Though it is important to have a strict method for wagering, one that demands prices and focuses on playing horses that have better chances to win than the public offers, it is important to be aware of bad habits that can thwart your actions.

It is a common thing to be haunted by bad circumstances when you play pari-mutuels, so it is imperative to recognize them and allow them no power over your performances. Horseplayers are very superstitious people; it’s a character flaw that must never get the better of the bettor. If you have played the horses for a while you no doubt recognize certain scenarios that seem to be a reason, if not the reason, for losing races.

For instance, there may be a certain driver whose horses beat you when he isn’t driving one of your bets and who has lost when driving one of your bets. This may have happened twice or thrice or whatever over any period of time, but you remember those times more than any others when you win or lose despite that driver. So, you develop a fear that he will always beat you when the same circumstances arise.

No matter what you think, that particular scenario is random. And so are all the others that have to do with anything that can be related as a jinx or curse.

There are so many fantastic laws that come from the so-called “horse gods” or “betting gods” that they are bequeathed from one generation to the next. Here are a few general legendary scenarios:

If you get shut out of a race, the horse you were going to bet will win.

Play a horse to place because all of your win bets are coming in second and your horse will come in third.

Play it for show and it will be off the board.

If you don’t box an exacta it will come in the opposite way.

Every race you pass will have a winner you would have bet.

There are so many more, generic and personal, and they all have to do with the lack of luck you have under certain conditions.

No one has ever come up with empirical evidence that any losing scenario is a constant, no less that some are unique to certain players. There are simply too many ways to lose a race to be able to find a distinct reason and certainly no phantom force or set-up or single condition can be assigned blame.

Just be sure that you never give strength to coincidence by claiming it is anything but coincidence.