If a dog has the fastest time of all the dogs in a race, should you bet that dog? What if a dog has the most class in a race or has the highest win percentage? What if it’s out of the kennel that’s at the top of the standings as of this week? What if it’s in the best post position or is the fastest breaker in the race? And what if it has all of these things going for it, would you bet it then?

Of course, you would. Unfortunately, so would everyone else at the track and the odds would be so low you’d have to pay back money if you won. Or almost, anyway. What I’m getting at is that most dogs have something going for them, but very few have everything going for them. This is where good handicapping, research, time and effort come in.

It’s the handicappers who are willing to go beyond handicapping based on only one factor that are the most successful. It’s impossible to figure out if a dog is going to win, judging only by how fast it breaks, how fast it runs or how many races it has won in the past. There are seven other dogs in that race who all have their minds set on catching the lure and they’ll do their best to beat the other dogs to it.

This is why speed handicapping doesn’t work. It’s why even my favorite ploy – playing spot plays – doesn’t work unless you do a little handicapping along with it. Just because a dog has a good reason for winning, doesn’t mean that it will win. It only means that it has an edge over dogs who aren’t coming off a good win or dropping down in class or doing any of the other things that gives a dog a reason to be a contender.

Anything that gives a dog that extra “oomph” is good, but by itself, it’s not enough. Unfortunately, the crowd seems to focus on these one-trick wonders and bet them down to nothing. But maybe that’s not so unfortunate if you’re smart enough to figure out what’s going on and find another dog that has more than one thing going for it.

Look beyond the surface of races where one dog is the big favorite because of one thing that sets it apart from the other dogs. Look for dogs that have several factors in their favor and find one or two to play to win or in a quinela or trifecta box. Don’t depend on dogs that only have speed, post position or one other thing going for them. Dogs, like people, need as many things in their favor as possible to win.