SAD NEWS - Michael Pizzolla has passed away

[stormin]

My heartfelt condolences to a great man that got me to love horse racing! Learned a lot from him. RIP my friend!

[Johnny V]

Sorry to hear this. I enjoyed his book and the entertaining style of his videos. He will be missed. R.I.P

[SandyW]

Very sad news to one of the pioneers and giants of handicapping and always a person willing to help us understand how to find the value in a race. Great videos on you tube or Post Time Daily will be watched as long as there is horse racing.
My condolences to family and friends.
R.I.P Michael, you are missed already. A true gentleman.

[Gerard02]

I’ve only had the program for just over a year, and was just getting to know Mike. I was learning a lot with VC and had just joined the Wizards Forum. Im shocked to hear about his passing. He always answered my emails and asked how I was doing with VC. Horse racing has lost a real classic. A couple of years ago, we lost Stan Caris, who wrote such excellent articles for American Turf Monthly. I still have both of his books on the Triple Crown and Breeders’s Cup.

It’s going to be different, now. I’ll miss Mikes videos and rants. Don’t know what else to say, except the Bet will always make me. Goodbye, Mike.

[PaceAdvantage]

I was born, raised and literally steeped in pace handicapping almost from the start of my interest in this game back in late 1980s, and Michael Pizzolla was quite literally one of my "legends of the game."

He co-authored the seminal "Pace Makes The Race" along with Sartin, Schmidt and Hambleton. You add Tom Brohamer to the list a little later on, and there was my dream team. The men I tried to learn the most about and the most from while trying to crack the code of this silly game we all love.

By the time Pizzolla's own book, Handicapping Magic was published in 2000, I was already entrenched in perfecting my own software, Pace Advantage (catchy name, right?), so I ended up not giving this book the attention that it deserved until later down the road.

And, after finally reading it cover to cover, not doing so when it was first released became one of the major regrets of my handicapping career. It was that good, in my opinion.

My deepest sympathies go out to Mr. Pizzolla's family and friends. He was taken from you way too soon.

To those of us, like me, who were fortunate enough to learn something from this "magic man," he will forever live on as a true legend of the game.

[joebm]

Rest in peace, Michael
Thank You
Joe Cassese

[shoelessjoe]

Was sad to hear about his passing. He was always willing to answer questions
even though it was not related to his software.

Handicapping Magic was one of the best books written on the subject


Jeff

[Tom]

I am sad to hear this.
Michael was very influential for me.
I was fortunate enough to meet him several times, at the Sartin seminars, and at a few 1 day workshops he and Bert Mayne hels in Albany,
And of course, He and Dick Schmidt held at Philadelphia Park for Total Pace.

Aside from handicapping he was a great up close magician.
We sat in the bar at the Desmond Americana in Albany one Friday night after seminar and he entertained the room with magic tricks.

A really nice person. A great loss to our game.

[oughtoh]

Sad news. Had the pleasure to talk to him once and really enjoyed it. Prayers for his family.

[maddog42]

I enjoyed Handicapping Magic immensely. He was something of a legend among the Sartin guys. RIP.

[rjacobson]

Michael, gonna miss you Sir..


Bob Jacobson

[maddog42]

Originally Posted by Tom

I am sad to hear this.
Michael was very influential for me.
I was fortunate enough to meet him several times, at the Sartin seminars, and at a few 1 day workshops he and Bert Mayne hels in Albany,
And of course, He and Dick Schmidt held at Philadelphia Park for Total Pace.

Aside from handicapping he was a great up close magician.
We sat in the bar at the Desmond Americana in Albany one Friday night after seminar and he entertained the room with magic tricks.

A really nice person. A great loss to our game.

I went to a couple sartin seminars in KC and okc. He didn't attend either but schmidt told me he was a really good longshot specialist. I was so enamored with his 3rd fraction-2nd call penalty method that I made pars for most major tracks. His method for paceline selection was fantastic and I still use a version of that to this day.

[maddog42]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

I was born, raised and literally steeped in pace handicapping almost from the start of my interest in this game back in late 1980s, and Michael Pizzolla was quite literally one of my "legends of the game."

He co-authored the seminal "Pace Makes The Race" along with Sartin, Schmidt and Hambleton. You add Tom Brohamer to the list a little later on, and there was my dream team. The men I tried to learn the most about and the most from while trying to crack the code of this silly game we all love.

By the time Pizzolla's own book, Handicapping Magic was published in 2000, I was already entrenched in perfecting my own software, Pace Advantage (catchy name, right?), so I ended up not giving this book the attention that it deserved until later down the road.

And, after finally reading it cover to cover, not doing so when it was first released became one of the major regrets of my handicapping career. It was that good, in my opinion.

My deepest sympathies go out to Mr. Pizzolla's family and friends. He was taken from you way too soon.

