I used to love to play the mechanical horses. The one I played looked a bit different but it was pretty close. My general strategy was to pick a horse that I was pretty sure would finish 1 or 2 and then I would bet quinella's with lots of other horses including the long shots. Where I played the longshots would often come in 2nd but rarely first. It wasn't a bad strategy and it would often work really well but overall I think I ended up about even or maybe down just slightly.
