| When handicapping a race to find good bets, horse | | | | much out of it. This is particularly true of young horses |
| players often consider a horse's form cycle and try to | | | | who gain confidence by winning and quickly lose it by |
| figure out if it is ready to perform well or poorly. When | | | | losing races. |
| a horse has a really big race and expends a lot of | | | | So if you are handicapping a race and looking for a |
| energy, it may run a poor race the next time out. That | | | | horse that is ready to run a big race, take the age of |
| is what is known as bouncing. On the other hand, | | | | the horses into consideration. The younger the horses, |
| looking at the races previous to today's race, | | | | in my opinion, the more likely they are to bounce. Not |
| handicappers try to determine if the horse has been | | | | just because of physical factors, but also because |
| improving, in other words, rounding into form. So it | | | | they have to have the will to win and a big effort that |
| becomes necessary to understand when a horse will | | | | results in a loss can be devastating to a young horse. |
| improve off its last effort or regress. | | | | Here are a few signs to look for when searching for |
| I like to see a horse who is coming back to the races | | | | the ready to run horse. |
| to have had at least two races within the last 40 days. | | | | First of all, look for a horse who has had at least two |
| I also like to see that its last race was better than the | | | | races in the last forty days and one of them was |
| previous one. However, if I see that the second race | | | | within the last two weeks. Secondly, if the horse was |
| back required the horse to battle another runner on the | | | | involved in a grueling stretch drive or battled another |
| lead and to fully extend itself through the stretch run, | | | | horse for the lead throughout the race, beware. If, on |
| then I suspect that the horse may bounce and toss in | | | | the other hand, the horse laid back off the pace and |
| a clinker. | | | | made a good run in the stretch, that one may be |
| This is precisely why trainers used to tell their jockeys | | | | ready to win in one of its next two races. |
| to take it easy and not to try too hard in the first | | | | Another sign of a potential bounce horse is the highest |
| couple of races. They understood that while the horse | | | | speed figure horse. If the horse achieved its highest |
| was keen to win, it didn't have the physical conditioning | | | | speed figure in its last race and didn't have an easy, |
| to sustain a drive without injuring itself or taking too | | | | uncontested lead, it may well bounce. |