Some Food for Thought

[TravisVOX]

Perhaps this is just me, and if it is, I apologize for the post, but I noticed something today and wanted to share.

Everyone is told to read the books when they first start out. Read, read and read some more! Learn all you can. This is true, just with anything else really. Besides, horse racing books are entertaining and fun to read, so what's the big deal, right?

With myself, I noticed a few things though. As with many people, if I'm bored and have nothing to do, I'll pick up a handicapping book and just start reading, as I did today. I began reading "What's He Doing in Today's Race," a chapter from Betting Thoroughbreds by Steve Davidowitz. I've read this particular chapter numerous times, but to be honest, I appreciated it most this afternoon.

When reading these books in the past, I've never had a pen and paper, or computer next to me to jot down notes and thoughts. I had simply just read the book and tried to remember as much as I can. But now, I'm going through many of the books I've read and am keeping notes that I'll print up later to refer to.

In this chapter, I read about the first example and caught myself committing a few atrocious errors. For one, I wasn't reading over the past performance profiles of all examples enough, and pretending as though I was handicapping the race myself. Once I did this, and combined with my writing down of notes, the entire concept Davidowitz dawned on me...despite sadly, not having before. When I noticed the patterns myself, I felt an overwhelming wave of confidence, and mentality that tells me I personally have at least a hint of handicapping ability.

I realize this is drab, and not for everyone. But I enourage everyone to consider this themselves. I know I'll be going through all my books this year and really dissecting the text, treating it as a textbook I need for a final exam. It's enjoyable, exciting and is sure to help my handicapping abilities!

[kenwoodallpromos]

Buy a bag of cheap red pens to underline in books and mark up the DRF and your ROI will be 5% better!

[raybo]

<I know I'll be going through all my books this year and really dissecting the text, treating it as a textbook I need for a final exam. It's enjoyable, exciting and is sure to help my handicapping abilities!>

There you go Travis!

Study everything you can and test the concepts to see if they actually are valid. Gather all the valid concepts into your own personal handicapping strategy.

And, keep asking questions, of others, and of yourself.

[JackS]

Over the years I've read many books and many of these books are tomes of 300-500 pages. I've come to the conclusion that the best way to use these books is to extract the points made that you can actually understand and use effectively. It would do me no good to read for 30 minutes or an hour on some detailed diatribe of theory on making numbers that I either don't understand or feel it would be impossible for me to incorporate into my own handycapping. Many of these books are a great resource and should be read but, don't waste your time on methods that are unclear or clearly so time consuming they become impractical. My next book purchase will be by a well known and respected writer with 100 pages or less. I think such a book would probably be more of a "how to" than an encyclopedia of proven and unproven methods.

[TravisVOX]

Originally posted by JackS
It would do me no good to read for 30 minutes or an hour on some detailed diatribe of theory on making numbers that I either don't understand or feel it would be impossible for me to incorporate into my own handycapping.

Certainly. The thing is, however, that the good books aren't full of garbage. Specifically, Davidowitz's Betting Thoroughbreds. On a first read, I felt like I didn't grasp that much. But when I went back and wrote the notes, thought things out etc., I realized that his style required some reading between the lines. I'm enjoying it, this being my third or fourth time, because one can often forget the core conepts of this game frequently discussed.

[Skanoochies]

I agree with JS to a certain degree. I don`t really think garbage is a proper term, but my reading about Woody Stephens or Charlie Wittinghams successes with Forty Niner and Ferdinand are really going to give much direction in being successful in 2004. Pace theorys and handicapping trends are indeed helpful in his book, but you have to wade through a lot of what I think is unimportant data in trying to find winners.

Skanoochies.:)

[TravisVOX]

But I think at the same time that data is there to show you how you can reveal the trends. I agree, some could have been left out, but I found a lot of the information was subtle, and not said out in the open. Different style than most books, so it takes some getting used to.