You’ve probably heard of form cycles for race horses, but have you ever thought that trainers might have form cycles as well? Knowing when a trainer will start winning or go on a winning run could be very helpful when you are handicapping horse races.
Throughout the year, certain trainers have good times and bad times, winning runs and losing runs and they may sometimes be predictable. Trainers, like all human beings, are creatures of habit. They find something that works for them and keep repeating it over and over. There are trainers who are known for winning with young horses and trainers who are known to do better with older horses.
There are reasons for why certain trainers excel with one type or gender of horse or anther. Usually, at some point in his or her career, a conditioner developed a way of dealing with a certain kind of horse and it paid off with a win or two. The method may have been refined and improved upon until it became a habit.
You will find some trainers have a high win percent with two year olds. They start the year with a barnful of juvenile horses and bring them along as a group. would you expect them to win a lot of races in January? Probably not. On the other hand, depending upon how long they usually take to condition a young horse, they may go on a winning spree in April or May.
A crop of two year olds or maiden three year olds takes time to condition. Once they break their maidens, the good ones will begin to move up through their conditions and the wins will come steadily and often. But as the races get tougher, many of them will begin to lose more than they win and the trainer will seem to have hit a slump or to be tailing off. If you follow that conditioner and know about the young horses, you will expect it.
Some have a style of pushing young horses and getting wins early in the year while others take their time. Learn these patterns and you’ll soon be able to predict winning streaks and know when to bet them. To the unsuspecting handicapper it may appear the trainer is having his or her ups and downs, but to those who know that ones habits, it will appear as a natural progression and when to bet will be obvious as well as when not to bet.
That is one of the secrets of making money betting on horse races.
