Win at the Dog Track With Eb

Have you ever thought about how one little thing can change your life? Maybe you stopped to let someone cross instead of speeding up and making them wait a minute. Maybe they were elderly and walked slowly and you sat there for five minutes, wishing you hadn’t stopped. And then, maybe you get down the road to where a bad accident has just happened and you realize that - if you hadn’t stopped to let that old man cross the street - you would have been the guy the paramedics are trying to get out of the car with the jaws of life.

Sometimes, when little things affect our lives, they aren’t as dramatic as accidents we miss or pianos falling on our heads out of 10th floor windows. Sometimes at the dog track though, little things can affect whether we go home winners or losers. The worst thing is that we might not even realize that it’s happening, so we just keep losing and wondering why.

Other people can be a big distraction at the dog track. Whether it’s friends who keep talking when you’re trying to handicap or strangers who yell and swear and carry on when they lose, people can certainly take our mind off our handicapping. I once bet the wrong track because I was so distracted by a father who was yelling his head off at his three kids, who were running around and spilling their drinks all over the floor and other people.

Friends are wonderful things to have, but even good friends can be a pain if they push you to bet a dog they like or try to discourage you from betting a dog that you like. Probably the worst distraction from people at the track are the negative vibes that some people put out. You know, the people who are always complaining that the races are rigged, that they never win and that it doesn’t do any good to handicap because they don’t have any luck anyhow.

Somehow, all that negative karma just clouds my mind and I can’t think straight until I move away from them. My feeling is that if you’re negative, you’ll attract negative luck and talk yourself right into losing. I’m not a Pollyanna, but I try to keep a positive attitude both at the track and in life in general. If you think you can’t win and are completely negative about the dog track, why in the world would you go there in the first place? And what’s more, why would anyone bet if they don’t think they can win? That just doesn’t make sense.

Outside of people, there are plenty of other distractions. Drinking and eating can get in the way of handicapping, watching the races and keeping track of your bets. I eat before I go to the track and rarely drink anything other than one or two cups of coffee while I’m there.

Carrying a bunch of stuff with you that you have to keep track of can take your mind off what’s going on and at the very least, it makes it harder to get up and bet. You either have to carry it with you or leave it where you’re sitting and most people don’t like to leave their stuff behind. I’ve seen people juggling coolers and mini-TVs, even laptops, as they tried to make a bet. Heck, they could hardly find their program, never mind handicap it.

Kids are such a distraction that I won’t even go into it, except to say that I only bring mine to the track when we’re on vacation and I want to give my spouse a break. The day that I bring them, I don’t plan any heavy betting. My feeling about kids is that - when they’re with you - they need your attention and it isn’t fair to them to ignore them while you do something else.

There’s so much going on at the track. There are TV screens everywhere with replays, odds, horse races, other sports events and even news and weather. When I started going to dog tracks, the only screens showed replays. There were no simulcasts. No betting on horse races at dog tracks. No card rooms, slot machines or electronic machines of any kind.

We went to the dog track to bet on ten live races and we paid attention to those races. In some ways, it was a lot easier in those days. Nowadays, it’s hard to find a quiet place to go over your program or even think in peace. So far, I’ve been able to find a place like that at most tracks, but as the live races diminish in importance and electronics and screens take over, they’re becoming harder to find.

If you really want to avoid distractions at the dog track, I suggest that you go alone or with a friend who is as serious about winning at the track as you are. Someone with a positive attitude who doesn’t have to talk every minute. Then, especially if there are no live races that day, go outside and sit.

I do that all the time and sometimes people stop me at the door to tell me that there’s no live racing that day. They always look confused when I tell them that I know there’s no live racing, but I want to sit outside anyhow. Apparently, I’m in the minority when it comes to wanting a quiet place to think. I often wonder if this is why 90% of the people who go to the track lose. Interesting question, isn’t it?

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.

It took me about three years of handicapping to discover something that everyone should know about playing the dogs: almost everything works for awhile. I had been going over programs from Lincoln, now called Twin Rivers, a track with decent dogs where speed mattered. Still does there, as far as I know, because the dogs are still good compared to a lot of the tracks that have gone downhill.

Anyway, I was going over past programs, trying to figure out how to narrow the dogs down to three dogs and then trying to handicap the winner from those three. So, for every race, I underlined the dogs with the best time in their last race. Then I handicapped and picked the dog I thought should win. Then I checked the results.

