i know there are such people as bookmakers
but what i want to know is how do they make thier books
ty.

As a general rule they divide the field up into 4 divisions.
Rank Outsiders - These are usually the 20/1+ shots.
Outside Chances - 11/1 - 19/1
Medium Favs - Which maybe made up of 5-8 horses 5.5/1 - 10/1
Strong Favs - which maybe made up of say 2-4 horses 1/1 -5/1

You will have possible observed that the majority of the top 6 chances tend to dominate a meeting & has been priced accordingly.

They then tinker with the figures from there, using various formats for their information so as to get a bead on how much exposure they can allow themselves for each group.

I am trying to keep it as basic as possible, but that's generally the way book making is done .

But you wouldn't think so if one went to the track & watch them mimic one another's figures... crazy!

If you would like to do your own book, I have found using the pre post prices in Racingandsports or any newspaper, then multiply them by 0.90 & bet horses over that figure, seems to work as well as anything else, if the favs dont decide to get up all day.

For instance today at Sandown had a horse Soft Cell, listed as third Fav on its own line,(Racingandsports) at approx $7.00 x 0.90 = 6.30 our adj accessed price .

One can bet the overs by dividing our adj price into say 5% of our bank.
e.g. $1000 bank at 5% = $50
Divided by our accessed price 6.30 = $8.00 O/L

Soft Cell duly won at $85.00 x our $8 O/L = $680 Ret

Profit $672 for an $8 O/L
Now that's what one calls an overlay!

I have made it look easy & it can be , keep in mind , one will experience a number of outs as well , so one has to have the right temperament to use this concept of betting the Overs.

One will usually be betting several horses in the same race, so the outgoings can be draining . So make sure the bank is big enough for horror run & they do happen, especially if the short priced horses dicide to get up for 3+ meetings in a row & I have seen it happen.

This is something that the books out there dont tell us about.
Cheers.

__________________
Cheers.