Greyhound Dog Racing Tips.
I've always enjoyed handicapping route races. Sprints are okay, but in routes the dogs have more time and distance to jockey for position. This often makes for a more exciting race with a surprise finish. After handicapping many route races though, I noticed something.
There were some dogs who never won or ran in the money in routes, but yet they'd appear in a route race every once in awhile. I got so that I knew them and knew enough not to bet them when I saw them on the program, but I wondered why their trainers ran them in routes when they knew they couldn't win one.
One day, as I sat in the section of a New England track where the "dog men" sat, I got into a conversation with a trainer who had a dog running in a route race that day. The dog had never finished better than fifth in route races, so I asked the trainer why in the world the dog was running in a route.
He smiled and pointed to the dog's record of wins, places and shows. I looked too, and the dog did have a decent percentage, but not in routes. I knew from watching the dog run from J on up that all his in-the-money finishes were in sprints.
"Why take him out of sprints, where he comes in, and put him into routes?" I asked the trainer.
"Because he wins in sprints for awhile," he answered, "But then he starts to get bored and he doesn't come in."
A bored greyhound? This sounded odd to me. But, sure enough, the very next time that dog ran a sprint, he came in second and almost nipped the winner at the wire. So I guess his trainer knew what he was talking about. I'd learned something and I used what I'd learned to make money two ways.
One, I knew never to bet on that dog in routes and I also started a list of similar dogs not to bet in routes. That saved me a bunch, let me tell you. Two, I knew that this dog had a good chance of running in the quiniela in his first sprint race after a route. That made me money many times, when I bet him and other dogs like him after they'd given a poor performance in a route race.
This happens at every track, and it also works in reverse. There are some dogs that will never win or run in the money in a sprint, but they're good routers. However, the faster pace of a sprint will often "freshen" them up, which is why their trainers put them into sprints every once in awhile.
Look for this situation and use it to your advantage. You might even want to keep a list of these dogs like I do. After all, to win at the dog track, we need all the strategies we can find. If we can find a phony who doesn't have a shot of winning, it makes it a lot easier to cash tickets.
Greyhound Dog Racing.