Best books on handicapping

[fishorsechess]

(1) Thinking Man's Guide to Handicapping by Katchagoodwon
(2) Any of Sartin's Manuals
(3) Beyers books
(4) Quirin's Winning at the Races
(5) Brohamer's book Modern Pace Handicapping
(6) Bert Norman's books
(7) Steve Davidowitz
(8) Quinn's Condition Book
(9) Beat the Track
(10) Tackhe's book the Ready Horse

[Lefty]

myself, I'd have to include Gordon Jones' books and Pizzolla's Handicapping Magician and Mitchell's books towards the top half of that list.

[Secretariat]

Interesting that on the list are no recent books.

[andicap]

My two current faves
are Ragazine's "The Odds Must be Crazy" and Cardellos's on form cycles with Beyers, Speed to Spare.

Even if you don't' play the sheets, Ragozin's book is very informative about form cycles.

[Tom]

Agree-those two are very good books for forrm cycle analysis.

[charleslanger]

This may not be the expected answer, but i'd have to say 9 out of 10 books are necessary reading because: even if a book has only one or two nuggets one wouldn't have obtained otherwise-- those pay the price of the book-- and such a book can be re-sold for something-- say, on ebay, to further defray that initial cost if need be... I've yet to regret buying a single previous book, have not junked a single one in fact... they all make up the 'PhD curriculum'.........

So, buy everything in sight! :)

[Secretariat]

Originally posted by andicap
My two current faves
are Ragazine's "The Odds Must be Crazy" and Cardellos's on form cycles with Beyers, Speed to Spare.

Even if you don't' play the sheets, Ragozin's book is very informative about form cycles.


Agree Andicap...I particularly liked Cardello's book and that is current.

[kent]

Each quarter Dave Schwartz puts out a magazine (video) about his program and free updates. The man is a genius. He is way ahead of the curve. His concept of 'swarms' is the most inovative handicapping tool I have ever used. It is worth having his program just to get this feature and his videos. ( I think they are about $27 each.)

Anything Dick Schmidt writes about HSH or on this board. Dick must be the top handicapper in the world. The man's insight to horse racing is above the rest. His ability to use HSH is unique. He has something that most of us lack. He is a winner.

The book that I have learned the most from is "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas. This book was a choice of Dave's. The book is about the markets, but it really applies to horse racing as well. The examples he gives of a successful trader (bettor) has to be of Dick Schmidt. I have leaned more from this non-horse racing book, than all the racing books I have read. And there have been many.

Obluii

[Secretariat]

Thaks will check it out. A lot of people I know also like Steve Fierro's book and that is recent.

[cj]

Originally posted by Tom
Agree-those two are very good books for forrm cycle analysis.

And when you get right down to it, isn't this what horse betting is all about? It is for me.

[cato]

We just moved and here are the books that made the cut and sit right behind my handicapping laboratory...I mean desk--

(1) Beyer's Picking Winnners
(2) Mitchell's Winning THoroughbred Strategies
(3) Brohamer's Modern Pace Handicapping
(4) Pizzolla's Handicapping Magic
(5) Cramer's Thoroughbred Cycles
(6) tie--all of Cramer's other books
(7) Beyer's-MY $50,000 year at the races
(8) Quinn's--Condition Book
(9) Scott's How Will Your Horse Run Today?
(10) Carroll-Handicapping Speed

Honorable mention--

--Ainsle's Books--
--Pace Makes The Race
--The Match Up Manual
--Any of Sartin's other manuals that were edited by Schmidt
____________

I may be the only person in the world who was disappointed in Davidowitz' book. I think it may have been a product of the timing--I had read all the other basics before I got to Davidowitz and it just seemed like a rehashing of old news.

Cheers, cato

[alysheba88]

My three favorites are:.

Four Quarters of Horse Investing (Steve Fierro)

Money Secrets at the Racetrack (Barry Meadow)

Hidden Probabilities: Hard-Core research for X rates players (Mark Cramer)

Would add Cramer's Scared Money and and Beyer's Winning Horseplayer to fill out a top 5