Before you can place your bets on a horse race, you must understand its SCHEDULE, CLASSES, ODDS-ON, and PERFECTA. Once you know these things, you can confidently place your bets. Read on for some basic tips. Listed below are the most common betting terms. If you are not sure how to place your bet, you can always ask a professional bettor.

SCHEDULE

Depending on where you live, a horse race schedule can be a great way to find a favorite horse. The schedule will show you which days have live racing, including popular days like Whitney and Travers. It will also tell you which races are graded stakes – GI, GII, and GIII. These are the top races for thoroughbred horses. The information on the schedule is current, but may change over time.

CLASSES

There are many categories and grades within horse races, and understanding them will give you a better idea of how your favorite horses will fare. The lower the class, the higher the prize money and prestige of the race. Luckily, horse racing fans can use a handy guide to determine which horse class is right for their favorite. Here are the major categories and grades:

ODDS-ON

Before you make your wager, know what odds-on form means. In odds-on form, a horse is the favorite, and its odds are expressed in fractions. Four-to-one odds, for example, indicate that the horse is considered the favorite to win. The odds will increase until the horse leaves the starting gate. For this reason, it is best to place a bet on the horse with odds greater than its fair value.

PERFECTA

To make the most money, you should use a perfecta horse race pick. You will only win if one of the horses finishes first, even if the race features a dead heat between two horses. In addition, you should consider the place pool when betting on a perfecta horse race. It’s a great way to increase your chances of winning while minimizing your costs. Alternatively, you can bet on a perfecta box. This is a way to place bets on all combinations of horses.

CLAIMING SCALES

If you have never watched a horse race, you have probably heard of claiming scales. However, what are they and how do they work? In horse racing, claiming scales are calculated using speed figures, which measure the average speed of a horse in a standard claiming race. The faster a horse is, the higher its speed figure. A horse with a 100 speed figure is better than one with an 80, for example.

MUTUEL FIELD

In pari-mutuel betting, a MUTUEL FIELD is a race in which more than two horses are entered. In this race, the number of entries exceeds the maximum number of horses that can be handled separately. Betting on one of the horses in a MUTUEL FIELD is equivalent to betting on all the horses in the Entry. In this case, the winning wager is the exacta, which pays the bettors the same amount as the winner.