John Meyer

[Wickel]

Does anyone remember pace handicapper John Meyer from the late '70s and '80s. His outfit was called the Turf Investment Society, which published the Railbird Review, among many pace studies. Then, in the late '80s, he just vanished. Anyone know of this guy and what happened to him?

[Topcat]

I remember John Meyer from the TIS.

I posted this same question in the thread "Whatever Happened To?" in the General Handicapping Discussion forum. Check it out but I don't think we ever got an answer.

[Wickel]

Thanks, Topcat. I asked this same question on another forum about a year ago without a response. I took a correspondence 'capping course from TIS, which included a programmable calculater. Lost the program after many years of not using it and was wondering if it was available anywhere. Thanks again.

[Tom]

I did a Google search, and the only thing I found were the posts by you guys! LOL!

I had all his stuff, even took the handicapping courses by mail. Had the hand held computer with al the programs......cutting edge stuff back then.

[traynor]

The most important thing that Meyer mentioned was that his studies (extensive, well-designed) indicated no "pace segment" was more predictive than average pace, or what he called "0-FIN." It was impressive, because those who built on his ideas claimed the exact opposite, while offering little evidence to back up the claims. In short, to no one's great surprise, faster horses tend to win more races than slower horses, regardless of how you massage the numbers, and--to everyone's shock--he regarded pace handicapping as a variation of speed handicapping.

The hand-held formulas were not substantially different than the pace formulas in subsequent offerings; in a head-to-head, the average pace readout on other programs points to the same entry as 0-FIN.

If anyone is really curious, suggest you look in some of the Phillips Racing Newsletters of the time for more information about his formulas.
Thanks

[Wickel]

Traynor,

I have many of those Phillips Newsletters, and recall he was very high on Meyer. He put a lot of time in effort in cranking out his many "special" reports and his loyalty to those who took his handicapping course was unheard of. Is he still among the living? Thanks for your input.

[traveler]

I have the TIS course manual. If you need a specific formula or can tell me just what you need I may be able to help.

[Wickel]

I still have the calculator, but after years of being dormant I lost the program used to run Meyer's 0-FIN numbers. The program probably was installed via a tape casette, but every once in a while he printed the entire program in one of his reports.