What Is A Nap In Horse Racing?

Horse racing is full of jargon that doesn’t mean a great deal to the uninitiated, which can be an obstacle to some who are considering the sport as a new hobby or interest. The term Nap is synonymous with horse racing and it simply refers to a tipster’s best bet of the day.

What is a Nap?

A tipster’s Nap is their best bet of the day and there are a couple of ways to interpret exactly what that means. 

Firstly it can be a value-based selection; If a tipster thinks a horse is overpriced, they may select it as their Nap because they believe the horse’s chances aren’t reflected by their current odds. Therefore, the tipster considers the horse to be their best bet of the day.

The Nap can also be the horse who they believe is the most likely winner of the day, or indeed often a combination of the two main factors. It’s worth noting that it implies a high level of confidence but there are no guarantees or certainties.

Another term which many would have seen is NB, which refers to Next Best. It’s perhaps self-explanatory but the NB is a tipster’s second best bet of the day.

Where does the term come from?

The term is a shortened form of Napoleon but it’s important to note that it does not refer to the infamous French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. It originates from a card game that was popular in England for a long period of time, which was shortened to Nap over the years.

In the card game, when declaring a maximum bid, one would announce ‘nap’, in an attempt to win all five tricks. ‘Going Nap’ became a popular term for winning everything in one outcome and was adopted by the press to refer to a tipster’s strongest daily selection.

Nap and NB: What the Abbreviations Mean

How are Naps tracked or followed?

You can follow the success of a tipster’s Nap across the season by looking at a Naps table. If you have the time, you can follow this by creating your own table, or alternatively there’s always the option of following a Naps table created by an existing publication.

Results are calculated using SP prices and a £1 level-stake and the higher the return, the more successful the tipster is with their daily Nap. With this in mind, bigger priced selections are common, as one 7/1 winner is better than five winners at 1/1. This is why Nap and the most likely winner are not necessarily the same thing.

Why a Nap Is Not a Certainty

The short answer is that there are no guarantees when it comes to betting and even the top tipsters are probably wrong more often than they are right when it comes to their Nap. As success is tracked over a longer period, fewer big price winners are usually encouraged.

What Happens to the Price After a Nap Is Published?

Betting markets are always subject to change and a tipster might advise a Nap at a specific price, which can change significantly by the time that the race goes off. The more well-known tipster’s selections can be very popular with the punters, causing the price to shorten.

In this case, it’s important to consider how much the value of the initial advised price has been compromised by the new shorter price. Best odds guaranteed can be a good tool for punters, as they can get paid out on a bigger price if the horse in question drifts.

Judging a tipster’s Nap

It’s important to note that the success of a tipster’s Nap isn’t always an accurate reflection of their tipping reliability but it is a quantifiable tool that can be helpful.

• Track Nap results over the course of a season to see the longer term reliability. Just using the information provided by one particularly big priced winner or a couple of back-to-back losers doesn’t tell the whole story.
• Comparing advised prices and SPs is also useful because it’s a particularly positive sign if the Nap often goes off shorter than the advised price.
• Also consider strike-rate alongside level-stakes profit/loss as a good strike-rate is a particularly positive sign which profit/loss statistics don’t always account for.
• Be careful of social media, as cherry-picked winners can be misleading in the long term and screen shots aren’t always reliable.

Conclusion

Naps continue to be an important and widely used tool for establishing a tipster’s success and allows them to consider value alongside probability of success. Always do your research and it’s important to always gamble responsibly and ensure that it remains fun.