Phillips Racing Newsletter. Not like father not like son

[fishorsechess]

When I first got serious about horseracing Russ Dietrich used to
run the Phillips Racing Newsletter. The consumer reports of
handicapping horseracing systems. But in recent times it
seems the publication has gone down hill. Is this really due
to the son taking over? The ratings they give now are not like
those in the past. e.g. they may give a 9 rating when it really
deservies a 5. I think its like inflation of rating points. In what
ways have things changed there since Russ past away?

[Hosshead]

[QUOTE=fishorsechess] "the Phillips Racing Newsletter. The consumer reports of handicapping horseracing systems."

Not any more.

"But in recent times it seems the publication has gone down hill. Is this really due to the son taking over?"

Absolutely.

They are more interested in selling their own systems. Which of course they say make money.
They have NO credibility.
In fact if he (son) says that somebody's system works,- stay away from it.
They make RPM look good ! And that's pretty bad.

[MakersMark]

I dont quite agree on that.

Some of the systems you mention they PRN sells, are actually free. They give you a free system every month or so, which most are better than whats sold on the market. I wish they would run their own systems through at least 100 races.

It does seem like PRN does not rate as many commercial racing systems as they did when Dad was in control. Part of that may be that there is not as many mail order scammers in the market as therre was 15 years ago.

I do wish they would quit using outside sources for computer systems analysis.
If they kept you off buying something worthless than there is value to their publication. Overall I still give them a thumbs up.

[timtam]

Russ liked the old time add this, take the best of 3 in that and mix it up and you'll get a power number and he was good at looking at the results and giving the systems a rating. Usually between a 1-4 but I noticed when computer handicapping came about he would trust "outside" sorces and you have to remember this when computer handicapping was in its infancy. Many computer products were raking in 8's and 9's something almost unheard of in Russ ' hayday. I think alot of the times the output produced by the program alone would look so technical and professional that Russ thought the program just has to work. Hence, we know it more often than not did not work .