Handicapping books useful for a 16 year old
 

I am looking on returning my book "Investing at the Racetrack" to Amazon, but I was wondering if any of the titles below would be useful for a 16 year old. PLEASE REPLAY!
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Betting Thoroughbreds: A Professional's Guide for the Horseplayer: Second Revised Edition

Winning Horseracing Handicapping: Secrets of a Successful Horseracing Handicapper

Handicapping Thoroughbreds - Lets Keep It Simple: Handicapping Horses Made Simple

The Horse Racing Guide To The Galaxy - Color Edition The Kentucky Derby - Preakness - Belmont: The Must Have Thoroughbred Race Track Handicapping & Betting Book For Beginners. (sounds good but no reviews)

Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing

The Perfect Speed Handicapping System

Handicapping the Wall Street Way: Picking Xtra Winners at the Track

Off the Charts: Turning Result Charts into Profitable Selections at the Track

Expert Handicapping: Winning Insights into Betting Thoroughbreds

Handicapping Speed: The Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse Sprinters

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Any other books would be great! Thanks. :popcorn:

Personally I do not have any of those title's. Suggestions would be

Beyer on Speed-Beyer

Figure Handicapping-Quinn

Extreme Pace Handicapping-Giles


Books that should be written.

CJ on Speed and Pace.

How to Handicap a Race Perfectly, and Bet it Totally Wrong

The Handicapping Speed book, by Charles Carroll, is very good.

If not that one, get the Davidowitz book.

Whatever you do, don't go the conventional route to start, that road has no profit in it......Go outside the box, go contrarian, and read Kinky Handicapping by Mark Cramer.

Shouldn't you be reading SCHOOLBOOKS at 16 years-old?

As a handicapper for 35 years, my two favorite books during my formative years may have been

Modern Pace handicapping by Brohamer and

Pace makes the Race by Sartin, Pizzolla, Hambleton and Schmidt

They gave me the nuts and bolts of handicapping rather than the anecdotal.

Today I have my own style of handicapping which is derived largely from my own experience. Things I see everyday in handicapping yet never seen anyone address in all the handicapping books I've read nor even talk much about on this board. (Don't ask what)

I don’t have textbooks or any books to read this semester. :pound:

Kids no longer read.


MMORPG is where its at

Carroll's book is one of the best. He debunks the myth that 1 length is equal to 1/5 second and explains how a Thoroughbred length is 8 feet. The commonly accepted 10 feet is for Clydesdales. He even discusses how Chaos Theory applies to racing and does everything with great wit. I used to use his speed figures and found them very good.

Quirin's Winning at the Races is also excellent and overall the most informative book on handicapping I've read. Great books for any age.

Agree with that.

As soon as the kid understands that money makes the mare-go-round, introduce the kid to the stock market.

Good Idea.

"Total Victory at the Track" same thing.

I even threw away my Yellow Sartin Manual-- and could go on.

The best book for everyone is Handicapping Magic.

My copy many years old has been bookmarked and marked in yellow.


anything by Mark Cramer are definite reads too.....


Allan

Then get a math textbook and read it. When you get to college take a course in statistics.

It amazes me that writers of most handicapping books don't seem to know math. They take pages to explain how to do a calculation that could be expressed in a single formula. Some may be trying to dumb it down for their readers. Maybe they get paid by the word.

Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing is a must read just for the background if nothing else.

The best is Winning at the Race Track by William Quirin. You have to be able to handle the math.

Learn to program a computer. Write your own software.

From what you have written about your handicapping, you do not need a handicapping book.

What you need to do is learn when to bet your picks & which pool/s to bet into.

I'll go with that.

Sounds subjective.

Kind of like "you pays your money and you takes your choice/chance."

(Something else I've heard.) not read.

Incidentally, Dick Mitchell knew quite a lot about Math and Formulas and even Calculus.

But the question is . . . :)

I have a copy of Pace Makes the Race. It's by Hambleton and Schmidt. Sartin and Pizzolla don't seem to be on the title page.

When I was 16 my dad or my uncle had to make my bets for me. I wasn't allowed anywhere near the windows.

You have the large softcover version which came later. The earlier hardcover one had more pages...and included the names of Sartin and Pizzolla on the cover.

I secretly do my bets at a ABM. But one night the machine was not working so I went up to the teller and she was like “oh you can put your bets in here sir” :lol:
But she never acknowledged that there was a Pick 6 at penn national so I to be separate pick 3’s

Couldn't agree more. You have to learn something about statistics to understand the studies.

