Interloper
Written May 21, 2008 by Jack Jones
There is a lot of money to be made in horse racing betting if you play interlopers at the track. This is something that professional horse bettors have known for years, but have tried to keep to themselves.
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This is a nice little system, and the best news is that a live interloper or shipper can transfer from track to track, so it doesn’t matter where you are located, you can make some money off of this play.
In today’s world race tracks and casinos are merging, which inflates the purses from the increase in revenues generated by the extra people playing slots and video poker on racedays. In years past horsemen who were located at one track didn’t see the outside competition, but now stables from across the country are looking for purses in any locale that is paying the right price.
If you are a clever bettor then you are going to want to look for runners that are making their first start at the track or having one race over the surface. It pays to get a feel for the strip since these horses normally improve quite a bit and come in at some decent payouts.
The new faces and horses come in sharp and are well intentioned to win. This is the whole point of them being shipped around to different tracks. However, Horses are creatures of habit. If they get into a rut, they can stay in that rut for a long time so a change of pace normally treats them well.
A good trainer will always be mixing up the routine with blinkers, on or off, different riders, and switching up the lengths of the run.
At smaller tracks the invading horse will have quite a few things that are working in his favor. He is probably coming from a stronger circuit, gets to do something unique to him in running the race at night instead of during the day, and most importantly for the value hunter, these horses are frequently ignored by the locals.
Just like when humans need to shake things up and break a routine, horses can be the same way. When a runner ships into a new area, he can become egocentric and try to prove he is the new king of the hill.
This is the physiological angle and the inside reason astute horse bettors pay attention to interlopers.