Win at the Dog Track With Eb

Sooner or later, it happens to every bettor. You’re all ready to go to the track. You’ve handicapped the program and found a slew of good bets. You even have some extra money in your pocket and your spouse has gone out with a friend, so you won’t be accused of neglect. You grab your keys, head out to the car and get about halfway to the track when it starts to rain.

The forecast didn’t call for rain, but apparently the weather gods didn’t listen to the forecast, because it’s pouring as you park in the track parking lot and sit there thinking about whether you even want to go in now. After all, who knows what’s gonna happen with the track getting wetter by the minute?

Well, if you’d done your homework, you’d know. Rain has an effect on the dogs at every track, but every track is different, so you have to study your track’s track bias when it’s wet. My approach is to go online and get a program, even when I’m not going to bet or go to the track that day. That way, I can see which dogs run well when it’s wet and which dogs don’t. Like people, there are a few dogs who just hate getting wet. Not many, but some, and it’s important to know which ones they are.

No matter how good some dogs look, if they hate having mud kicked up in their faces, they’re not going to give it their best effort. Other dogs, however, who may just be so-so runners on a dry track, actually love running in the mud and - like little kids - splash cheerfully through even the biggest puddles all the way to the finish line.

Sometimes, and this is true of my favorite track, heavy dogs are favored when the track is wet. When it rains, I like to look for a heavy dog with some early speed who’s at decent odds. Then I bet it to win and place. You’d be surprised at how often people overlook this, although the horse players know about it from betting “mudders” at the horse track.

Also at my favorite track and maybe at yours, when the track goes beyond muddy to sloppy, things change. Heavy dogs stop coming in and smaller dogs, often older dogs and it seems to me that a lot of them are females, seem to skim right over the mud to win for fun.

So, keep an eye on the weather and its effects on the track and the dogs at your track. Look back at a dog’s previous races and look for races designated “M” for muddy or “S” for sloppy. See how they did and which box they did the best from on muddy or sloppy tracks. That way, even when it rains, you’ll have the edge to win in spite of the weather. If you’re not winning rain or shine, you need to invest in The Marks Method or the Two Key Trifecta System and turn your luck around.

Warning! This is one of the Oddball Methods I’ve found that works once in awhile in special circumstances. Don’t depend on it to work every time, but then what does at the track? Or in life for that matter…

Ah spring! When a young man’s fancy and a greyhound’s instincts are focused on pretty much the same thing. Call it love, if you like, but we’d have to admit that it’s pretty powerful stuff. Male racing greyhounds are just as likely to want to chase a likely-looking female as young men are likely to follow that pretty girl who just walked by and gave them the eye. But how can we use this to win money at the track?

I’ve used this method several times at every track I’ve been to in the spring. I look for a race with only one female in it. They happen. Not often, but every once in awhile, the “luck of the draw” sets one up. Then I look to see if there’s a young male dog in the same race. If there is, I look at the oldest male in the race and see if I think he has a shot at keeping up with the other two dogs.

What usually happens is the female leads the pack, followed by the young male, who’s trying like crazy to catch her, followed by the oldest male who sometimes passes one of both of them right near the wire, if he has the late kick to do it. Of course, it doesn’t always work out this way. Sometimes the female stays second all the way around the track and gets passed by two male dogs at the end.

Sometimes, the young male manages to pass the female - maybe trying to impress her, I don’t know - and he wins for fun. Sometimes, unfortunately, the young male just about attacks the female and knocks her and himself (and maybe a few other dogs) out of the race. Usually though, older females won’t put up with a young male getting in her way. They’ll do whatever they have to do to avoid them.

So, if you like oddball bets - I do once in awhile - and you see this scenario, play it. I like a quiniela with the female and the youngest male and the oldest dog, but you can play several different bets with this setup. Just playing the female to Win and Place would be a good bet.

Like I always say, Sometimes you have to make an Odd bet to Beat the Odds. If you’re not beating the odds, you need to invest in The Marks Method or the Two Key Trifecta System and turn your luck around.

Some people live at the track. Some people go once a year. I’d say most people who play the dogs go weekly or a couple of times a month. They don’t follow it closely like the guys who hunch over their laptops, punching numbers into a calculator and talking on their cell phones with their eyes glued to the biggest TV in the place. Those guys probably know more about the dogs than the kennel owners do.

If you’re like most dog players, you go on a Friday night with your spouse or maybe with a friend or a group of friends. You have a couple of drinks, maybe eat in the restaurant, bet on your kids’ names or your favorite numbers or because you overheard someone in the bathroom telling someone on a cell phone that he had it from the dogmen that Junior Java was hot tonight and would definitely win for fun in the third race.

Maybe you make a few bucks, but more likely you lose most of the time. It’s no big deal. You could pay more for a night out at the movies and not even HAVE a chance to win anything. But if you want to improve your chances of winning as a casual bettor, there are some things you should know.

At most tracks, the inside dogs have the advantage, especially the 1 and the 2. They don’t have to run as far and - before you laugh at that - keep in mind that the length of a greyhound’s body translates into 7/100ths of a second. That’s how far a greyhound can run in less than the blink of an eye. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Of course, just betting the one and two in every race isn’t going to work. (Although many people still do it.) The best way to use this knowledge involves a little handicapping. I look at the 1 and 2 dog in every race, hoping to see that they have some class (especially dogs who are dropping down), that they get out fast (so that no one will get in front of them on the rail), that they have at least a 30% quiniela percentage and that they run inside. The best situation is when they have all that going for them and they’re moving in from an outside box. Better yet, it’s best if they’ve had a few races where they ran from an outside or middle box and didn’t do anything.

If I like the 1 and/or the 2, next I look at the 8. Because the 8 is on the extreme outside of the track and doesn’t have a dog to its right, it too comes in often at most tracks. Here, I look for a dog with good early speed, who likes to run midtrack and doesn’t go wide. Of course, class helps, especially my favorite situation, a dog dropping down in class.

If I like the 8, I put it with the 1 and the 2 in a quiniela box. Then I watch the odds and if any of them look like going off at long odds just before the race starts, I put $2 to win on them. That way, I haven’t spent any more than $12 on the race. Of course, I only do this in races where the 1, 2 and 8 show me something.

There usually aren’t more than 5 or 6 races like this on a program - sometimes more, some times less. According to statistics, the casual bettor usually spends about $50 on bets, so this scenario would fit well with that. So, there you have it. The Old One-Two Punch with a little handicapping and a look at the 8 dog and you could make a little money. Hey, it sure beats betting your wife’s birthday - especially if you don’t remember when it is.

Winning is the way to go. If YOU’RE not winning, why not invest in The Marks Method or the Two Key Trifecta System and turn your luck around.

Some people love horse races. Some people love dog races. There are people who bet on both, sometimes at the same time, if they’re at a track with simulcasts. I think horses are beautiful and graceful and I usually watch the Kentucky Derby. However, when it comes to betting, my money is on the dogs.

For one thing, it’s a lot easier to handicap a dog race than it is to handicap a horse race. Horse races have more variables: weight, jockey, equipment, type of race, number of entries etc. You can take hours going over the racing form and still not cover everything. Then there are the last minute scratches and equipment changes that have you scratching out lines and rethinking your whole betting strategy. I just can’t handle it.

The dog races are simpler. There are no jockeys slowing down the race so another dog they’ve bet on can win. (I’ve seen this happen at the smaller horse tracks, let me tell you, and it was obvious.) There are no jockeys holding back on a dog to keep it from breaking too soon. Dogs break out of the box and run as fast as they can, as a rule. I figure they probably know what to do without having someone telling them when to pour on the speed and when to slow down.

The dog races are faster. I have a pretty good attention span, but I find myself bored to tears in between horse races. Then there’s walking them to get them warmed up, riding them to get them warmed up and getting them into the starting gate without one of them crushing its jockey. You don’t get that with dogs.

Dogs get weighed in, trot out to the track in the post parade, get into the boxes and take off when the box opens. Twenty minutes or so later, there’s another race, giving you just enough time to cash a ticket or get a snack or a drink in between.

To me, dogs are a lot less complicated than horses. Oh sure, there are head-case dogs that only run when they feel like it or slack off if they can’t see the lure or get the part of the track that they want, but most of the time, dogs just chase the lure around the track as fast as they can. Horses, on the other hand, are notional. They shy at shadows and stop suddenly for no reason that anyone can see. Some days, they’re raring to go and some days, they seem to have little interest in running. Horses can break your heart, not to mention dent your wallet.

Nope, give me a dog race any day. A program, an hour to go over it, a cup of coffee and maybe a doughnut to sustain me while I handicap and I’m happy. I’ll leave the horse races to people like my friend, Willie, who is never happier than when he’s wading through pages of past performances and statistics he keeps - which is probably why he wins more than he loses - figuring out which horse and jockey will get their noses over the finish line first.

Me, I’ll go to the dogs, like I’ve been doing for 30 years now, as long as they keep paying off. I like winning. If YOU’RE not winning, why not invest in The Marks Method or the Two Key Trifecta System and turn your luck around.

There are great dogs. There are lousy dogs. There are so-so dogs that spend most of their lives bouncing between Grade C and Grade B, never making it into the top grade, but hanging in there with enough wins and seconds to keep them from dropping down into the lower grades. You can make money on dogs like these.

If you follow dogs who never break into A, but hardly ever fall back into D, you can use them in quinielas, trifectas and Pick-3’s, 4’s or whatever your track has for Pick bets. The casual bettors - Friday Night Freddy and Saturday Afternoon Annie, won’t bet on them, because they don’t win that often. They’ll go for the favorite at 8-5 with a win in D and C and wheel it to win in a trifecta or quiniela bet.

While you, the more experienced bettor, will realize that dogs that are coming up don’t win as often as dogs who are moving down or dogs who stay at the same level by making the board in quinielas and trifectas, but not winning that often. I call these dogs “Bread and Butter or B&B dogs. So while Freddie and Annie are up at the window wheeling the “can’t lose” favorite, you quietly bet a quiniela box with the B&B dog, the favorite and another dog that you picked when you handicapped the program earlier that day.

If your other dog runs in the money and the big favorite doesn’t - which happens a lot - the quiniela could be a big one. I’ve hit some quinielas this way that were as big as small trifectas. It’s certainly worth an investment of $6 when you see one of these dogs in a race with a big favorite that’s moving up in class.

And if you have the money, bet the dog to win for $2. Every once in awhile, they do and they pay big. There’s nothing better than having a winning ticket on a dog that most of the bettors overlooked. This is just one way to be a winner at the dog track. If YOU’RE not winning, why not invest in The Marks Method or the Two Key Trifecta System and turn your luck around.