Customer Reviews

Bet With the Best: Expert Strategies from America's Leading Handicappers (Drf Handicapping Library)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nine well-know handicappers each contribute a chapter based on their specialty or current area of interest. The book contains useful information, but serious handicappers have probably read it before -- and probably from these same handicappers. The book is a good illustration of how few new handicapping theories or ideas have emerged in the past few years. If this is your first exposure to these handicappers, however, it is an excellent primer, and Andrew Beyer remains the best horse racing writer in America.

The most obvious thing that struck me while reading this book is what they don't write about. Not a single author mentions the Internet, computers, database or handicapping software. All successful horse bettors utilize high-tech resources these days. This book is nothing more than a promo piece for Daily Racing Form. All the authors are 1980's hasbeens - currently on the DRF payroll. As usual, they do not document their claims with verifiable statistics.

Sadly this book reveals nothing new.....same old stagnant handicapping methods as previously outlined in most of the authors previous books.....to collect a paycheck they have again hyped each other and their own outdated methods.

Same stuff as outline previously only packaged different . Brohammer is the only one making sense in todays handicapping game

If you are a serious horseplayer and have read many books about horse racing and betting, this book will just be a summary of what you learnt in the past. You will be disappointed if you want to find new ideas on horse racing from this book.

A quick overview of each authors specialty,good reading and allows you the chance to learn all different angles of handicapping.

I'm of the belief that one can never learn or read too much about the intellectual excerise which is handicapping. This book is must reading for any serious handicappers who want to take their "game" beyond the traditional contender-selection level. Of special interest to me were the sections by Crist, Litfin, Shuback, and, my person favorite guru, Quinn.

Bottom Line: Excellent book, well worth the money. You can go blow $20 bucks on an overbet favourite or buy this book.

The book is packed with a tremendous amount of information from various specialists. I would pay $100 for this book without hesitation.

I did enjoy some chapters more than others. Quinns chapter on conditions and class is truely brilliant. By far the best in this book. I will keep reading it over and over until I commit it to memory.

I also enjoyed the chapter on value handicapping. A real eye opener and thinker.

Beyer is great as always.

I was a little disappointed with the chapter on pace. Very simplistic.

Overall a no-brainer. Just like Funny Cide in the Derby. Hehe.

The Quinn compilation is a much better book and doesn't lock you into DRF, which this book does. Some good perspectives from experts on particular elements of handicapping, but geared towards the DRF audience and promotes to them.

Victor Mather (ed.), Bet with the Best (DRF Press, 2001)

Handicappers take note: you've read books by the authors in Bet with the Best (most of them, anyway) before. Why should you pick this up? Because the information therein is updated to take into account new information available to all handicappers, newer types of races (e.g., conditioned claiming races), and the proliferation of simulcasting.

Nine authors make appearances here, some of whom are names in the field handicappers equate (or should equate) with some of the field's standard textbooks (Andrew Beyer, Tom Brohamer, Dave Litfin) and some of whom are breaking new ground in the field (Lauren Stich). All are well worth reading. The most notable information updates to be found are in the sections by Tom Brohamer, which offers and excellent easy-to-use technique for eliminating horses in bad pace scenarios, and by James Quinn, who offers a bunch of new information Class of the Field-style for the modern reacetrack.

This one definitely belongs in the handicapper's library. ****

As one reviewer so aptly put it, same stagnant methods of handicapping. The only two chapters I liked were Liftin or recordkeeping and Stich on pedigree. The problem with Stich's pedigree is that it becomes dated, and it does not tell you when breeding will be the most dominant factor in winning the race. But beyond any doubt, the worst chapter in this book is Brohamer on pace.

Brohamer on Pace, as with Brohamer's book on Pace Handicapping is so muddled, so confused, it's impossible to obtain anything of value from it. Crack open any edition of the DRF and you will see at least three or four horses in any given race that ran one race that was an "E," two that were "P" or "S" races, two that were pure "S" races, two that were pure "P" races, and one race that went from "E" to "P" to "S." The most hysterical of the entire chapter was Brohamer comparing two horses named "SecretStatus" and "Jostle." The two horses had virtually identical records, identical number of races on turf and dirt, yet Brohamer tells us that "obviously, Secret Status's connections could read the racing Form and brought her back too soon." Brohamer says he doesn't want to "belabor the point" (hello, isn't that the point to writing the chapter, Tom), but Jostle was unquestionably the correct play here. Why? I left a message for Brohamer at his home in California, but he never called back. I wrote him a letter, but he never wrote back.

Liftin's chapter on recordkeeping is very, very good, but even that is imperfect. First, you can keep records on the running from running positions at various pole positions, but if you do something else for a living other than spending time at the track, where are you going to find the time to do this? Second, keeping records on the running lines of the winners from various pole positions/distances will not tell if the horse wandered from the inside to the outside, etc.

As one who has tried to turn horseracing into a hobby that will sustain itself -- much less turn a profit -- my advice is to weekend warriors is to 1) forget about it, or 2) get "The Handicappers Condition Book" by James Quinn. Losing days have beaten winning days so badly, my desire to make money at this finally yielded to the logic of the situation. I'm sure it's possible to make money at this, but you have to spend so much time keeping records, for anyone who works full time, it's simply impossible unless you want to become a divorce statistic.