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Originally Posted by Quesmark
My "other" selection is:
The Handicapper's Condition Book, Revised: An Advanced Treatment of Thoroughbred Class
Dec 12, 2000
by James Quinn
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The Handicapper's Condition Book is FANTASTIC!
Quote:
Originally Posted by davew
for the people who do not like reading books, I suggest a DVD set of one of the daily racing form handicapping expos to get a handle on types of factors some people take into consideration when betting.
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Sorry but this would be a waste of money to most people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thaskalos
IMO...the newcomer to this game has to develop as strong a liking for the handicapping aspect as for the actual watching and betting of the races. I have spent a large portion of my life at horse-betting facilities...and the carelessness that I see there by virtually every person present never ceases to amaze me. To a man, they all buy the form or the program on their way into the facility, and they all do their handicapping in-between the races...while furiously flipping the pages from the 1st race at Hawthorne to the 3rd at Aqueduct...and then to the 4th at Parx. After giving a brief glance at the race in question, they quickly dash to the betting terminal...where they decide in the most haphazard manner possible how to structure their wagers and bet their money. And some of these careless people bet amounts of money that are hard for any reasonable person to comprehend. I strongly suspect that the vast majority of the "at-home" bettors are just as negligent in the performance of their horseplaying duties as their "live-racing" counterparts. And they do it this way for many years, at great financial cost...because this is what's most "fun" to them.
If the newcomer isn't of the studious type, who develops an understanding early on about the difficulty and the demands that are associated with the proper play of this game...then it would benefit him immensely if he never got involved in this game at all. Foolhardy habits are very difficult to break...and far too costly to keep.
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I've actually talked to a young man in line at the window that didn't know the race he was going to bet was on the turf and that the turf course was GRASS.
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Originally Posted by TucsonGreyhound
Yes! Are there any classic books out there someone can recommend that focus more on the gambling shenanigans, degenerate lifestyles back in the golden ages of horse racing? I love that stuff!
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The book
The Backstretch (My First Decade Playing the Game) has some of what you're looking for as long as you can look past the writing skills of the author and his editor (if there was an editor).