You really can’t place an intelligent wager without reading the horse’s past performances or “form.” Odds alone tell you very little.
“Morning line” odds are the odds written by an oddsmaker prior to the race; the form publishes those odds so you can see what the experts think are the chances for each horse. Yet the morning line odds have nothing to do with with the actual live odds of a horse in parimutuel wagering. Sometimes the program might list a horse at 12-1, but then he becomes the betting favorite at low odds for whatever reason; sometimes insider info, sometimes because of a hot streak, sometimes for no good reason. So you turn to the past performances to get further information on said odds.
It’s not hard to read the form, although it can seem overwhelming with all the numbers which are often unlabeled. Different companies publish their past performances slightly differently, although the general pattern is the same. There is always a legend published somewhere, so when in doubt, find that legend and figure out what each column represents. Most of the information is of limited usefulness to a novice bettor, but becomes more meaningful with experience.
The columns that are the most helpful for someone beginning include the finish position, the speed figure, and the distance/type of race/conditions.
Finish position is kind of obvious-- you want to see how the horse placed in his previous races. This number is usually one of the last listed on each line. There will also be a little superscripted number that tells you how many lengths the horse was ahead of the next one behind it.
There are different types of speed figures (Beyers v. E-speed figures), but they both do more or less the same thing-- they give a numerical rating of how fast the horse ran given the conditions. Time alone is not very useful for this purpose without a deeper understanding of the factors affecting it. Speed figs can be imperfect, but they give you a general ballpark of the impressiveness of a performance. For example, Horse A might have finished no better than 4th in all of his races, but was consistently running speed figures in the 90s. That would indicate that he is probably faster than Horse B, who may have won several races, but never ran faster than speed figures in the 70s. Of course, it’s not quite that simple. If it were, betting would be easy. There are other factors at play and speed figures aren’t perfect. But it does help you gauge a horse’s speed.
With the distance/type of race/conditions, you want to compare it to the current race-- is this a similar race? Were the horse’s previous races longer/shorter, higher/lower class? How long has it been since the last race? There is no one thing you are looking for in these areas, but it helps paint a picture. A horse might look like a sure thing on paper because he has won every race at 6f on the dirt, but for this race he is stretching out to 1 1/8 mi on the turf. A horse might have been running races for smaller purses in the past and winning and is now having to step up to a higher class. Or, a horse might be dropping in class, running for less money than before. The horse might only finish well on a fast track, or on a muddy track, etc.
As for the other stuff, as you gain more experience, it starts helping to further develop the picture. Comments, riders, points of call, medication and equipment changes, win percentages for the trainer, etc. Not super helpful at first, but as you understand the game, those pieces of information start becoming more and more beneficial.
