Tom Hambleton's Form Points Book

[fishorsechess]

Tom Hambleton came out with a book on Form Points years ago.
Does anyone have an opinion on this book?

[Dick Schmidt]

Not a bad effort for what it is. I helped Tom edit it and wrote the forward, so I'm familiar with the work. You do need to remember that this was done without a database back in the days when 2-300 races was considered a large sample to test anything on. All done by hand. So what you get is a collection of observations by a very good handicapper on how current form affects a horse's chances of winning.

Some are questionable. For instance we all know that a layoff hurts a horse's chances of winning, but it actually improves ROI over a random horse. Too many people throw out layoff horses. There are others that may need updating, but on the whole it is a good starting point on a topic that is much ignored by most computer programs.


Dick


" Run and find out "

...Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

[fishorsechess]

I was wondering why form is such a neglected topic in handicapping
these days. Guess we are all a bunch of number crunchers.

[kenwoodallpromos]

My guess is form is too subjective for many today; I mostly see how hard the race was, how the horse left the gate, and the spacing between workouts and between races.
Form would be a good topic for threads. I could learn a lot.

[Richard]

I just recently purchased a copy of the book in question on eBay.After reading this thread I'm now looking more foward to getting the book.