Tom Ainslie

[karlskorner]

N.Y TIMES obit today reported the death of Tom Ainslie (Richard Carter). Some of us were weaned on his books.

[point given]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/sports/othersports/08carter.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin


Who knew horse players could read ?

[GaryG]

N.Y TIMES obit today reported the death of Tom Ainslie (Richard Carter). Some of us were weaned on his books.I was weaned on Ray Taulbot but I learned plenty from his books. I don't know of a handicapper that didn't read him.

[Overlay]

I started out with The Compleat Horseplayer and have all his titles. (I also still have a reply he sent me to a letter I wrote him back in the early '80's about some handicapping questions.) An articulate spokesman for horse racing and handicapping.

[Tom]

He was the one who got me going.
I met him a couple of times at Sartin seminars at Albany.
Very sad news.:(

[Capper Al]

I'll miss him. I read many of his books. He thought me the basics of the game.

[kenwoodallpromos]

My first 'capping author; his favorite-to-place in big races still works.

[RaceBookJoe]

Sad to hear. I still glance through his books from time to time. Some angles still work if you tweak them a bit. RIP

[grahors]

Cut my teeth on Ainsle, Scott, Taulbot....they are all gone.....very sad. RIP

[Dave Schwartz]

He was a fine man. He and I had many a horse racing discussion back in the early 1990s and his books got me started on the right path.


Dave Schwartz

[Ted Craven]

For some reason, Dick had been on my mind all summer and even this past Labour Day weekend. My wife and I met him at several Sartin Seminars and struck up a recurring aquaintance. When his wife was killed by accident, we wrote to him trying to offer whatever condolence or support we could, not being exactly NY locals or close friends. To our great surprise, but delight, he called us back when he got our letter and we continued a written correspondence for several years thereafter. We lost touch though, as sometimes happens, but I think about him regularly as a truly kind, literate and gentle man. I will shed a tear, and raise a toast to a departed friend.

Dick, hope you and Gladys have good seats somewhere near the Great Finishline.

Ted

(Here's a photo for the ages: 2nd row centre Tom Ainslie (Dick Carter), Jim 'The Hat' Bradshaw, Howard Sartin, Tom Brohamer... 1994. Plus, I'm sure, a number of the rest of us.)
http://www.artofpace.com/images/tomainslie.gif

[banacek]

I was 9 years old and I begged for Ainslie's book for Christmas and I got it - not easy to get - my parents had to get a local bookstore to order it and it took a long time to come. A Christmas present I will always remember and I still have the book today.

That's an interesting picture. Curious about some of the other people there - must be quite a few from this board.

I was also thinking of all the big handicapping influences named Dick (Mitchell, Schmidt, Carter). Of course there are a few Toms too (Brohamer, Hambleton, and Ainslie but that might be cheating)..oh yeah and our own Tom!

So that a few of the Toms and Dicks, what about the Harrys?

[DJofSD]

Excellent photo. Spencer, Tom, Doc and Jimmy I recognize and the gentleman on the other side of Tom Ainslie is Rev. Bert Mayne? Some others are vaguely familar.

[Tom]

I think that's Glenn Conolley next to Tom.

[DJofSD]

Glenn Conolley -- you're right.

[midnight]

A good man who was, in the opinion of many, the pioneer of modern handicapping. His books paved the way for future authors.

I also remember Mr. Carter for two mainstream books he wrote: "The Way It Is" (with Curt Flood, about baseball's reserve clause), and "Breakthrough" (the biography of Dr. Salk). Oddly, I didn't know that they were the same person until the mid 1990's.

[Ted Craven]

Excellent photo. Spencer, Tom, Doc and Jimmy I recognize and the gentleman on the other side of Tom Ainslie is Rev. Bert Mayne? Some others are vaguely familar.
It was New Orleans, 1994. I got it from a thread at Pace and Cap (http://bindfold.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1874), with some other nice photos and IDs.

Ted

Four Amigos
http://www.artofpace.com/images/4amigos.gif

[Dan Montilion]

Is that Dennis Franz bottom row, in front of Tom A?

[midnight]

I believe that the man in the front row, flanked in back byTom Ainslie and Glen Connelly, is Tom McCrea.

[DanG]

Great pic’s Ted;

Thanks for sharing! :ThmbUp:

[silverfox]

Who else in picture?Interesting.

[WJ47]

The first books I ever read on handicapping as a teenager were Ainsle's Encyclopedia and Andy Beyer's Picking Winners. I've read probably a hundred books since on handicapping, but none were as fine as those two. :) I still refer to my very well worn copies of them.

It sounds like Ainslie lived a long and good life. RIP.

[DanG]

1968 the man ‘dared to mention a computers role in handicapping. Nearly 40 years later many still don’t acknowledge / or understand its role imo.

As they would say in the Little Rascals….”Remarkable” :eek: