So, you’re into horse racing but don’t yet have a clue to what’s going on? No sweat, we’ve all been there! Between the dozens of tracks, the hundreds, if not thousands, of horses and a racing calendar that rarely ever sleeps, keeping track of your favorite runners can feel impossible. While every other sport, from the NFL to the NBA, feeds you updates on a silver platter, racing requires a little bit of homework.

To help with the assignment, here are five questions you may be too scared to ask about horse racing.

1. How is the racing season structured? Are horse races held every weekend? If so, where can I watch it on TV?

If the sun’s up, there’s probably a horse race happening somewhere in North America. Each track has its own season, so racing shifts around within a state and across the country. Big races like the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup are on NBC, and you’ll find a lot of top-tier action on FOX Sports too, mostly around weekends. Here’s our latest guide to the TV schedule – we post a new one each week. Want to watch even more races? Sign up for a wagering app (called an ADW for advance-deposit wagering), and you can stream races live from anywhere.

Get your bets in! (Eclipse Sportswire)

2. What is parimutuel betting? What’s the difference between win, place and show bet?

Parimutuel betting means you're not betting against the house – you're betting against everyone else. Odds shift based on how much money is bet on each horse, so popular picks have shorter payouts. A win bet means your horse must finish first; place pays if they’re first or second, and show cashes if they “hit the board” in the top three. So, if you bet $5 to win, place or show on Journalism and he finishes third in the Kentucky Derby next week, you’re still taking home a payout.

3. How do betting odds work?

Horse betting in the United States has been a parimutuel system for the last century, which means the odds shift as money enters the pool. Unlike sports betting where your odds are fixed the moment you place the bet, horse racing odds can, and will, change up until the moment the race begins.

4. What is the Universal Birthday Rule?

In horse racing, every Thoroughbred in North America turns a year older on Jan. 1 – regardless of the day they were born. This “Universal Birthday Rule” helps group horses by age for races and keeps things organized. So even if a foal is born in May, come the next January, it’s considered a yearling, or one year old. It’s the only sport where aging up is as easy as flipping the calendar.

5. How do trainers decide which race a horse should run in?

Trainers use something called a condition book – basically the race menu for each track – to figure out where their horse fits best. These books group horses by sex, age, skill and other factors to keep races fair and competitive. With multiple tracks running, keeping it all straight takes serious planning.