The Top Five Horse Racing Betting Superstitions

Gamblers are always thinking about superstitions. This includes handicappers who like to bet on horse racing at an online racebook. Superstitions can be part of racing culture, but they do not establish a betting edge. Here is a list of five familiar horse racing betting superstitions. How many have you used?

Betting on Gray Horses in Bad Weather

This betting superstition has been around horse racing for many years. It specifically applies betting on gray horses when the track is wet. Gray horses have reputations for being mudders, or horses that like to run in mud. There is no data to say for certain whether a horse of any color likes muddy surfaces better than another horse, but some bettors swear by this.

Using Horseshoes for Good Luck

If you visit the backside of a horse racing track in North America you are likely to see the presence of horse shoes in the barn area where horses are stabled. We don’t just mean that the shoes are on the horse’s feet. Many trainers will place a horseshoe above the stall of a horse for good luck, and some also put a horse shoe at the entrance to the barn area or above their office door. Trainers like to bet also and can use the good luck. In one version of the folklore, the ends face up to “hold” luck; other traditions use a different orientation. These are cultural stories, not a mechanism affecting a race result. A display horseshoe and the functional shoes fitted to a horse serve entirely different purposes.

Never Wish a Jockey Good Luck

Some horse racing fans like to stand by the rail as jockeys pass back and forth on their way to the track. If you are one of these people do not wish a jockey good luck as they pass by. Some riders are okay with this, but others consider it to be very bad luck. Who can say how this horse racing betting superstition got started? Its origin is not established here. A story about a rider being hurt after a greeting would be an anecdote, not evidence that the greeting caused the injury. That is the thing about gambling superstitions. It takes very little to get them started.

Betting on a Lucky Number

Each horse that runs in a race is assigned a number that has to be worn during the race. The number is worn on a saddle cloth. Some racing fans swear by only betting on a certain number in a horse race. A number that seems to be chosen often is 7, probably because it has connotations with luck in many types of gambling. Getting a 7 at the craps table can be good, and hitting 7s on a slot machine can win a jackpot. Many bettors have projected that same luck to the number 7 in horse racing.

The Psychology Behind Betting Superstitions

Horse racing betting superstitions, however irrational they may appear from the outside, serve a genuine psychological function for the bettors who hold them. In an activity characterised by uncertainty and variance that cannot be fully controlled through skill alone, superstitions provide a sense of agency and ritual that makes the experience feel less random. Some bettors treat a lucky hat or unchanged seat as playful ritual; others may believe it affects the result. Do not infer a particular person’s belief from the behavior alone. A routine can feel reassuring without changing the horses, race conditions or settlement rules.

Understanding this psychological function helps explain why superstitions are so persistent even among otherwise analytical bettors. The key is ensuring that superstitious thinking remains in its proper compartment — providing emotional comfort without influencing actual wagering decisions. A bettor who feels more confident when wearing their lucky item is fine, provided that confidence does not lead them to bet more than their analytical process justifies. The danger arises when superstitious thinking crosses into decision-making, causing bettors to back horses based on numbers, colours, or names rather than genuine form assessment. For more on how psychology affects betting decisions, our article on the psychology of horse betting covers the full range of cognitive biases and emotional traps that affect bettors at every level.

Betting on the Color Green

In the familiar North American color convention, number 5 uses a green saddle cloth; conventions are not universal across all racing jurisdictions. Jockeys may also wear green racing silks. For whatever reason there are some horse racing bettors who believe that the color green has some type of gambling power. An association with U.S. banknotes is one possible explanation, not an established historical origin.

At EZ Horse Betting we are interested to know what your personal gambling superstitions are. Do you use these superstitions when you make bets at one of our recommended online racebooks? Leave us a note in the comments and share with us your own personal betting superstitions. Bovada or Twinspires or even Betamerica can be researched through their reviews, but a named provider is not automatically eligible throughout the United States or abroad. Confirm the exact account product and local authorization before considering a deposit.