THE DIFFRENCE IN ATTITUDE AND APPROACH OF THE RACING GAME

Race goers tend to back only favorites. . Backing a favourite is a comforting factor for a punter. This is why a punter tends to go with favourites even when logic suggests that he may be making a wrong decision. Even the professionals are not free from this trait of feeling that a favourite has a better chance of winning. I have quite often seen trainers being very confident about their horse much before race time but when that horse is less supported in the ring, they develop cold feet. Rarely can they tip a horse with conviction if it is running at long odds.
The betting pattern of the majority is more often than not dominated by lack of insight and rational calculation. But a punter opts for an easy way out because this will reduce his dissonance and make him feel better. The anxiety that comes with the possibility of having made a bad decision can lead to rationalization even if the said horse that he has backed has lost. Cognitive Dissonance is defined as an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. To reduce this dissonance, a punter tends to justify his decision and if it does not work the way he expects, he resorts to blaming and denying. Quite often in horse racing, result defies expectation and in a state of dissonance, people rarely feel that they have made a mistake and they tend to justify their bias by irrational and destructive behavior. To put it cynically, a punter keeps making mistakes again and again but blames his mistake on someone else!
. Only a minority of race goers shun favourites.
These days, we have experts advising punters on why they should avoid favorites and how to lay the horse (In other words, instead of backing the favourite, take the bet on the favourite themselves). These experts extol punters not to be misled by hype, which is based on rumor and have opened consultancy services to guide them how to deviate from the trap that the majority fall into.
The mindset of a punter is always influenced by the fact of a horse being a favourite no matter how many times he is proved wrong. This perception can never change whatever theories that may be advocated against backing favorites. A big punter always swears by the favourite even if time and again he has lost a fortune. For the record, about 30 per cent of horses win as favorites world wide and anything higher than this is considered as a big deviation from the norm. Success visits favourites often but never sits with them permanently!