I was amazed when I discovered that even when I didn’t pick the winner, the dog I picked and the other two dogs with best times in their last races were very often the quiniela and at least two or three times on a program, they’d be the tri and pay well. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Could it be this simple, I thought? Had I been making it too complicated? Was the secret to making money at the dog track at Lincoln just a matter of boxing the three dogs with the best times in their last races in quiniela and trifecta boxes? I was flabbergasted and so eager to try it out, that I only did a few more programs - which it worked on - before taking it to the track for a test drive.

I started on a Wednesday and hit six quinielas and two tris to the tune of $126 more than I spent. This was magic! There was no racing on Thursday, so I waited and went back on Friday. Same thing, only I didn’t make as much. Only $80 profit, but any profit was better than the losing streak I’d been on.

On Saturday, there were two programs and I handicapped both of them very carefully, then went to the track with enough money to play both of them. I bought my tickets and sat up in the stands away from everyone else so that I could really watch the races and keep track of what was going on. Only, for me, there was nothing going on.

I cashed one quiniela ticket for $18 on the second program and nothing on the first. I was down over $200 and the wonderful system I had discovered didn’t pick one quiniela or trifecta and very few winners. And when it did pick a winner, some longshot would get in for second and I wouldn’t get the quiniela. I was really discouraged, but I told myself that I just had to be patient and keep trying.

I tried until I had blown over $500 and then I came to my senses and realized that it wasn’t going to work. The simple system I had “discovered” was just a fluke, a temporary thing that I took for a pattern. If I had checked it out on more past programs, I would have realized that without spending so much money.

That was my first introduction to how easy it is to think that you’ve found the secret to winning at the dog track with some simple formula. Believe me, there isn’t one. The only way to win at the track is with handicapping. Of course, methods like the ones I sell on my site can help. It’s a lot easier if you work with the knowledge and insight that other people have spent time learning instead of always starting from square one and doing everything yourself.

But as much as we’d like to believe that there’s some simple mechanical way of picking winners at the greyhound races, I think we really know that there isn’t any such thing. That’s why learning to handicap from people who have put the time in to learn the ropes is so important. Most everything works for awhile or some of the time, but nothing but handicapping, good judgment and self control works in the long run.

I sell systems. Right now, I have two for sale, both of which I use myself. Can you win millions if you buy them and use them? I doubt it. Can you improve your handicapping to the point where you can win more money than you lose? I do that with them, consistently. Should you buy either or both of them? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on what you expect a system to do for you.

All this palaver about systems came about because someone emailed me recently and asked me if I just blog to sell systems. No, I don’t. I blog because I discovered that blogging is a lot easier than trying to get my track buddies to listen to my advice and opinions. When I write a blog post, I can go on and on as long as I want to and no one tells me to put a lid on it. If someone reads it and agrees or doesn’t agree, they can leave a comment or email me. Several people have emailed, which kind of surprised me. I was beginning to think I was the only greyhound handicapper on the internet, except for the people who only sell systems.

And we’re back to systems again. I guess maybe I’m supposed to be embarrassed to sell them or apologetic or something. I’m not. One sells for $35 and one sells for $50 and they’re worth at least that and possibly much more. If you spend the time and energy to learn one of my systems …If you use it on paper until you really know how it works from the inside out … If you tweak it for your track and only use it on races where it works, instead of on races that you know you should pass … You’ll do a lot better than with whatever hit and miss approach you were using.

However, if you want an “automatic” system … One of the ones they advertise that earns you $500/day with no handicapping and no risk … Or a system that picks winners for you in every race … You’re not going to find it here. There’s no such thing. Anyone who says they have that kind of system is lying to you. And think about it, if someone had that kind of system, would they sell it to someone else? Not likely.

So, why do I sell mine - outside of the fact that - like most people who are getting on, I can use a little extra? Well, for the same reason that people sell their recipes and sewing patterns and how-to plans for woodworking and all like that. I’ve figured out how to do something and I’m willing to sell that knowledge. I’m happy because I make some money and the customer is happy because he wins some bets. It’s a win-win situation. And whether I sell anything or not, I get to blog about what I know, so if you don’t want to buy anything, just read the articles. They’re free and I think they’re worthwhile. True, they don’t get into as much depth as the systems do, but there’s a little nugget of practical wisdom in each one. And, by the way, the two systems I sell are The Marks Method or the Two Key Trifecta System.