Hedging your bets
 

Hello,

I'm new to the site and this is my first post.
I find myself asking this question often, especially after Oaklawn on Monday. Using some techniques from Steven Crist's and Steve Davidowitz's books and the horse insights that Steve gives, I'm find myself alive in the last leg with the double, several pick 3's, and finally the pick four to a few horses, how best does one go about hedging their bets?:zz:

Bet on the horses in the last leg you do not have covered in your DD, several pick 3's and pick 4.

The problem is that with a deep field and you have say three horses, let's say the favorite, a medium priced horse, and a long shot, covered, how best to cover the other nine in a twelve horse field?

These that are already covered should be your top 3 in the race. So, place wp bets with #s 4,5,6. That leaves the bottom six out, but your covered for the top 6.

I think it depends on the odds of the horses you do not have covered and the will pays on your live bets.

I sort of agree with what has already been said in that I would make win bets on the next 3 or 4 horses I think can win (depending on their odds) outside of the 3 I'm live to.

I wouldn't hedge a double.

I would throw them in an exacta before I would go WP.

The last thing you want to do is hedge and lose both bets.

Each situation is totally different and needs to be approached in a different manner depending on expected payouts and odds of horses not covered in original bet.

Possibly using the horses you are alive to for second.....Other than that,hedging is usually a losing prop.

Definitely.

I also find this to be the case.

You have to be alive to a significantly large payout relative to the size of your wager, to hedge. Otherwise , as has been mentioned in this thread, it is a losing prop.

Hedging is never good.

The larger the potential payoff vs wager size, the worse hedging is. The reason you make this kind of wager is to be live in the last leg with as much a differential on the odds your getting on your live horse(s) vs actual. You need as much of that differential as possible as often as possible to offset losses or instances where you're getting a negative differential in the last leg.

Just my opinion.

Unless you are bases loaded max odds on a craps table coming out I find hedges are typically losers too.