Favourites Information & Help

The favourite in a horse race is the shortest priced runner in the odds market. Visit here to learn more about horse racing odds. The theory behind a horse racing favourite is it has the most likely chance of winning the race however as all followers of the sport will know this is far from always being the case.

Contents

1. What makes a favourite
2. Favourite types
3. False favourites
4. Additional favourites comments
5. Favourite Statistics
6. Favourites in the builder

There are so many factors that can contribute to a horse being favourite in any given race. These range from obvious things such as previous form of the horses competing to more reactional favouritism created by word of mouth such as favourable word coming from the trainer of the horse. The shorter the price of the favourite the more likely it is its position in the market is derived from form actually shown on the racecourse. Its worth remembering something has to be top of the market so in races where there is little between the major players horses may well switch places in favouritism right up till the off.

There are three types of favourite description you may see, these vary only in terms of the number of runners with favouritism status. These are as following -

• Clear favourites. Indicated by an F (for example 2/1F) signifying this horse was clear at the head of the market.
• Joint favourites. The display will show JF (for example 3/1JF) meaning this horse and one other were joint top in the market.
• Co favourites. Signified by CF (for example 4/1CF) this shows the horse was one of at least three who were all sharing favouritism.

Here is where hindsight is often used, because of course after the race its easy to say "no way it should have been favourite". The aim of punters is to try and distinguish the factors commonly associated with horses who are incorrectly at the head of the market and therefore perhaps underpriced and worthy of taking on. Some of these factors can include the following -

• The form of the favourites previous win has worked out badly.
• Competing horses have previously beaten or came very close to the favourite in similar circumstances.
• Collateral form does not justify favouritism
• The horse has ran too many times or risen too high in the weights and has peaked
• Despite boasting excellent form the favourite has not shown enough under todays conditions
• Hype - when its all down to talk and heresay, can you trust where its coming from?

Although a commonly sourced set of statistics, it is worth recognising the actual odds of the favourites for certain types of races are generally shorter than others. Therefore although a commonly spoken statistic of favourites going well in certain circumstances may to an extent be true, it does not actually mean anything worthwhile from a betting perspective. Take for example two jockeys, one of whom has a 50% strike rate on favourites while the other has only a 25% strike rate - this is only meaningful if they have competed on horses in a comparable price range.

The key to finding favourites who are consistently worth either backing or taking on is to identify a like-for-like scenario where you can clearly spot, justify and explain the reasoning behind your support or laying of this particular favourite type with solid statistical evidence over a reasonable period of time. There are several good systems exploiting these situations but they are often short-lived due to the popularity of favourites and the fact bookmakers are always second-guessing punters.

There is a section focusing on favourites in the dedicated directory of horse racing statistics, here you will find numerous facts and figures in relation to the favourite in various tests.

Favourites in the horse racing systems builder.

With the Favourites setting, you can specify favouritism status of the horse. Favourites are horses that started as clear favourite, Joint Favourites are horses that started as a favourite with same price as one other horse. Co-Favourites are horses that started with same price as two or more horses.

• Selecting Favourites & Co-Favourites limits query to horses that started as co-fav or fav. Joint favs would not be included.
• Selecting Co-Favourites only will include only Co-Favourites in your query. Clear favourites and joint favourites would be excluded.
• Selecting Favourites in the Favourites (LR) setting limits query to horses that started as favourite on their last run.

Starting Price Of Favourite

Here you can breakdown/include only races that had a favourite within your specified price range.

• Setting between 2/1 & 4/1 limits your query to only races where the shortest priced horse in the race (fav or joint fav etc) was equal to or greater than 2/1 and less than or equal to 4/1
• Setting between 10/11 and 10/11 limits your query to only races which had a 10/11 priced favourite

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