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When it comes to betting on horses, everyone seems to have a system they swear by. Some people will only bet on horses ridden by a certain jockey, while others bet solely on horses trained by a specific trainer. There are even some diehards who swear by horses bred and trained in a certain region of the country. An old friend of mine will only bet on horses from a three-county area in East Texas, and he's had surprisingly good luck with that system.

Other people study the Daily Racing Form to determine how a horse has done in the past on turf versus dirt, and whether the horse is a "mudder," one that runs well in muddy conditions. They look at when the horse last ran, and how well it has done over the past several races. And a few even bet by the colors the jockey and horse are wearing.

For me, it's not that quite detailed or scientific a process. The only way I bet at the horse track is either betting on the horse to show, or by betting an Exacta Box. If you bet on a horse to show, it pays as long as the horse finishes in the top three. The payout isn't great unless the horse was a serious long shot, but it gives you better odds of coming out ahead.

Betting an Exacta means that you pick which two horses you think will finish in first and second place in the race. By "boxing" the bet, you pay double (for example four dollars instead of two dollars) so that it doesn't matter which one comes in first and which comes in second. All you care about is that they both finish in the top two. Payoffs on Exacta bets can be quite large, but they are also less likely.

All of this goes out the window if there is a horse with one of my kids' names in its name, or something related to the Dallas Cowboys. If I see a horse named Troy's Tantrum, since Troy Aikman was the Cowboys' quarterback for three Super Bowl victories, I'm going to bet on that horse to win, even if it's a 50-1 long shot. If by some miracle the horse is wearing number 8 (Troy's jersey number) in the 8th race of the day, I may just mortgage the house.

Whatever system you use, just remember that over the long run, you're always better off betting on four-legged animals than you are on two-legged ones. Horses don't have to worry about bad calls by a referee or umpire, and you never have to wonder if the quarterback or point card bet against his own team that night.

Learn more about this author, Bruno Somerset.
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