Horse Racing Fantasy Community

When playing the exacta and trifecta, it is often difficult to know which horses to play together, but one useful tip is to determine which horses have faced each other in the past and how they ran relative to one another. If two horses are entered in the same race, and they happened to face each other in their prior meeting and ran very close to each other, then the chances are that they will run close to each other in today’s race.

This past Sunday’s Triple Bend was as good illustration of this handicapping principle. The winner Zensational had not faced any of the other horses entered in the Triple Bend, but the second and third place finishers Rush with Thunder and Noble Court had faced each other before.

In fact, in their prior meeting in the Ack Ack Handicap last month, they finished right together, with Noble Court just outrunning Rush with Thunder. In the Triple Bend their placings were reversed, but they still ran within a length of each other in both cases.

When constructing an exacta or trifecta, if you fancy one of these horses, then it might be prudent to include the pair in an exacta box, or together in a trifecta to finish one-two, one-three, or two-three. In other words, using the above horses as an example, if you believe Rush With Thunder is going to be right there at the finish, the chances are that Noble Court will not be far behind (or too much farther ahead).

So it is a general rule of handicapping that horses that run together in one race are likely to run close in their next meeting. You can’t look too far in the past for these pairings though and it’s not always a sure thing, because handicappers well know that like summer fruit, horses can go bad very quickly and be not the animal they were just a short time ago.