I made money betting in 7 of the last 9 years. The net of those 9 years is very positive on a ROI basis.

I had positive years prior to that, but it was very on and off and mostly depended on whether I made a couple of big hits during the year that put me over the top.

The breakthrough for me came when I stopped trying to pick winners and focused all my energy on looking for value. I look for overbet favorites (to key against) and situations where several horses are fairly similar in ability, but one is going off at odds much longer than the others.

I must point out that I am not making big money. I mostly just play for fun on weekends in the major stakes races around the country and I am very selective about betting. I pass many races.

IMHO, if you are betting a lot of favorites and other short prices horses (less than 3-1) you are going to have a very difficult time winning. At best you might squeeze out a few cents on the dollar if you are a superior handicapper, but more likely is that you will either finish up in the red or just spin a lot of money through the windows and accomplish nothing.