Quirin's Winning at the Races is the best I've read. He puts things in language any intelligent person can understand. Guess that's why he's a professor.

I wonder how much of Quirin's stuff actually held up over larger sample sizes. They were pretty small if memory serves, obviously being limited for several reasons at the time.

I got more out of Beyer than I did Thoreau.

They didn't teach about Thoreau in my HS. I did read him on my own when I was 16 but none of my classmates knew about him. They were mainly interested in sex, drugs and RR.

None of it. Quirin was hired to do his research by the legendary gambler "Al Fransesco"...but Fransesco rejected Quirin's findings because they didn't hold up to a more thorough scrutiny. Of course...this didn't stop Quirin from publishing the results on his own...and making a name for himself in spite of his research's questionable nature.

I want to point out that there is a big difference between a 16yo LEARNING about the mechanics of horse racing and BETTING on horse racing. Now would be a good time for an apprenticeship for a 16yo who is interested in betting the horses in a couple of years through learning about it. It is a great mental exercise.

When i was 10yo, I would grab my fathers WSJ and check out stocks on the NYSE. ALL my stocks I followed made a nice or huge profit. I had the skill a stockbroker could only dream about. My father wouldn't listen to my picks because I was 10yo so I stopped telling him. But what my father couldn't see was that my age didn't matter because what I lacked in maturity was taken up with a skill. As I matured and became more "educated", I lost that skill even though I am doing well in the Stock market today.

As handicappers, this is what we mean when we talk about "thinking outside the box". In other words, thinking in unconventional but potentially productive ways. I think a serious 16yo can come up with good angles at that age that he will not remember as he becomes "matured" and "educated" just as I did at 10yo.

Light, I learn by writing things down in Hilroy notebooks and I mean EVERYTHING! From my trips to the track, to mentors teaching me the ways of their handicapping, to stats about my selections. And I can remember ANYTHING!

The unfortunate side of it is that horse-handicapping has an ADDICTIVE nature...which can become a significant barrier to a young person's conventional educational pursuits. Beyer sacrificed a Harvard education in order to play the horses...and Thaskalos is currently handicapping 5-horse fields at Belmont instead of arguing intricate cases before the Supreme Court. Let the youngsters beware. :ThmbUp:

Really? What did you have for Breakfast on March 17 2017.

As a matter of fact I had 2 pieces of toast with peanut butter like I always do!

I believe his study was based on data collected over several years. In any case, while large sample sizes are fine, they are often over estimated by the general public. I agree that in certain specific situations sample size needed to be limited, but he handled these professionally. Exactly what I have been advising you to anticipate in your own study of pace patterns with suggestions you have been getting to include multiple variables. Much more important is how the data is collected and used. He also gave excellent explanations for his findings consistent with logic and science. His use of regression analysis to develop a comprehensive betting method that weighed all the handicapping factors according to research findings was brilliant.

As far as applicability, 82% of Amazon customers gave his book their top rating. I observed that his findings hold up from my own experience and observations spanning 60 years.

His methodology could not be criticized by anyone with formal training in research methodology. Take it from me, as someone well known for my critical approach to how research is done, Quirin's work is excellent, notwithstanding the criticisms of those who are attached to the handicapping theories that came about before modern research methodology was used in the field. I know you are familiar with who I am referring to.

It's only limitation I see is that he had to use the old inaccurate DRF speed figures. I would love to see a modern study using today's more accurate modern speed and pace figures, which is why I anticipating your current study on pace patterns.

Two questions for you, Bob:

1.) Who could this "archaic" handicapper be?

And, 2.) Do you think that you can beat him in a handicapping contest?

As they say..."talk is cheap".

Remember Bubbles?
He did ok! :ThmbUp:

Most important thing you can do - RECORDS!
If your record keeping doesn't make you a winner, at least you will have something to read in the poorhouse.

I agree going conventional will eventually get you in trouble, but I also think you have to learn the fundamentals first.

What would you consider the fundamentals to be? And aren't the so-called fundamentals part of going conventional?

IMO...the only way to become unconventional is by blazing our own trail through our own independent research. No matter how "unconventional" a popular handicapping author may initially be...his popularity won't keep him unconventional for long. Such is the price of "fame"...

Are you saying that my "popularity won't keep me unconventional for long?" or is this for someone else? :eek:

SRU...welcome back to the board. :):ThmbUp:

Thanks?