Just a Ramble

[melman]

Reading reports of big increses in "gaming" but most of it in the "mindless" form. The slot machines and numbers players of the lotto games took over a whole generation of people. Must be the lure of "someone has to win" that brings them in inspite of overwheming odds that says they will not hit. One good note is that at the OTB I go to I see quite a few young people who really enjoy THINKING. Wow what a novel concept!!! My listing of important items of the horse bettor is one, find a betting method that suits you. I now am a 80% exacta player. I feel this allows me to express my view of a race better than just win betting. Plus it seems to me that more overlays are in the exacta pool than the win pool. Must be all those people betting exacta boxes in the same amounts. LOL However if you are looking for a method that requires constant hitting I feel exacta's are not for you. I know some very serious players who do nothing but win bet and play Pick3's. My checklist for contenders is looking for the "anti-bias" horse. That is the one who in his last start raced well when the track was not playing to his style. Many say there is no such thing as bias, may their ranks increase. LOL What gives bias a bad name is the clowns who watch the first two races won in wire to wire sytle by favorites and then say "the track is really playing to speed today" what a bias. I look for young horses that are bred to race in routes but have been in sprints and are now shifting to a distance. Same deal with Turf horses as the overlays are still there. I also like to look for the horse who is making his 2nd lifetime start that in his first race pressed a par or better pace and then does not race for at least 60 days. When he returns I like to see 3 or more workings that are strung together it does not matter the times of the workout. Enough outta me I have to go back to collecting pictures of that great American Mr Ben Franklin.

[Lefty]

The "mindless" games popularity further proof that the society has been "dumbed down" last 40 yrs or so.
Couple of yrs ago a Houston Principal said a high school diploma was no guarantee a kid could read.
When I went to school you couldn't get to 3rd grade if you couldn't read.

[ranchwest]

I don't think they let us out of our chairs in first grade until we could read.

[WaHoo]

this is one of the best postl i've seen on handicapping, you don't have 1000's of data base or telling how great your expensive progrman is or wanting to make a profit of 2% or less... when i go to the track my bankroll is a $100 ea for 2 tracks, i make very few win bets, my main plays are daily double and pick3's and trifectas and superfectas, give me a handicapper that has thousands of races in his data base and he still can't give you one winner out of 5, too much information, horses runs in cycle's, i have 2 to 4 winning days out of 10 but it makes me a profit, watching the cycles, horses coming back makes me money, i put horses in my watch list that make me the most money next time out... i know people that watch football basketball baseball any sport that they like and they can tell you who played bad, but ask someone about a horse by his name and they'll say what was his number. i think thats where you make your profit, how did the horse run the last time you watched him run , did the jockey send a late running horse to the front and burn him out or did he stumble or get checked or have a sponge stuck up his nose, give me a horse that has run from the 3 last the calls even 3 or 4 lenghts behind the leader and see what he does next out, they don't make you money all the time but when they do they'll have some good odds, i've played the horses 30+ years and it's like playing golf every swing you know your going to hit the ball, it's going somewhere but where

[ranchwest]

There seems to be a big misunderstanding about databases. If you, as a handicapper, can read the data in the Form (OK, program, whatever), a computer can read it, too. Then, it is just a matter of the computer being programmed to recognize the same things people do. While that is not always an easy chore, it is possible.

Yes, there are some things that people can recognize that the computer can't. There was once a jockey who had certain patterns with his cigarette and I learned to base bets on what he did. A computer obviously can't do that.

Computers can do some things people can't easily do. Computers can be programmed to automatically evaluate trends, which can be a big advantage.

I realize that most of the programs that can be purchased on the internet will not be very deep in the types of features I mention above. That doesn't mean it isn't possible.

[andicap]

Originally posted by buffalo
, give me a horse that has run from the 3 last the calls even 3 or 4 lenghts behind the leader and see what he does next out, they don't make you money all the time but when they do they'll have some good odds [/B]


Dont quite understand what you're saying here, Buffalo,...can you explain a bit more?
Thanks