MarquisMark
08-19-2008, 06:50 AM
I bought this book after reading great reviews from many different sources.
It is a book about class and how to determine the contenders by the eligibility conditions of the race, i.e certain types of races are won by certain kinds of horses, or rather, what type of horses are the best bets are in each type of race condition.
This book is very good, although it is a little over my head in parts (especially the NW2X+, stakes races, non-claiming 3 year olds) and I've had to read parts of it over and over for them to finally sink in. It is very well written...the guy is obviously very intelligent and knows volumes about the sport.
This has been most helpful for me in eliminating the non-contenders from the races, which was a part where I needed a little help. I could find the horses I liked, but there were always more in the field that I didn't know what to do with and didn't know what to make of.
I'm still getting my head around all the information in this book and trying not to get overloaded by it all. But there were a few things he mentioned that I am not sure about...
For instance, he seems to be a bit tough about the number of workouts that claiming horses should have in between races. Horses without enough workouts since the last race should be eliminated as contenders, but in the races I've looked at, I've seen some nice priced winners who are otherwise in good form but just didn't make it past the workout requirement.
He also advises to consider any claiming horse that is dropping in class, the higher the drop the better. I was under the impression that a huge drop in class in claimers is not a good sign, especially if the performance has been less than spectacular. If trainers keep unloading a horse at increasingly lower prices that would say to me that something is wrong...
I'm sure I could just disregard these pieces of advice. I just wanted to see if anyone else out there had read this or uses it in their handicapping and if there are any parts to particularly pay attention to any parts that can be overlooked.
Thanks.
It is a book about class and how to determine the contenders by the eligibility conditions of the race, i.e certain types of races are won by certain kinds of horses, or rather, what type of horses are the best bets are in each type of race condition.
This book is very good, although it is a little over my head in parts (especially the NW2X+, stakes races, non-claiming 3 year olds) and I've had to read parts of it over and over for them to finally sink in. It is very well written...the guy is obviously very intelligent and knows volumes about the sport.
This has been most helpful for me in eliminating the non-contenders from the races, which was a part where I needed a little help. I could find the horses I liked, but there were always more in the field that I didn't know what to do with and didn't know what to make of.
I'm still getting my head around all the information in this book and trying not to get overloaded by it all. But there were a few things he mentioned that I am not sure about...
For instance, he seems to be a bit tough about the number of workouts that claiming horses should have in between races. Horses without enough workouts since the last race should be eliminated as contenders, but in the races I've looked at, I've seen some nice priced winners who are otherwise in good form but just didn't make it past the workout requirement.
He also advises to consider any claiming horse that is dropping in class, the higher the drop the better. I was under the impression that a huge drop in class in claimers is not a good sign, especially if the performance has been less than spectacular. If trainers keep unloading a horse at increasingly lower prices that would say to me that something is wrong...
I'm sure I could just disregard these pieces of advice. I just wanted to see if anyone else out there had read this or uses it in their handicapping and if there are any parts to particularly pay attention to any parts that can be overlooked.
Thanks.