I decided to post my horse wagering results early this year. I know it is the start of Kentucky Derby prep racing season, but I am done placing bets for the year. Last week I had a couple things that didn’t go my way. First there was a scratch of one of my horses in the first leg of a pick 4 at Del Mar. They gave me the favorite instead, but I had that horse already and he didn’t win. My picks in the next 3 races won, of course. Next was a win bet that came in 3rd, and I was going to get my money back. But there was an inquiry, and the horse was moved to 4th. Seems like the whole year went like that.
This was my 9th year wagering on TVG. I can see a steady decline in the amount of money that I put into my account. The first two years I had deposited $1000 each year. In 2024 my deposit amount was down to $500. My average annual deposit over the past 8 years was $730 and my average withdrawal per year was $228. I had 3 years where I didn’t take any money out of my account. The average amount wagered during each year was $2850, which produced average winnings of $2238 per year. Based on the numbers, I have lost an average of $502 per year.
Now let’s look at my 2024 results. I deposited $500, wagered $1739, and won $1023. If you just take my starting balance and add $500, and then subtract my ending balance, you end up with $520 loss for the year. This is very close to my average over the past 8 years. If you consider that this is only about $43 per month (I’m trying to justify my losses here) it doesn’t look so bad. My strategy in 2024 was to play more pick 4’s. I won a few, but none were big enough to offset my losing wagers. As always there were a lot of memorable moments. Like my 18-1-win wager on Mystic Dan in the 2024 Kentucky Derby. I’m going to take a break and use the next few months to come up with a new strategy.