What got you started????

[coachv30]

Greeting Fellow Cappers!!

My love for handicapping started over 30 years ago at the young age of 16 years old. It was then that I took an interest following in the footsteps of some influential people around the game. I got to know these individuals through working graveyard shifts on weekends at a local 7 Eleven one mile down the road from Parx Racing (Philly Park) at the time.

These guys would come in overnight (trainers, agents, exercise riders, handicappers, you name it) purchase the DRF and a cup of coffee. They would then pull up a seat behind the counter and start marking away at their programs. It was a very open and friendly place to say the least. I would consider it the mini-market version of "Cheers". In between duties there, whether it was stocking the cooler, the shelves, or mopping the floor, I would watch and listen to them debate about different points of views on different horses. Over time, I got nerve enough to start asking what they meant by different terms such as "current fitness level", "recent form", "running style", etc....It was not long after, that I began asking what all of the marks, slashes, numbers on the page meant and how to they come about making those decisions. In no time, I started wrapping up my duties before they came in so that I could sit alongside with my own copy of the DRF.

About a year later, I was sending them off with $10 or $20 to make plays on horses that I had handicapped that night/morning. How rewarding it was when they would show up at 5AM the next morning with $20 or $30 that I made on a few $2 WIN wagers. From that point on, I was hooked.

PS. Trainers gave the WORST tips!!

[lefty359]

When I was 18 I saw an issue of American Turf Monthly, bought it, read it, been a fan of racing ever since.

[cj]

High school friend (Larry Collmus) tried talking me into going for a while, was never interested. Finally one day I bit and we went to Bowie. My first race we watched from the announcer's booth. It was Dick Wooley at the time. Had no idea what I was doing of course. Dick mentioned that a trainer in the race, Odie Clelland, was great with first time starters. This was way before trainer stats or anything like that. Not knowing any better, I put $5 to win (a fortune for me back then!) and the horse won at 8-1 or something like that. Pretty sure I gave some of it back that day, but hooked ever since. Got my first look at a DRF and was fascinated by all the information.

[mikesal57]

I started at the ripe age of 8....

I followed my father every where...

First , he hit the bar....I was playing at the pool table...

Then it was off to OTB.....the excitement got to me....
and my father asked me who did it like...

I was hooked after that...

[Nutz and Boltz]

I was 22 years old, out of work, and looking for an easy way to make money. I wandered into an OTB, and I was hooked!

When I was a kid ,my old man used to hand me my allowance and then ask if I'd like to double it.

[PressThePace]

My dad used to go to Oaklawn with friends and come back with racing forms. It took me one time of picking the form up and being fascinated with all of the information. It was like a puzzle that needed to be solved. A couple of years later, my hometown of Sallisaw, OK was host to the first parimutuel track in Oklahoma. I spent most of my summers there and later my dad got in to the ownership end of the game. That was 40 years ago. The game has changed quite a bit since those days.

[Zydeco]

Went to Scioto Downs in spring of 1977 as a senior in high school with a friend. Went with 20.00 in my pocket...bet every race...had 4 Heinekens....and 2 hot dogs and left with 22.00!...Free beer??!! lol "I'm in!"

[CheckMark]

Dad and grandpa started out with me with the other breed (harness) with reading old programs and magazines with learning the colours of the world from the saddle pads (no joke) rubbed off and started getting interested in announcing horse races and seeing where that took me but not too far since I was too scared at that moment

Then got interested in the thoroughbred side and started reading the DRF as little as 7 or 8 years old with my mom and dad taking us to different events at our local track Grand River Raceway and also other tracks in Ontario

Started capping early as well by only looking at the finish position and trainer and did ok until I just gave up on that(age of 11) and tried to make up my own thing but sort of lost interest up until 13

Read my first ever handicapping book when I was 14 called "Betting on Horse Racing For Dummies" by SoCal handicapper Richard Eng and was a good read of new ideas and projects that I was writing down in a 250 page Hilroy notebook of what I learned from the book which I still have today with me!

Then started purchasing systems at 15 from RPm and National Race masters (big mistake for RPm but have decent ideas with Kelso Sturgeon TCN book and Guaranteed money system) and buying good handicapping books off of Amazon and thought I was trying to find the Holy Grail like all of us! Asked for my parents to purchase yearly subscriptions to DRF and Brisnet for DRF+ and Brisnet pp's but managed to get the DRF+ sub for 1 year (until I found it "useless") and refunded me of my purchase and was the dumbest idea I thought after I did that

Took all the books at the same time that I purchased and wrote down everything that I thought was important and felt confident enough that I was ready to try it out for "real" on betting with my mom and dad at the racetrack which was very fun learning for the first time of what the lingo was and what bets were good for your bankroll strategy which was a simple $2 win bet but branched that off with a exacta or superfecta

First (and current only big hit) was at Grand River with a $1500 trifecta with my pick (favourite lol) my dad's pick (mid price horse) and my brother's last second decision on a longshot he liked and won!!!!

When I was 16 I have learned so much of what handicapping is and how to read the DRF like a fairytale! Joined this forum at the same age and asked questions and kept learning with posting picks from different tracks and did loose my head 3 times which got me banned 3 times until PA let me on for the 4th time! Joined paceandcap at 17 too By the age of 17/18 I have been learning more ideas on how to expand my knowledge and create par times and speed figures on my own for future races in the future which I think is cool to do something like that rather than relying on a company to do it for you I also learned how to find good websites of where to find excellent handicapping info and free pp's (but not getting back into that thread anymore )

Flash back into the future and I feel like I will have a good career in the business since I know what I am talking about and know a little thing or two on how to find a winner (or more on some days!) and would die if I got the chance to either call races at my local racetrack or be the on-air handicapper at Woodbine or another track who would love my talents!

