It’s hard to win at the races consistently. The game is stacked against bettors at the start. Takeout on bets of between 15 and 30 percent already puts players in a hole, and overcoming that amount takes enormous skill and discipline. Interestingly, the least likely reason people lose is that they are bad handicappers. In today’s information age, handicappers have more opportunity than ever to find winners.

I’ll offer some of the more likely reasons players have negative balance sheets.

You don’t have a plan. How you bet should be dependent on your bankroll, and I’ll elaborate a little more on that below. I’ve advocated that less capitalized bettors should focus on the win and exacta pools while reserving a small portion of your bankroll for more exotic wagers. Having a plan allows you to approach each card with some confidence. You have an idea of how you will attack each respective betting race, and being prepared creates confidence.

You handicap too many races at too many circuits. I think handicapping one card at one circuit can easily consume a couple of hours. There is a lot involved in handicapping a race. Figuring out how the race will be run, watching replays from previous races, getting an idea of the ability of each horse, looking into trainers and jockeys – all that takes time. Is it possible to do this for multiple race tracks and circuits? Sure, but it will take a lot of time both during the races and after the races. Not many people have that kind of time, yet they will be playing from the first race on the east coast to the last race at Los Al, and then maybe turn their attention to Australia. It is one thing to target specific race types at the different circuits, but trying to play 30 to 50 races in a day would be tough for even the best handicappers. Most people playing the races have jobs, families and other obligations. Even if you are just playing on the weekend, it makes little sense to try to cram a large number of races into the day and expect to regularly come out ahead. Being a master at one circuit may be a better alternative than being mediocre at five.

You bet when there is no value. I’ve written about this extensively and cannot emphasize it enough. You have to get away from being selection oriented (I like the 3 horse in this race) and become value oriented (I believe the 3 is an overlay in this race). You have to discipline yourself to not bet when you don’t have an edge.

You bet too many races. I bet every New York race day. In nine or ten races I’m happy to find five to seven races where I can find a value bet. It would be a rare day where I found bets in all ten races.  I recognize that the action can be addictive, but you have to learn to substitute the thrill of winning consistently for the thrill of rooting something in every single race. I’ll admit sometimes I wind up sitting when I should be betting, but I suspect that may be an easier problem to fix than betting too many races. Ask yourself that simple question before betting. Do I really have an edge here?

You hit a race and immediately increase your betting. We’ve all done it. You hit a race and the win bets go from $20 to $50 and you’re throwing money at all the lottery bets. Why? Because psychologically you think, I’m hot! Riding the crest. One question – how long did it take before you were starting over with your bankroll? There is only one way to handle a big win. Discipline yourself to stick with what works.

You’re not properly capitalized for the pools you are in. If you are investing $100 a day in the pick six chances are you’re not going to hit one unless it happens to be a particularly formful day. If there were six races with seven horses each that would be over 117,000 combinations. Keep records. What’s your ROI on your bets? If you are a small bankroll player, the first pools you should look at are win and exacta. I’m not suggesting you should never look at the Pick 5/6, but understand that you can kill your bankroll playing them.

You press when you’re down.They call the last race the “get out race” because lots of people are trying to recover all their loses in that race. Remind yourself, it’s just another betting race that you’ll get into if there is value and there is always tomorrow. It rarely seems like pressing in the last works out unless that was the race you were waiting for all day.

You don’t understand the math when it comes to exotics and you spread too thin. I want to pull my hair out every time I see TVG tweet out a pick 4 ticket with a 5/2 single and 60 combinations, the first question I ask is, is the pick 4 likely to pay more than the same amount on the single to win? Even with 50 cent pick 4’s, a $30 win ticket on the 5-2 shot pays $105, meaning the pick 4 has to pay more than $420 to be a better play. Same with the trifecta or superfecta. Anytime you single a horse you are making a win (or place) bet and you have to be astute enough to make a calculation. You ever hear someone “wheel” a horse in the exacta or the daily double? Yep, they are making a win bet. If you play Horse A to Horse B to some horses in a trifecta, you essentially made an exacta bet. You have to understand the bet you are really making.

You bet when you are on tilt. We’ve all suffered tough losses. Plain and simple, if you have a race to bet after you’ve had a bad beat, make sure you are thinking clearly.