Money management is an important aspect of horse racing, especially if you plan to spend a day at the racecourse. You don't want to be there for two hours and find you only have your bus fare home. There are a number of different things you can do to maximise you winnings and minimise your losses.

You need to be disciplined with your money it is no good going to the racecourse of bookmakers and lumping all your cash on the first race as you believe it's a sure thing. More often than not you'll be going home with your tail between your legs.

One way of doing it is by planning in advance your days betting starting with a set amount you want to bet on any given day. For example if you have £100 to bet, only bet a maximum of £100 in the whole day and any winnings you keep separately from the £100. So at the end of the day you leave with whatever you have won. The £100 you have to bet could be split between several bets. You could bet £20 on each of the three bets you perceive to be best. Then stake £5 on each of the other 5 races. This leaves £15 which could be spent on a few low stake fun bets such as a tricast (trifecta) or perhaps a couple of doubles. By managing your money this way the very worst you can do is lose £100 but this scenario is very, very unlikely if you've done some research into the races. There is a very good chance that at least one of your three big bets will be successful. As long as this comes in at 4/1 you will end the day all square. Any other winning bets and you leave with a profit.

Here is another system called the ten percent system, it's fairly simple and is designed to maximise winning streaks and minimise losing streaks. Here's how it works. Quite simply all you do is bet 10% of your total funds on each race. Here is a an example of how it works. If your total funds at the start of the day are £100 you bet 10% on the first race. Say your first horse won at 3/1 then you receive £40 back leaving you with £130. The next race you would bet 10% again so £13. It loses so you are left with £117. You then bet £11.70 on the next race and it wins at 6/1 leaving you with £187.20. If you won the next race at 2/1 you would be left with £224.64. Compare this with betting £10 on every race.

1st Race=+£30
2nd Race=-£10
3rd Race= +£60
4th Race=+£20

So after those four races you would of ended up with £200. £22 less than with the 10% method.

If you lost all 4 races you would lose £40 betting £10 per race but only £34.39 using the 10% method.