Read any race track's program or the past performances you can buy and you will find public handicappers.
Public handicappers are men and women who have built a reputation based on their knowledge who then handicap races and publish their picks or notes about the races.
They are paid by newspapers, race tracks, and the suppliers of past performances.
Some of these handicappers are very good while others just seem mediocre.
Sometimes the service they write for will publish the ROI (return on investment) for their picks over the course of the meet.
They usually are in the red though some come very close to making a profit.
While that may not be impressive, remember this, they have to handicap every race and make picks for the race whether they would actually play the race or not.
No one can handicap every race on a program and make a profit over the long run.
So a smart handicapper usually picks and chooses among the races to find races that he or she wants to play.
There is an old saying that probably explains how they find their "playable" races.
"A person shouldn't bet on any race he or she doesn't have a strong opinion about.
" In other words, if you can't figure the race out, don't bet it.
Another very important handicapping point that is also lost in the shuffle when rating these public handicappers is what price he or she would take on a horse, in other words, fair value odds.
He or she would probably be able to stay in the black, though just barely, by only betting on horses that he or she thought were at a fair price.
So when it comes to public handicappers, I think it is fair to say that many of them are quite good, but they are trying to accomplish a very difficult task.
It is still a good idea, however, to read their comments, because you will sometimes find some very good points you may have overlooked with your own efforts.