There's nothing more satisfying than betting on a horse, watching your chosen horse romp home and then seeing UK online bookmakers dishing out loads of dosh! When you think about it betting on horse racing is a bit like playing a game of chess with the bookmakers. It's obvious that online bookmakers always set a margin that's in their favour, which is a bit like always starting out with the white chess pieces. Then the online bookmakers first move is to set their opening prices, and yours is then placing a bet at these odds. The online bookmakers then take more bets and adjust their odds accordingly - and then at the end of the race they usually come out on top.

People think that betting on horses is based mainly on luck, and that the only way of winning regularly is by obtaining inside information. This may have once been true once, but in today's modern world where gambling is scrutinised and monitored daily, this sort of thing rarely happens. Horse racing systems and following a horse racing vetting strategy are also regulary used although once again it's hard to see how effective they are.

So how do make sure your winning more horse racing bets than your losing? Should you on hunches and horses with interesting names and simply hope then for the best? There's definitely a better option available. Make sure you base your bets on information that you've personally collected about the different runners and then make a calculated guess. We've listed some horse racing tips below that you should help when deciding how good a particular horse is likely to fair in the horse race you're thinking of betting on:

1. Check the weather out and then compare how the horses fared in previous races in similar conditions. Certain horses tend to outlast others in the rain, while other horses charge unstoppable to the finish line when it's cloudy. Most online bookmakers offer this information on their website.

2. Don't be fooled into thinking that older horses always run slower than three-year old ones towards the end of a season. This is just not true. It useful to check how many races each horse did run. Sometimes horses just compete in too many horse races and this tends to slow them down irrespective of their age.

3. Check the horses pedigree. You can usually buy this kind of information on certain horses at local bookshops. After you've gathered all the relevant information bear in mind that a colt doesn't need to be as much of a pedigree as a filly does to run fast. Once again check online bookmakers sites for info.

4. Saying that, don't rely too heavily on the horses pedigree in lower class races. These are usually the races in which those horses with a weak pedigree tend to perform better than expected. The online bookmakers are slightly slow to pick up these occorances in lesser horse races.

5. You may think that there is a direct connection between the weight of the jockey and how fast the horse is capable of running, but this isn't true. Most jockeys tend to weigh approximately the same and its actually the slightly heavier ones who manage to win more often.

6. Similarly, heavier horses can actually run faster than lighter horses, but only up to a certain point. A colt usually weighs about a hundred pounds more than a filly and so on average are more likely to win over long distances. Check horse history at online bookmakers like Totesport bookmaker.

7. Watch out for odds dropping in the early-price market with two or three online bookmakers only and aren't obvious bets from the horses' previous form. Back the former and avoid the latter.

Basically in any gamble the winning strategy is usually to do what the online bookmakers don't want you to do. It's not always easy working out what this is, but the best online bookmakers tend to give away little clues, especially when it comes to horse racing. One of them is the type of bets being offered. For example each-way bets that are refused with 'Win only' or 'Half stakes on the place' offers mean you're probably betting in a market where the place terms make the place book well under 100% and therefore in your favour. Most likely a book with a long odds-on favourite, a very clear second favourite between 6/1 and 9/1, and large odds for the rest with three places available each way. Just back the second favourite each way in these instances.