Over the last 11 years, since Horse Racing Gold went public and on line, we've had hundreds of players ask the same question:
"Can there be a way to make decent money at this game without such a huge time commitment?"
In the last couple of years, there have been some fairly radical changes in my life (and they continue . . . but that's another story!) that cut severely into my usual 12 hour days totally committed to just horse racing. I was no longer able to do that. Then providence brought some opportunities that enabled me not to need to rely on racing for all of my income. This was quite a change after so many years of nothing but horse racing. It actually felt pretty good not to have to be sweating over the handicapping and betting every single day. In fact, I stayed away from the game completely for several months. Then (of course!) 32 years of habit, and a love for the game pulled me back into it - and with a renewed ion. Yet, I had grown accustomed to not putting in the long hours, and - especially since I no longer needed to - found I really didn't want to put in those 12 hour days anymore. Turf routes had always been my personal strength. Most players find them extremely tough, and maybe that's the reason profits for me were always higher in that niche - confused money spread into the pools often creating better value.
(Nowadays - with so many tracks switching to various kinds of artificial surfaces, confusion reigns, and turf races have become a more solid bet than ever.)
As well, by limiting myself to just turf routes, the strain of handicapping six or seven races at each of four or five different tracks every day - disappeared. I codified my entire turf handicapping process - and then automated much of it into the "The Green Box" . My racing day was cut down to just a bit over two hours on average - including the handicapping, watching the odds just before post for the 4 to 8 qualifying races, making the wagers, and doing the recordkeeping! |