Customer Reviews

Horse race betting: A comprehensive account of pari-mutuel and bookmaking operations (Arco horseman's library)

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Fred S. Buck, Horse Race Betting (revised edition) (Arco, 1971)

First off, this book is not about horse racing, except in the general sense. There are some nifty pictures of horse races. But what this book is about is money, and specifically the history of how money has been taken at the races, as well as new (at the time) developments in the field of how cashiers take that money. Which sounds, on its face, like an incredibly boring book. Let me add to this, to stack the deck even more, that Buck's tome is thick with mathematical proofs. How could such a book be fascinating?

Yet it is. Buck's overview of the history involved and his descriptions of machinery of various sorts, along with the calculations used by the humans in the back to check the accuracy of the machines, makes for very interesting reading. How this is, I've no idea. But I certainly cannot deny that it works. The book, originally written in 1946, was updated by Buck in 1971 with various developments that had taken place between the two times; one wishes Buck (assuming he is still alive today, which is possible, but not very likely) would release a third edition covering the changes since 1971, which have been massive.

The book's one major failing is its last section, on the growth of harness racing. It is of a completely different tone than the rest of the book, focusing not on the mechanical aspects of what goes on behind the scenes, but a publicity brochure for the United States Trotting Association (if they haven't quoted it frequently and at length, they have missed out on an enormous publicity opportunity). Coming after all the wonderful mechanical stuff, it jars, and its constant tone of upbeat insistence gets very tiring after very few pages. The last section turns what would have otherwise been a four-and-a-half star review down a bit, but the rest of it is still very highly recommended. Check this one out, even if you've no interest at all in horse racing. *** ½