|
Swartz's Percentages and Probabilities is very similar and both books can be useful.
In regards to some of the stats, you have to be careful about how you interpret them. For instance, I recall that Barry's book showed that blinkers off did better than blinkers on. But, this was based on "all". In other words, he said that blinkers on isn't a good angle because if you bet all blinkers on horses you'll lose. But that goes with every handicapping angle and factor. They all lose if you bet everything blindly.
If you bet every horse that drops from a MSW to an MDN CLM race you'll lose, too, but that doesn't mean that you ignore it. If you bet every key trainer or jockey change, you'll lose.
Personally, I think that blinkers on is a very strong longshot angle if you are good at picking and choosing. The bottom line is, many good, consistent, racehorses, including some top-caliber stakes horses, were ordinary horses until they added blinkers. And many horses have won first time in blinkers and paid huge prices. Naturally, you can't bet every horse that adds blinkers. But there's no question that blinkers can dramatically improve a horse, and often does, and therefore, to say that it's not a good handicapping angle is absurd.
|
