What is Nap Horse Racing? Nap Horse Racing Explained in 2 minutes
Jesse M. Cox Last Verified
19/04/2026
One of the key terms in betting on horse racing is nap. Tipsters are employed to advise bettors on which horses they fancy in any given race. In the national Press racing pundits provide a tip for each race. The Racing Post includes cards, results and form. The paper also employs a number of tipsters who analyse a race and suggest to the readers the horse to back.
A tipster can have different levels of confidence in a horse they back and certain criteria will have been identified to make a horse a tip. A nap is the tipster’s best bet of the day and the horse is the one that looks to have the best chance of winning the race. A tipster may be confident about a second horse and will tip it but it is known as Second Best and not Nap. Some bettors will follow a tipster’s nap blindly and if there is a wining run will make money backing naps.
How is Nap used in Sports Betting?
Racing tipsters provide tips for many races so must dedicate a great deal of time to studying the form. There is less coverage of racing in broadsheet papers and some no longer feature race cards and tips.
Tipsters have been a part of racing for many years and some are not very good. The unsuccessful ones won’t last because there is no hiding place from the proofing of results. A tipster’s nap is the best bet of the day in their eyes and some bettors follow the naps and back each one. The most respected tipsters have good strike rates and return on investment over a substantial amount of time.
In horse racing there naps will a good number of races and the odds are not restrictive. Naps tables monitor the performance of tipsters in the Press and list is ranked on level stakes profit over an agreed time period.
