Trading US horse racing
Trading on US horse racing markets is a little bit different from the usual UK, IRE & AUS horse racing. Before you start them trading, carefully read this article. The problem with US horse racing is that the organizers of those races do not care with the official scheduled start time of the race. The result is for example 10 minutes earlier suspend of the market or a suspend of the race 10 minutes after a scheduled time which you can see on Betfair or Betdaq.
Watching the video
So it is important to watch a video from a particular track and close your positions before the race starts. These races can’t be traded in-play, so you have to close position before suspend. I do differentiate two types of video – delayed and not delayed. Delayed video means that in compare to real time of the start of the race there is for example 30 seconds or 1 minute delay. I do not like delayed video because of non-actual data I get. Some of the services providing delayed video to US horse racing are:
Not delayed video have an advantage because you can exactly close your positions when you see the horses going to the boxes. Some of the services providing not delayed video are:
First two are free of charge, you just need a registration with Calracing (same as with Bet America). HRTV is paid service. I personally use ESPN and Calracing, HRTV works as a TV station so they can have pictures from a track you do not actually need.
MTP – Minutes To Post - say to you a true start of the event in minutes. It is usually different than times on Betfair or Betdaq. The number of the race is on Betfair website shown as a R1, R2, R3, etc. And because on Betfair and Betdaq the races are not ordered by MTP, you have to order them in your head, or using a live video webpage. Just trade markets with the lowest MTP.
Trading
US horse racing are different from UK horse racing and greyhound racing. I would compare them like a greyhound markets with a bigger amount of classic punters. There is quite common that somebody will Back 1500 GBP or so in a very weak market, so you can see some big “jumps” in the market. Markets are much more weak in general in terms of liquidity, they are jumpy and if there is a trend against you, it can be very difficult to exit – sometimes can disappear whole Back or Lay side. So I recommend to carefully chose a trading stakes, I personally use something from 40 to 200 GBP and I try to use the “jumpiness” of the market or a trends which can be started by a big punters.
Video
Two videos can give you a better idea how it goes on US horse racing markets:
