Perhaps one of the most overlooked handicapping advantages available to horseplayers is the act of looking at horses that are scheduled to race. By turning a critical eye on possible contenders, horseplayers can unveil a number of clues to give themselves a potentially lucrative edge over players with their noses in the Daily Racing Form. There are several approaches. Some of the terms that fall into the category of “reading horses” including “physicality handicapping” and developing an understanding of “equine body language”. All these approaches involve looking at the horses to collect information.

Golden Gate Fields handicapper, Monty of Jack’s Blue Card is a handicapper renowned for his ability to read and remember important information about horses. Like other handicappers with this talent, Monty can remember horses in much the same way that other people remember faces. In describing his process, Monty said, “Going into it, I have an opinion of how I like to see a horse look. As a rule, I can remember what they looked like in the last race – if they’ve gained or lost weight, if they were hot, if they were excited in the paddock or were well behaved the whole time.” As confirmation of this ability, Monty can often call the scratches before they happen...