The horse racing industry is rife with supposedly inside information but in reality only trainers, owners and stable workers know whether a horse is performing above expectations or suited to a particular set of conditions during the run up to a race. This information influences their own betting strategies and once their wagers reach the bookies, they are used to help decide what odds to offer.

Few ordinary punters get access to this kind of inside information but knowing as much as you can about owners, jockeys, horses and courses will put you in the best possible position when it comes to making sense of what is going on at the bookies and beyond.

When you place a bet on the outcome of a horse race, you place it with a bookmaker who will have built in a margin in his own favour in order to ensure he can continue to make a living. At best, these odds can only ever be an educated guess because of the huge number of variables involved. The bookmaker`s odds will also be influenced by where other bets are being placed.

In horse racing, almost more than any other sport, the more information you have the better. If you do your homework well enough, it may even be possible to judge the true odds better than the bookmaker and find yourself cleaning up.

In many areas of life, if something appears to be too good to be true, it often is. This isn`t usually the case with horse racing. If you come across great odds for a particular race, they are often worth grabbing as quickly as possible. One area where caution is advised, however, is when it comes to ante-post betting. Although such odds – which are released well in advance of a race – may appear generous, you can sometimes lose your entire stake if your chosen horse does not run.

Another important tip is that it is almost always better to pay tax on your stake, not your winnings. Bets placed at race courses are tax free but those placed at high street betting shops are not. Paying tax on a stake can save a huge amount of money in the event of a win. Of course, if you lose the bet, the money has been wasted, but more than one professional gambler has pointed out that only someone who is convinced they are going to lose would wait to pay their tax.

Therefore the most important element of any effective betting strategy is to have access to as much information as possible. To this end you should read every newspaper sports section, every specialist journal, compare every set of odds and scour the internet and beyond for every source of free racing tips that you can find.