Complete beginners guide in US Racing!

posted by Kaggen<3 on betfair forum 17 Nov 04:55 Many people are new on here and ask the same questions, or they dont ask and dont get involved either. As this is a betting exhange the more people that play the US Racing Stuff the better for everyone, and the more of betfair attention will we get and the service will be better I for one got dragged in to the lovely horse racing only a year and a half ago, and started just as a silent player on here then, with no video or form or anything, just enjoyed the daily thread and followed Jose, GM10, Shiekh My Hand etc(old stars, only GM10 is a regular here still though) This was fine for a while, but when I started to understand more and more from reading the daily thread I decided to get down to business and really get in to the stuff, and since I know its not easy to find all the information needed and possibilities to make it all easier and more enjoyable I decided to make a thread where the most common questions and the most important tips can be held 1. Form: There are many places to get form for the US Racing, and im sure everyone will find something that they like and feel comfortable with. There are free options and there are options that cost money: Thorograph: Soon after i got into US Racing betfair made a deal with thorograph.com, a serious form provider that make advanced formsheets for most of the tracks in the US. This is normally pretty expensive form, but the great deal is that all betfair users get free, unlimited form if they registrate through this link: www.thorograph.com/betfair This is heavy stuff and takes a while to get into, but if the interest already is there this should not be a problem at all, I remember I enjoyed reading guides and watched videos about how to get all out of the form in hours and have never used anything else since(plenty of info on thorograph.com) DRF: This is what I think most serious players in US Racing use for form, and even though I never really have given it a real chance I would guess it is real good and a very serious formguide (not sure but I would imagine that this is the racing post of US Racing) This is not free though but its not extremely expensive either and im sure its much cheaper than guessing, following attheraces or following the money blindly check it out at www.drf.com This is also a great site for much of the info, like workouts, results, news, to teboards etc, and most of this info is free for all Trackmaster: never seen a sheet of this stuff but I know a few regulars used this last year and maybe they still do, I have no idea, just knows it excist.. Im sure there is more but these are those I am aware of(there was something at brisnet.com before but dont know if that is anymore, that was free one year ago and is in style very like the Racing Post sheets) I think all these have a so called Race of the week, where everyone can download the form sheet for that race for free and without need for sign up etc, this is a good way to find the form you are comfortable with 2. Videos There is an own thread about this subject but that is a bit of a mess now so can post the hottest tips for video here as well. http://horseracing.sportsline.com/cbs/liveracing/ is a great site that shows many tracks, and have to te boards, Morning Lines etc for almost all tracks in the US. The "problem" with that site is that it is locked for people in the United States. This is easily opened for everyone though, if you set up your Internet Explorer with a US Proxy server. I know this sounds heavy but it really isnt, and here is a very simple guide on how to do this(more advanced guide on the video thread called "For them asking for free videolinks, check out this first!") In Internet Explorer, go to: Tools Internet Options -- Connections Tab -- LAN Settings Tick the box under "proxy server" Fill in 66.98.238.8 in the proxy address space and 3128 in the port space. Press enter and voilá, you are able to watch free video in nice quality through http://horseracing.sportsline.com/cbs/liveracing/ To mention some tracks that you could watch video with through this site is Penn national, Mountaineer, Hawthorne, Finger Lakes, Suffolk Downs, Beulah, Bay meadows, Tampa Bay Downs, Louisiana, Kentucky Downs +++. It is worth to note that you will not be able to sign in to MSN Messenger, Betfair or other sign in places when you are through a US Proxy Server, but my advice is to use Internet Explorer for video and Mozilla Firefox for betfair and everything else. And after you have got it to work the 1st time turning it on and off is very easy! Just go there you turned it on in the 1st place; Tools Internet Options -- Connections Tab -- LAN Settings and simply tick the box under proxy server on or off, all after how you like it( I reccomend to always turn it off after you are done watching US Racing). Calracing.com This site provides free videostreams of Golden Gates, Hollywood Park, Santa Anita(Oak Tree), Bay Meadows and Fairplex, in various quality but as a rule, they work fine! Simply registrate(fast and easy, no credit card details or anything heavy information required) and you have nice video from thos tracks aswell! Also try out Funk70.com, a mess of a site but I have heard of people that have got it to work, so worth a shot, no idea what tracks it covers At last its worth to mention that many tracks have video or audio feeds on their own homesite. www.Turfparadise.com have really nice video for free from Turf Paradise http://www.philadelphiapark.com/live_video.php for free video from philly(doesnt always work though) www.nyra.com for free audiostreams from all NYRA tracks(aqueduct, Saratoga, Belmont) http://www.monmouthpark.com for free video stream from Monmouth Park 3) Other information Not much to add here really that I have in my mind right now, but a very usefull link is this one: http://www.drf.com/workoutHorseSearch.do Type in the name of a horse and you will see all official workouts the horse have had, if it have had anyone. Useful at times, but dont put to much in to it. Nice to check out though, and in races with lightly raced horses or newcommers its a great tool! For results use http://www.drf.com/results/rindex.html or just http://horseracing.sportsline.com/cbs/liveracing/ If there is still questions or things that is not clear dont hesitate with asking a question or two, why not use this thread for questions and answers? Good Luck, and welcome to US Racing Kaggen