One Minute Handicapper

[Tom Barrister]

I found large banner ads for this on the Thoroughbred Connection website. While it says it's different, the description of factors it uses sounds like the ten millionth incarnation of the wheel. Has anybody bought and tried this?

[Dave Schwartz]

I bought the materials. (Of course, I buy just about everything.)

I thought the materials were excellent, especially for the beginning to intermediate player. Nothing earth shattering but well-presented.



Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[BIG49010]

Author was signing books at Turfway, he gave out 4 winners in a row also.

[Tom Barrister]

I bought the book and materials on Ebay. The book is devoted to the human and logical elements of handicapping (jockeys, trainer situations, horse-for-course, tote, etc.): what the author calls "betting situations", and what most of us would call "angles", and it would be beneficial to anybody who is glued to "figure" handicapping (who relies on speed/pace/power figures, etc.), as it will broaden the horizon, so to speak.

That said, I have a few complaints about the book. For one, almost no full races are shown: the vast majority of the examples only include the past performance of the horse in question. Therefore, the reader isn't able to see how well or poorly other horses in the race would have qualified by the various "betting situations" (barring obtaining the past performances of the races, which were run in 2004). Every example results in a winner, and the "workout" posted in the front of the book, complete with ROI, is based on the 230 winners, and not on any accompanying losers that may have also existed.

In many of the examples, some "betting situations" are stretched in order to qualify the horse. Some are based on very small samples, while in others, apples are compared to oranges.

Some of the angles presented will land the reader on horses who are overbet, while one particular one chooses horses who seldom win and have a low ROI.

There are also some glaring errors, the worst of which occurs on page 105, where the author lists a favorable jockey change and trumpets this at great length, even showing the jockey standings at Finger Lakes with J R (John) Davila and his 21% win percent. The problem with this is that M A (Michael) Davila (and his 9% win percent) was aboard the horse.

Despite these complaints, the book will still provide much food for thought to beginners and seasoned players alike, and I recommend it, with the caveat that some (not all) of the principles can be added as extra tools in the handicapping arsenal, and that they probably wouldn't work well as a standalone methodology.

That's my opinion, and other people may have different views.

[gallahadion]

thanks guys, I took a look at the OMH's website and this approach looks right up my alley. I'll be purchasing it soon and will work with it this winter at Turfway (Dec thru March).

AND....it's endorsed by Dave Schwartz on the OMH website, so its got to be good. (I really mean that just so you know)