If you ask any casual fan about horse racing, they will likely think of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park just outside of New York City. And if they are a bit more than a casual fan, maybe they could tell you that the middle leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, is run at Pimlico Race Course near Baltimore, Maryland. But they might struggle to name any other tracks. That’s a bit of a shame, however, as tracks in the Midwest and Southwest regions of the country also offer world-class Thoroughbred racing and great opportunities to make money betting on races. Midwest racing in particular is proving to be increasingly popular, so click here to read about horse betting in Iowa, because after all, it doesn’t matter what track you make money on, as long as you are making money. With purses rising at tracks like Prairie Meadows, Canterbury Park and Indiana Grand, racing in the Midwest has attracted some of the nation’s top racehorses, jockeys and trainers. And it’s not uncommon at all to see horses from the Midwest head to Churchill or Belmont and win major races at those tracks.
One of the reasons that it makes sense to bet on horse racing in the Midwest and Southwest is simply that many of the really sharp professional bettors concentrate on tracks like Churchill and Belmont Park. That means that other tracks have more casual horse bettors, which is important to note because of how the pari-mutuel betting system works.
In contrast to betting at a casino, where you are “betting against the house,” in horse racing you are betting against other people who are placing their wagers at tracks, OTBs and online betting sites across the world. So if you are an astute handicapper, you can more easily make money against less seasoned bettors.
Winning money betting on horse racing is all about finding an advantage, so make sure you that you give the tracks in the Midwest and Southwest a chance, because that just might be the difference between winning and losing in the long run.