What Is Handicap Horse Racing? 

Handicap horse racing does not refer to a disabled horse that is being made to run in a race. The same meaning applies to horse racing and the term handicap horse racing means to evaluate the factors that seem to be against a particular horse wining a race – the handicaps. Handicapping is thus the method of studying all a horses strengths and weaknesses to be able to better judge its ability to win races. 

Handicap horse racing begins with the study of the Daily Racing Form (DRF), a document that provides detailed statistical information about each horse entered in a race – this includes the odds for the horse in previous races, how it did in relation to these odds, records of its lifetime performance, the amount of money it has won and all kinds of other information.


An important part of this information is the stage wise break up of how it ran previous races – how is was placed at various stages of the race in comparison with the other horses –a horse that trails in the middle of races but has the energy to finish strong is a good bet for a long race. This handicapper will find races on similar race tracks and use that information to judge how the horse will do in the race he plans to bet on. The next stage of handicapping is to study the horse itself – if it is quiet and calm that is a good but if the horse appears nervous and has a restless tail it may be that something is upsetting it which could affect its performance.


In terms of handicap horse racing, speed and pace are two completely different issues and must never be confused. Speed refers to the fastest the run can run but pace refers to its running style. Some horses are fast starters, other have stamina and endurance and run at a steady pace, others prefer to follow a leader for as long as possible and still others tend to put on a huge closing burst of speed and come from the outside to try and claim victory. 

A handicapper will need to study the pace of each horse in comparison to the others it is racing against and see which kind of pace is most like to result in a win. And finally, the handicapper will keep an eye on the tote board to look out for significant changes in the odds which could indicate either how general opinion is running or that someone (usually with what the thinks is information not known to others) is placing a big bet in the hope of cleaning up.