Form Points

[anotherdave]

Just wondering if anyone has a copy of Tom Hambleton's
"Form Points". I was thinking of buying a used copy through ebay and was wondering if it was worth reading (is there anything really new in it?) to someone who already has probably 50 handicapping books!

Thanks!

[Longshot]

Anotherdave,
After reading your post I dusted off a copy of Form Points I purchased about 6 years ago. In a nutshell
it takes a lot of time to go down a checklist on each horse to come up with the favorite or second favorite.
Like others I bought it because I had enjoyed Hambleton's book on pace.
You are welcome to my copy because I'll never use it.

Longshot

[anotherdave]

Thanks for the info, longshot. Sounds like I don't need it to gather dust with most of the rest of my handicapping books! I thought it might be worth it for the same reason you bought it (I liked his pace stuff), but it sounds not too exciting.

[Dick Schmidt]

Anotherdave,

Though Tom did all the work devising the Form Points, I helped him edit the book and wrote the forward to it. It is an attempt to regularize the evaluation of form, always a very subjective subject. Tom tried to assign points for good form factors and subtract for bad form factors. The concept grew out of a chapter Tom wrote for "Pace Makes The Race" that many found very helpful. For a beginner or for someone trying to computerize the slippery subject of form, this book is an excellent starting place. Michael Perry included Form Points in most of his programs, and many used them to very good effect.

Dick

[Mike P]

Dick,

Do you know the names of Michael Perry's programs?

Thanks,

Mike

[Dick Schmidt]

Mike P.

As I imagine you know, Michael Perry passed away about a year ago. His last (and best) handicapping program was called Throughvision. Michael had a lot of input from others designing this program, including Tom Hambleton. I believe the program is still available through HDW, though of course there will be no more updates. I know HDW still supports the file structure for the program and has some users. This is a DOS program and I imagine it will gradually fade away, which is too bad as it is a damn good program with about the best modeling I have seen.

Dick

[andicap]

HDW says it is no longer selling Thorovision, only supporting its old customers.

[Dick Schmidt]

Andy,

That's a shame. I would guess that Thorovision will fade away even faster than I thought it would. Too bad, it was a valid attempt to beat the game and worked for many of its users. The fact that many are still using it speaks well for its long term success.

Dick

[ranchwest]

Longshot, are you still offering that copy of Form Points? I think I might be interested in it.

[NoDayJob]

Originally posted by ranchwest
Longshot, are you still offering that copy of Form Points? I think I might be interested in it.

If you can program then I suggest you write code for it. It's very time consuming if you plan to use it manually. Better yet maybe someone out there has already has coded it. -NDJ

[ranchwest]

I write my own code. I've written a number of calculations out of books. Thanks for the warning.

[Longshot]

Ranchwest,
E-mail me at longshotplay@yahoo with your snail mail
address and I'll send you Form Points.
Longshot

[ranchwest]

I'm nearly through programming Form Points. My preliminary studies show that it has some merit, but not enough for me. I'm going to break down the components and see which ones are working and which are not, though that is somewhat tricky because you never know which components only work in tandem. I'm also going to finish programming it and make sure there's no significant change in the results obtained. I think it may be a good starting point.