It's easy to spend a lot of money on our hobbies, especially when they involve wagering. Anyone who likes to bet a couple of bucks on the lottery, a poker game or a horse can tell you that handicapping systems can run into big money over time.

A lot of people think that you have to spend a lot to get a handicapping system that works at the harness track. "If it's free," they think, "How can it be any good?" Well, skepticism is a good thing when you're spending money, but when you're offered something for free, it might hurt you to be too cynical.

You might want to turn that skepticism around and ask yourself why anyone would offer a free system that doesn't work, to drum up business. Think about it. If the free system doesn't work, are you going to buy their other systems? The ones that cost money?

Not likely, is it. And that's why the answer to the question in the title of this article is "Yes", a free harness handicapping system might just help you pick winners, if you use it along with basic handicapping skills and common sense.

Whether someone is pitching an expensive system or offering a free one, there's no way that they can promise that you'll make money with it. How can they when they don't know your ability to pick horses or how good your judgment or money management skills are?

All anyone can do, when they sell a system or anything else, is tell you what they've done with it and what it's done for them. It might work as well for you, and it might not. Then again, if it's free, why in the world wouldn't you give it a try, at least on paper, before they take it down?