Greyhound Handicapping: Do Tip Sheets Pick Winners?

You’ve seen them. Those one-sheet wonders that you can buy for a buck at the gate. Or maybe there are “selections” printed at the bottom of the programs from one or more tipsters. Everybody looks at them, but do people really bet them? Some do.

Should you bet them? Well, I wouldn’t recommend blindly betting every dog that tip sheets pick, but I do think that you should pay attention to them for a couple of reasons.

1. The crowd bets the tip sheet picks. If you see what the tip sheet picks are as you go over your program, you’ll know in advance who the favorites are likely to be. This can help you decide whether a dog is going ot pay if it comes in.

2. If there are two or three tip sheet selections on the program, along with the track handicapper’s picks, and they all pick the same dog or dogs, you probably should give that dog a good look as you handicap that race.

The tipsters aren’t much better than the crowd when it comes to picking dogs, but if all of them think a dog has a good shot, there’s a reason for it. Sure, it might just be that the dog is a phony who looks better than it is. But it might be that the tipsters have seen the dog run often enough so that they know that it’s ready to win this time.

I would never advise anyone to buy tipsheets or use them to pick dogs without handicapping. That doesn’t make sense. Why would someone who can pick dogs consistently sell that information? How big is the attendance at most dog tracks and how many people out of that crowd actually buy tip sheets? At a buck a pop, is the tipster going to get rich selling the things? I don’t think so.

Tip sheets are like betting numbers. Fun and sometimes the dogs come in, but most of the time they don’t. Good solid handicapping is the way to pick winners. You either have to develop a handicapping system yourself or get one from someone who has the experience to pick winners consistently. No tip sheet can do what your own good handicapping can do at the dog track.

The systems I use to pick winners at the dog track are The Two Key Trifecta System and The Marks Method.

You can adopt a retired racer. In return for a family of its own, your greyhound will give you lots of love. Hey, you can sit on the couch together and watch the dog races. Who knows? You might even get some inside information from your fast friend.