On December 10^th the third annual meet at Hialeah Park got off to a great start with a strong turnout of 6,000 fans to witness opening day at the historic South Florida track.  The winter meet at Hialeah will feature 3 days of live racing each week until February 19, 2012.

If you’re a long time thoroughbred fan and haven’t given quarter horses the time of day, the Hialeah meet is a great time to give handicapping these super fast animals a try.  Because the average quarter horse race is so short – there are far fewer handicapping factors to take into advantage when trying to pick a winner.  Basically you need to zero in on the absolute fastest contender and hope that they get a clean break.

Hialeah captures a unique spot in the racing market being the only quarter horse track that runs in the Eastern Time Zone during its regular racing days of Friday – Sunday.  Horseplayers will also find the large fields and low takeout a great reason to play this track as well. While the all-sources handle for Hialeah is still small at around $200,000 per race card there are still many nice scores to be had by focusing in on some live longshots in the multi-race wagers like the .50 pick-4.  All win place and show wagers have a minimum bet of $1 and superfectas carry a dime minimum.  Best of all each and every bet at Hialeah carries an industry low 12% takeout – meaning your have a better chance to maintain a positive ROI betting these quarter horses than almost any other track in North America.

Almost every day of racing at Hialeah features stakes action with the main highlights of the season being the following races:

Winning Ponies is proud to be handicapping each and every race at Hialeah Park this year and for as long as they continue to run – with the hope that thoroughbred racing will soon return to this venerable racetrack.  So far the racing at Hialeah has been formful and exciting with a mix of wild longshots and mid-priced horses ending up in the winners’ circle.  By most accounts it seems that the crowd still hasn’t got a handle on who the true favorite should be in each race – giving those who use Winning Ponies selections an edge in the pari-mutuel pools.  Our most recent big score at Hialeah came on Sunday, December 11 where we provided a nice Superfecta score that took down the whole pool including our 3^rd overall pick which paid $28.20 to win.

For more information check out the Hialeah Park Website and Winning Ponies for the latest information about race conditions, entries, and Hialeah Park picks.