What Does Ante-Post Betting Mean?

Most people understand how day-of-race bets are made, but what is ante-post betting? What does ante-post mean?

What Are Ante-Post Markets?

In horse racing, an ante-post market is a race market set up before the final declarations have been made.

Therefore it may be created long before the race is due to take place. You will find that RaceBets.com has ante-post markets for most of the big upcoming races, that are taking place this year.

Let’s take the Epsom Derby, for example. RaceBets offers an ante-post market on this race, many months before it is due to take place. When the ante-post market is open, the horses may not even be entered into the race. This means that the prices, for each horse, are going to be much higher.

What you must understand is that the high prices reflect the fact that the horse may not even take part in the race. Perhaps the horse will suffer illness, or injury. Alternatively, the owner might just have other plans. If the horse is not get entered, you will not be refunded with an ante-post bet. This means you will need to do a fair amount of research, before making a big ante-post bet.

Horses that are already attracting a lot of bets, in our 2017 Epsom Derby ante-post market include Churchill, Rivet and Capri. This shows that the many punters feel confident that these horses are going to be entered, into the Derby. Bettors are also indicating that they are likely to run a competitive race. All three of these horses are likely to go off at fairly short prices, if they are entered. This is because they are likely to be among the very best three year-old mile-and-a-halfers, running in the summer of 2014.

Smart Ante-Post Betting

Savvy bettors look for patterns, before making an ante-post bet. They will look back on how the owner and trainer have acted in previous years. They will look at the races that any of the horses in the ante-post market have run in. They will also look at previous Derbies and check back to find out which races the winners competed in, before being entered into the Derby. If the profile matches a horse in the ante-post market, this may lead to that horse receiving strong support.

Often, bettors like to monitor any media interviews, with the jockeys, trainers and owners. Are they giving away any clues, with regard to future plans?

When To Make Your Bet

One thing you need to consider, before making an ante-post bet, is the fact that your money will be tied-up from now until the race is run. This may be several months. If you enjoy making bets, every week, you do not want to put too much of your betting-bankroll on ante-post bets.

Remember that, once your ante-post bet has been placed, it cannot be reversed. This is why many people like to just make small ante-post bets, particularly when the race will not be run for many months. Ante-post betting can be fascinating and many of our customers enjoy making ante-post wagers.