Finding Your Niche in the Handicapping Contest World

Finding your strengths when betting on horses is a must if you want to be profitable. Handicapping contests are no different, as there seems to be a never ending growth of variations to choose from.

No longer does a horseplayer have to settle for the traditional $2 mythical win/place handicapping contests. You can now find those, as well as, head to head, survivor, lockdown, live bankroll, among many others.

These variations are comparable to the many different wagering options horseplayers have to choose from. More likely than not, you are more profitable in some wagering pools than others and at some tracks or types of races than others, and focusing on those situations is the best way to make money. Similarly, if you are a handicapping contest player, you are almost surely better in some formats than others.

After several months of serious play, it became very obvious to me that my results were mainly affected by a select few variables: field size, number of entries per player, and selection format (live versus lockdown).

Field Size

Handicapping contests range in field size from two to several thousand. Some players are phenomenally consistent in the larger contests (although some of that is due to other variables which I'll discuss later) while others seem unbeatable in Head to Head contests.

For me personally, I can hold my own in the 100-200 player contests but my results are not consistent enough to merit regular investment in those as the cashes do not support all the non-cashes in between. If I can qualify into them via a low cost feeder contest so be it but buying directly in is not a financially smart decision for me.

Small field handicapping contests are a different story. I have been remarkably consistent in the 5-6 and 10-12 player contests. Over the summer when I was able to build my bankroll and buy directly into the High Stakes games I had a great run. During one stretch I won three consecutive $5,000 High Stakes Saratoga Lockdowns. Top prize was $3,750. During the same time I also cashed (finished first or second) in several $4,000 High Stakes Del Mar and Saratoga contests.

The small field size meant there was a much lower chance of chaotic results affecting the outcome as not every long shot was covered in every race. Additionally those contests restrict players to one entry, which I have also learned is to my advantage.

Number of Entries


I have played one, two and three entries in various handicapping contests over the past few years and what I have found is I perform the same no matter how many entries I have. My strategy playing multiple entries was to select my top choice on one entry and a long shot on the other(s). Almost every time my main entry outperformed my second or third entry. Where others managed to find winners on all of their entries I whiffed.

Eventually I stopped playing multiple entries but I soon realized I was at a huge disadvantage. Where I could only cover one horse per race others could cover two or more. In every handicapping contest that allowed multiple entries I noticed a trend where the top ten finishers were often filled by many of the players that had multiple entries.

This created a dilemma because most of the big money handicapping contests allow two or more entries. So I had to decide whether to pursue them while playing at a disadvantage or pass on them and focus on those handicapping contests that provided me an edge. My solution was to follow a simple rule:

Only buy into handicapping contests that allow 1 entry per player per 100 total entries.

Therefore if a contest has 50 entries but allows more than 1 per player I need to pass because in that small a field it is a massive disadvantage to be playing against others that have 2 entries. Of course if I can qualify for a fraction of the regular entry fee via a low cost feeder contest I will be more than happy to give it a shot. In order for me to buy directly into a contest that allows multiple entries there must be at least 200 total entries. There is one exception and that is if the contest is a lockdown.

Live vs. Lockdown

During my successful summer run I noticed that combining small field size with a single entry with a lockdown format produced the most profitable handicapping contest environment for me. For those that don't know what the lockdown format is it is pretty simple. You are required to make all of your selections before the first contest race. Your selections are "locked down" and cannot be changed. This may not seem all that important but just as I do well under this format there are others who thrive under the live selection format.

There are positives and negatives to both formats, and I will openly admit that I was opposed to the lockdown format when I first started playing in handicapping contests. However, I changed my tune when I realized it gave me an advantage over many others. I perform best when my top selections run well. The odds board is irrelevant and I have found that more often than not when I make my final selections based on the post time odds it backfires.

Again, while this doesn't work for me, it works well for others. This is the reason the same names are at the top of the leader boards day after day. They have found their niche and are taking full advantage of it.

Find Your Niche

The point of this article was to hopefully open your eyes to the plethora of opportunities in the handicapping contest world and to illustrate that it is very similar to betting on horses. Both have a wide variety of options for investing your bankroll and both will provide opportunities that give you an advantage on your competition.

The only ways to find out what those advantages are is to try the various formats, which you can do every day at Derby Wars, and to keep track of how you performed in the various formats. To do that, you can either use a spreadsheet or home made database or use the tool I use, which is a site I recently opened to the public, Wager Logged.

Wager Logged allows you to quickly and easily track your handicapping contest performances as well as your wagering on actual races. If you don't know where your strengths and weaknesses are or you do but you would like a more robust system for tracking them Wager Logged is for you. The best part is you can try it out for 30 days for free so what are you waiting for?

Find your niche and crush the competition and you too can find yourself in the top ten on the Derby Wars leaderboards.