Customer Reviews

Go for the Green: Turf Racing Made Easy (The Handicapper's Guide to Grass Racing)

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

 

 

I went back through this book after initially panning it for not including anything really new or enduring. The best material is about the mares and their production, something that will change yearly. For those who have read comprehensive books on handicapping, they probably have some ideas about where to start on grass races. If that is the case, this book would be better in a condensed version as a chapter in one of those volumes. However, several books, including those by Beyer, are written by authors that are strongly slanted to dirt racing or have a real aversion to the grass. Thus, this provides an interesting supplement to those volumes. Heller's ideas aren't revolutionary, but you can at least get on par with the intermediate level grass handicappers. My biggest problem with this, as it is with a couple of the DRF series on elements of handicapping, is that many of the ideas they push is not available with the information in the Daily Racing Form. Brisnet and Trackmaster have much better Past Performance data that includes trainer stats, sire and broodmare sire stats, jockey info specific to grass, and importantly to grass racing, variant adjusted pace figures.

This book came up a little light. I really didn't learn anything new or enlightening.
If you have just started to follow racing, it could be a help. But not if you have been following and handicapping for years.