Horse racing handicapping can be described as an art form.  And like many great works of art can't always be easily interpreted.  Horse racing handicapping is brought about by a multitude of factors and means many things to many people.  There are specific ways to handicap horses, as well as specific ways to handicap specific breeds of horses.  One way of judging and handicapping a horse for a steeplechase, for example, would be and should be different for handicapping horses participating in harness races.
 
Horse racing handicapping is the ability to determine which horse is going to win the race on any given day under any given set of conditions.  The factors that determine which horse will win, and the likely outcome of the race is what horse racing handicapping is all about. 

Handicap racing is another form of horse racing handicapping and in some circles is considered the best way to ensure the fairness of the event.  Horse racing handicapping is by no means a simple endeavor but the fruits of the labor of a horse racing handicapper make the Sport of Kings that much more exciting.  Without the ability to accurately judge and handicap horses, horse races would lose much of their appeal.
  
Another commonly accepted form of horse race handicapping is the type in where the horse is made to carry an amount of weight to weigh them down as they run.  This type of horse race handicapping is generally referred to as a handicap race because the horse that is racing is made to wear a kind of a harness with varying amounts of weights.  The better the horse is the more weight that is put on the horse to even the odds of the other horses to win.  This is a very delicate balancing act because even if just a little too much weight is put on even an exceptional horse the odds of that horse winning may be decreased too dramatically if too much weight is applied.  
 
More often than not, however, the term is applied to the science like manner that a horse racing handicapping specialist goes to assign race winning probabilities on the horse.  When determining a horse race handicap the horse racing handicapping specialist takes into account even the most mundane, or at least apparently mundane, items to be taken into account.  Horse racing handicapping specialists look at the most minute details of the track, such as composition and moisture content, to weigh the past performances of horses against. If, for example, a horse is scheduled to race on a slightly wet track that is not an optimal track and the horse has a poor track record on wet soil, that horse will be rated much more poorly and the handicap will reflect the horse's performance on that type of track surface. 
 
For those that are sufficiently motivated there is certainly enough information out there on horse racing handicapping to do it themselves.  However, there are plenty more services available to the horse racing enthusiast to get them going on horse racing handicapping without ever lifting a finger.  Horse racing handicapping services and programs are easy enough to come by and a person simply needs to look at the information that these services provide.  If a horse racing handicapping program promises to pick a winner every single time during every race and every condition, that person should probably look elsewhere.  Even the best of handicapping programs can't predict the occasional dark horse and promises of the moon and all the winning horse races that a person could possibly want should ultimately be ignored.

If a person isn't simply willing to pay for another person with a program, or otherwise, to pick their winners they may be more open to paying for the information that horse racing handicappers use to make their decisions.  If a person were to try and accumulate the large sum of data that is necessary to make accurate and solid horse racing handicapping decision on a typical basis they would be spending a lot of time scouring the dailies and time at the tracks.  While this isn't necessarily a bad problem to have there are people that simply don't have the time to acquire this knowledge themselves and paying for the information that can be quickly assimilated is a good, if not as pleasurable, alternative.