The most obvious difference between these two post positions and the other 6 is that one side has no other dog. For the 1, there’s no dog to the left. For the 8, there’s no dog to the right. Right there, these dogs have an advantage that none of the other dogs have.

If they run straight from their position i.e. inside for the 1 and outside for the 8, they’re right where they want to be. While more dogs run inside than outside, there are quite a few that prefer the outside of the track. When you see one of these in the 8 box, especially if it has good early speed, don’t leave it out of your picks.

Even if the dog isn’t quite up to the standard of the other dogs, you can’t count it out when it has room to run and the part of the track that it wants right from the break. This is a spot play that I use to find a key dog when I want to bet a trifecta or quiniela.

In the case of a 1 dog that runs inside, if it breaks, I really give it a good looking over. Even if it’s been running in lower grades, I can’t count it out, especially if the other inside dogs don’t have good early speed. Let’s not forget that another advantage that the 1 has is that it has the shortest distance to run if it runs the inside, because it’s closest to the rail.

I know this might not look like much of a difference as you look out at the boxes, but it is a significant factor in races where tenths and even hundredths of a second can determine who wins and who doesn’t. Any little advantage gets amplified as the dogs run. So, not having to contend with another dog on its inside, breaking to the inside and having a shorter distance to run can compensate for drawbacks like lack of class or even speed.

So, you might be thinking, if the 1 has the shortest distance to run, and if that is a significant factor, doesn’t that mean that the 8, with the longest distance to run, is at a real disadvantage? That’s where other factors come in. If the 8 breaks to the inside, it often “gets the rail”. Any dog that gets the rail out ahead of the other dogs at the beginning of the race has a big lead over those other dogs and a much easier trip.

Of course, it helps if the 8 has a good average time and some class. So, when I bet the 8, I look at class and time more than I do when I bet the 1. However, in every race, at every track, I look at these two dogs before I look at the others for the reasons I’ve just given.