To those of us, like me, who were fortunate enough to learn something from this "magic man," he will forever live on as a true legend of the game.

Same here.

[kingfin66]

Like everyone else, I was very surprised to receive that email from Craig M. It took me back to the time when Eric Langjahr passed away; it was seemingly out of the blue. I too was inspired by Michael's work. I had just gotten back into handicapping when I happened upon Handicapping Magic at Barnes and Noble. Intrigued, I picked up a copy and read it in about two days. In fact, one afternoon I was reading the book while waiting for the bus when a guy came up to me and asked if that would have helped me pick Sarava, right after Sarava had won the Belmont. I guess I will never know the answer to that question. What I thought was truly great about the work, and still do to this day, was his treatise on pace handicapping, form cycle windows and, of course, how to find value. I am not too much into horse racing these days, but once in a while I take a look at the races just because...

Michael was truly a character. I had the opportunity to attend a couple of his seminars and met some wonderful people, including the man himself. In fact, after one seminar, a few of us stayed around as Michael held court. He talked about many things, not just handicapping, and was very charming. In fact, it was during this time that he happened to meet the young man who became his programmer and effectively helped Michael relaunch Post Time via Black Magic. He always referred to the programmer as Mr. X. I hope I don't get myself in trouble by disclosing here that Mr. X is the same gentleman who sent the email regarding Michael's passing.

Michael then took several of us to dinner at a restaurant in the casino. Tom mentioned that he saw Michael perform some magic at one of the seminars. Those who were present that night got to see some great sleight of hand as well. Michael also shared with us how he got into magic, and how he was apprenticed under a magician named "The Great Slidini." Michael's signature trick was called Synchronicity III. Also during dinner, Michael shared how he was friends with the comedian Bill Hicks when they were young and lived in NYC. Both of them were Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists (who knew?), and Michael claimed to have written a lot of the material that Hicks used in his act. If you do not know who Bill Hicks is, check out his material. He is of the same generation as the late, great Mitch Hedberg, but his act was very different.

Some of us planned a Breeder's Cup session on the Friday night before the races and we invited Michael to participate if he had time and was so inclined. We sent him the link, but did not count on him showing up. The night came, and we had our meeting via messaging only. There were about 6-7 of us. We were using our web names, so we didn't think anything of the person who joined us who seemed to really know his stuff around the Handicapping Magic curriculum. Someone finally commented that he sounded just like Michael. The person, whose moniker was Alek J. Hidell then revealed himself. It was really awesome.

Many have said that Michael responded personally to email messages. This is absolutely true. In fact, he said that he built that into his day because it gave him an opportunity to know his handicappers better. When Craig said that he. built a community, he is totally accurate. I have not been a member of the Wizard's Forum for quite a while now, but I have doubt that it is still going strong and will continue to go strong in the years to come.

Take care everybody.

[wiretowire68]

Until 2013 I had never even heard of Mike P and really had did not understand Pace handicapping one bit. However, and bare with me, I had gotten heavily into tournament play and was really a drf guy, like most and just read the form and went with my gut. I was good but someone on here on this site was so kind to send me one of his first cd's the sharper handicapper whereby it was simple to read but I did not understand the numbers so I began to research and I came across this man on you tube touting this "Amazing software called Black Magic" and I was so intrigued because up to this point, I was just starting to be a laptop handicapper.

I was tired of guys at the racetrack "As we all know, constantly peaking over your shoulder and looking at your race form because they were too cheap to buy their own. Let me just say, I was hooked on the idea at that time. And thus my journey began and his site Post Time Solutions, to me at that time was the first site besides the regulars that offered computer handicapping with past performances inside the window. What can I say, I have been trying to do the same things he did for years now, The influence he had on me was absolutely amazing because the the design was as he was, impeccable, classy, neat, distinguished, friendly to the user. Somewhat already wrote about the charisma the man had as a lawyer, I feel so fortunate because of him, I started to change my thinking towards the game because although stubborn at times, he really defined the attitude of the modern player to me personally, action vs. bankroll vs to just trying to be more selective in the approach.

I saved my money and purchased VC and although it was his numbers and his attitude and he understood that Pace handicapping, and angles etc. that the software industry would change the game and the public would get smarter for those willing to learn.

I learned everything about Pace Handicapping from him and T. Brohmauer. An in my estimation, even if he disagreed with him or he did not believe in what you were doing as a player, the respect and the friendship he showed you to someone you never met, you can never measure from a human being's perspective. He always, and I mean always found the time to answer you, even if it was the same question a million times. The brain and emotion he mixed with the patience of the man who really was in the game and life "A Teacher". In my life, I read his book, followed his seminar and the whole idea of pace is part of all my ideas of handicapping. I know somewhere hopefully he has taken his suit off, playing a game of golf, reading his software and probably having a glass of wine.

It was nothing but an absolute pleasure.