I have met so many awesome people on this forum and also Paceandcap which have taught me so much of pretty well everything I need to know about handicapping or a reminder to shut up after a while

Thank you to everyone and let's keep rolling for good vibes!

[therussmeister]

I bumped into a synopsis of a study of winning horse bettors in a magazine, might have been Psychology Today, I don't remember. I thought this to be adequate proof that it is possible to beat the game and decided to do it. Conveniently, Canterbury Downs was being built and was scheduled to open in seven months.

I read a handicapping system book, tried it at the track, quickly determined it wasn't going to work, decided to start modifying the system as opposed to tossing it out and reading another book, and eventually became profitable.

Coming up on my 35th anniversary of my first visit, although I like the intellectual challenge of handicapping, I have never become a fan of horse racing. Graded stakes bore me, maidens and cheap claimers intrigue me.

I suspect, without proof, that it is easier to win if you are not a fan of horse racing.

[thaskalos]

It was all Andy Beyer's fault. It had to be 40 years ago...and I was home alone watching the ABC Wide World of Sports. To my surprise, one of the segments featured some New York sportswriter who had written a popular gambling book...where he had described some self-created system to "beat the horses". The segment came on...and there was this bespectacled guy running wildly up to the betting windows with a thick roll of bills in his hand, and calling out an indecipherable string of directions to the mutuel clerk...while continuously peeling bills off the roll, and handing them to the ticket seller. "Key this" and "part-wheel that" the seemingly endless cadence went. And in between bets...this gambler was enthusiastically explaining his betting philosophy to the bemused reporter handling the story. This went on for race after race...and once the races were over, it was time to tally up the day's results. It went something like this:

Reporter: "Well, Andy...how did the system do today?"

Beyer: "I lost $1,895."

Reporter (visibly perturbed): "What? How do you explain that an expert horseplayer like you could lose that kind of money in a single afternoon?"

Beyer (while flashing his famous toothy grin): "It's a wonderful testament to the uncertainty of the turf."

That was it. That did it for me. I decided then and there that I was going to be the next Andy Beyer. The very next day I went to the library...and, not finding the Beyer book, I checked out Tom Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing. And the rest, as they say, is history.

[summersquall]

Boredom, living in a one horse town. Plus the allure of gambling availability across the state line, my friend Ben accompanied me to Waterford Park the summer before turning 18. My capping acumen consisted in its entirety on betting the grey.

[cj]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

That was it. That did it for me. I decided then and there that I was going to be the next Andy Beyer. The very next day I went to the library...and, not finding the Beyer book, I checked out Tom Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I'm still amazed at how many horse racing handicapping books were available in the McGuire Air Force library. I can't tell you how many hours I spent sitting in the library reading those books. I doubt they are there now, or if there is even a library any longer, but who knows? It was already familiar with Beyer, but found all the Quirin, Ainslie, and Quinn stuff.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

That was it. That did it for me. I decided then and there that I was going to be the next Andy Beyer. The very next day I went to the library...and, not finding the Beyer book, I checked out Tom Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I got Ainsle's books and booklets and copied down ALL the rules, plus factors - all 57,000 of them - into a little note book.
I would take an hour to do one race, checking off each and every rule and then adding the plus factor and adding the pace ratings.

Talk about FREE PPs, I would go FL every day at 3:00, when the gates opened and they let you in free for the last three races. I would scour the trash cans to find any Forms or partial form I could find, take them home, and work the races, usually NYRA and FL. A LOT of times, I could never find results!

This was in the 70s...very limited data out there - only what you could salvage from the trash!

[FakeNameChanged]

So my neighbor an inveterate gambler, who's nickname was Bodie W., short for Bodacious, comes over one Saturday afternoon, and asks me if I want to go along with him to see Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter. So, I said, Sure, why not. Where is she? He said she was going to be at Penn National when King Leatherbury brought one of her horses up to Penn to win a race. I believe that Kent D. was also coming along to ride.

Upon arrival, my neighbor takes me in through the owners entrance and procures two programs for us at no charge. He pretty much got into anywhere free of charge just on his reputation. It had to be seen to be believed. Being my first time at a track, I was on information overload and started to study the program, this was one of the old ones with no data other than basic information. Bodie was constantly coming and going to procure information from other sources, so he left me in the grandstand to fend for myself, and my first place bet actually won, even though I somehow bet the wrong horse. He said that doesn't matter.
After he returned from one of his walk-arounds, I asked about Wonder Woman, if he saw her yet. He said yea, and he was disappointed that she had dressed down in jeans and some baggy shirt, no make-up. But he said,The King looked like a million bucks. Back then King Leatherbury dressed up like Colonel Sanders.
So I never actually saw her, but it didn't matter, as he made me a horse racing fan from then on.
Note: Anyone that regularly attended Penn during the 70's-90's would know who my neighbor was. He was aptly called Bodie or Whitie, and was a big Hulk Hogan look-alike before the Hulk actually was known.

[ReplayRandall]

Originally Posted by cj

I'm still amazed at how many horse racing handicapping books were available in the McGuire Air Force library. I can't tell you how many hours I spent sitting in the library reading those books. I doubt they are there now, or if there is even a library any longer, but who knows? It was already familiar with Beyer, but found all the Quirin, Ainslie, and Quinn stuff.

It's funny how recalling events in our past, appear to be nothing more than mere happenstance....Everything exists for a reason, at a specific time and place, to help us decide what our life's journey will be....It's not just blind luck or coincidence.

Wise decision making is what determines our destiny....