True pioneer in th game Mark Cramer-Great read.
 

Thanks that was a good read

A "Renaissance Man" indeed!

Excellent article.

I am an advocate of Cramer's method about TB Cycles.

Thanks.

Allan

Good article.
I met Mark one Saturday night in Baltimore, ~1992-93?
At a Sartin seminar that had just wrapped up and we all headed, of course, toward the nearest liquor. Mark is quite the character!
He carried a stack of copies of races with notes marked all over them in his brief case, and was always ready to pull one out and talk about an idea he was working on. He was obsessed with finding the automatic bet.

I got a lot of ideas from him, some that I still use to this day - ie, my betting 1 unit Win and three units place at 9-2 of more, and his "proven loser" horse.

I wish he was writing more.

kinky handicapping
 

is good anybody recommend any other of his books

I've read Cramer's books, and his writing style appeals to me...but I could never implement his handicapping methods in my own play. His methods appear too "systematic" to me...as if his primary concern is to come up with angle-plays which win for the long-term. That notion conflicts with my own personal handicapping "philosophy".

This is exactly right, and is the theme that runs thru all of Cramer's writing. Tom made the same point above, in his "automatic bet" sentence.

I followed quite a few of Cramer's methods back in the late 90's. Pre-simulcasting days, so the information I saved was specific to one track. I found it very useful, and definitely profitable for the 5 years I collated and used it. My question would be, is it still worthwhile? Times have changed, and so much information is now sitting on the internet and there for anyone willing to look for it.

I can see why he spends his time/efforts in Europe now. Handicapping strikes me as still very much an art over there.

Mike

Value Handicapping.

This book helps you with the art of creating your line,passing on underlays,spotting overlays.

Although Cramer has "rules" to everything, I think he needs to it that way to test, but I just use the spirit of the angles, no the rules. I may call one horse a proven loser and another in the same race and same record a contender, depending on other factors. Kinky Handicapping II is a grat one - lots of really good angles in that one.

Always been a Cramer fan. I used his tote angle as described in "Kinky Handicapping" in the 90s with good, and occasionally great, success. Finished 1996 in the black for the first, and only, time in my life as a result. And, sadly, it just doesn't seem as effective in today's racing world.

The late Art Kaufman, who is mentioned near the bottom of the article, was a regular on the old Prodigy racing board (and perhaps here, I dont recall). He published popular turf pedigree ratings under the name Lee Tomlinson. PA, myself and a few others from Prodigy enjoyed a nice day at the races with Art back in the early '90s. A very, very nice man.

I've read some Cramer, and my best takeaway was his concise criteria for a successful angle. As best I can remember it was: 1) Must show reliable profit...2) must contradict conventional doctrine...3) must have roots in some form of logic.

Simple, but so eloquent and instructive.

I remember Art from the old Prodigy board. His booklets served me well for a number of years.

frank cotolo still haunts pen sometimes (or maybe it's me that does?) and has a book called PONY PLAYER that's a good read about the California era covered in the article. great racing book IF you can find a copy. :)