subject: How To Find Spot Plays At the Greyhound Track [print this page] A spot play is simply a dog that is likely to be a contender because of a specific factor. For instance, dogs who fade in the stretch, who switch from a track with a longer than average stretch to a track with a shorter than average stretch, often win their first time out. That's a spot play.
Dogs who are close to the leader for two calls between the 1/8th call and the stretch call are often in the trifecta in their next race. That's another example of a situational play. So are dogs who switch from dashes - very short races - to sprints. They get out very quickly, because they're used to the short races.
Spot plays are just any dog that has a little extra "something" going for it. Often, this is just enough to make it come in. Dogs, like people, do better in certain situations than others. If you give them a little edge, they often make the best of it and do better than they usually do.
If you want to start a list of your own "dogs to watch", look for situations that keep occurring over and over where dogs come in and surprise the crowd. Anytime a dog does better than they look like they're going to do, you should look for a this type of situation.
Many systems, including mine, take spot plays into account and show you how to find them. Actually, anyone who has been to the track for as many years as I have knows more about spots than they realize they know. There's just no way you can go to performance after performance and not see what's right in front of you.
Well, I guess I should say that there SHOULD BE no way that people don't notice what's in front of them and learn to recognize spot plays. It's actually a talent that some people have and some people don't have. It doesn't mean that you're not a decent handicapper. It just means that spot plays aren't what you're best at.
