The handicap of horse racing is a hard way to make money, but some people barely manage to make a profit. However, sometimes you have to think outside the box if you want to make money. While most people bet to win or play exotic bets, the venue and show groups often go unnoticed by most horse players. Yet there is race after race and thousands pour into those pools.

Who is betting place and show and why? It has been proven that there are overlays in these pools that can be profitable bets, although not so glamorous. One thing I look for when deciding if there is room in the venue group for a good bet is a second favorite hammering away in the venue groups.

It happens almost every day at almost every track, but not every race. However, if you look at the prize amounts by place, you’ll find that in some races, the second favorite gets a disproportionate amount of the place money. The situation usually arises in a race where the favorite appears very strong and there is another horse that seems much better than the rest of the field, but not on a par with the leading horse.

When you see that a horse is making a lot of money, that’s a red flag, or maybe a green one, because it means there may be a good bet for place in the race. While the second favorite may be a good horse and have a good chance of being second or perhaps even upsetting the favourite, if you bet the place pot it can still be a poor place bet and that means another contender for the place spot is under bid, making it a good place bet.

Strange as it may seem at first, the favorite can become a good bet if the second favorite is overrated. If the second favorite fails to achieve at least place and the favorite wins, all money wagered on the second favorite in the place pool will be divided between the favorite’s sponsors and the horse that achieves second place. This is an often overlooked horse racing angle.

When handicap the race, look at the top contenders and see how much to stake on each. You’ll have to wait until press time to make sure one or more of them are being reviewed in the spot groups, but you’ll often find a good spot bet if you’re patient and can really identify the contenders they can place.