EZ Horse Betting is all about simplifying the handicapping process. We like to teach you about horse betting angles you can use profitably at your favorite online racebook. There are several angles which involve the consideration of racing trainers rather than evaluating horses. When you learn to spot specific situations where trainers excel the profits can be very generous.

Horse Racing Trainers Have Strengths and Weaknesses

The first thing to remember about horse racing trainers is that they all have strengths and weaknesses. They may be better as preparing horses for certain situations even though they are similarly skilled in basic aspects. The basic parts of keeping a horse race ready would be general fitness and maintaining a horse’s health.

Trainer strengths and weaknesses are more readily observed in how trainers fare with specific groups of horses or in specific races. Some trainers like Wesley Ward may be better with two-year-olds. Others like D. Wayne Lukas may be better at getting three-year-olds ready for big stakes events. What you must do as a handicapper is learn how to spot the different situations and associate each trainer with their specialty.

On the flip side you also need to learn how to avoid trainers that struggle when they encounter specific racing conditions. Thankfully, the information you need is available from a variety of sources.

Getting Detailed Trainer Stats

A key to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a horse trainer is to learn how to read the past performances which are printed for each race. Past performances will often tell you how well a trainer does with a certain jockey, at certain distances, and even with specific types of equipment like blinkers.

Many online racebooks will give you past performances for free when you sign up for an account. These are usually from a service like Brisnet or Equibase but some racebooks like Twin Spires will sometimes offer you free PPs from the highly regarded Daily Racing Form.

The first thing PPs will tell you about a racehorse trainer is their overall win percentage. In horse racing, anything over 15% is respectable on most circuits. What you really want to see, however, is a trainer than wins more than 20% of the time. These are the all-star horsemen of thoroughbred racing. They are the ones who make the sport go.

Super Trainers like Bob Baffert and Steve Asmussen who stable horses at tracks all over the country aren’t the only ones with high win percentages. On many smaller circuits like tracks in Maryland, one or two trainers will stand out above the rest. For years, King Leatherbury was the dominant trainer in Maryland. In Louisiana and Arkansas it was Gene Norman. Each circuit has its own star trainer.

When these trainers have a horse in a race, little handicapping may be required. The problem with this approach is that most everyone on the racetrack will already know about it and the horses conditioned by this trainer will be bet down to very low odds.

What you must do is comb the trainer stats in the past performances for other clues which may put you on a hot horse that most of the betting public doesn’t recognize.

Jockey-Trainer Combos

One of the favorite stats people like to look for is the jockey-trainer combo stat. You will see that some trainers and jockeys win at an above average clip when they are paired together. Therefore, something to look for is when a trainer has made a jockey switch to a rider who does very well for his or her stable.

Some people think its easy to get any jockey you want to ride your horse. This isn’t the case thanks to the presence of a jockey agent. A jockey agent is an individual who secures horses for his jockeys to ride in races. The agent’s job is to choose the best horse each time. Trainers may not have an option for the best rider when they are preparing a horse to do its best.

If a low percentage rider is suddenly abandoned for a high percentage rider that the trainer does well with, this can be an indicator that the stable has high hopes for their horse today.

Changes in Distance

Some trainers do very well when they change the distance at which a horse competes. They can go from a sprint to a route or a route to a sprint. You can determine how successful the trainer is by simply reading their percentage for this move in the past performances. It is included in a line at the top of the PPs just beside the trainer’s name.

Horsemen sometimes like to use sprint races to build stamina and prepare their horses to go longer distances. If the trainer wins more than 15% of the time when he stretches a horse out to a longer distance, this could be a good bet.

Equipment Changes

There are some trainers who do very well when they change or add equipment to a horse for a race. Chief among these is adding blinkers. Some trainers know when a horse needs blinkers to improve its performance.

Once again, the past performances will tell you how well a trainer does when making this move. You can find the information right beside their name in parentheses. What you are looking for is a horse that is adding blinkers today and a trainer who wins more than 15% of the time when making this move.

One of the best ways to perfect your skills in handicapping is to join one of the racebooks recommended by EZ Horse Betting. You can receive free past performances and also a nice horse betting bonus when you create your account today. Use that extra bonus money to bet trainer specialties that will increase your chances to win.