The Power of Early Speed (Elements of Handicapping) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Analyzes and documents the impact of early frontrunning ability, and how it can transform into huge paydays for todays modern handicapper.

Product Details

• Paperback: 301 pages
• Publisher: DRF Press (December 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932910980
• ISBN-13: 978-1932910988
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #128,681 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Early Speed, January 10, 2006

By	PTWoodman (L.I., N.Y., USA) - See all my reviews

A monumental study illustrating the importance of early speed in the handicapping of Thoroughbred Horse Racing in North America. Using a computer analysis of over 1.6 million thoroughbreds involving the period of January 1996 through December of 2004 author Steve Klein presents a crucial part of the handicapping picture. For me, the book provided a reawakening and clearer focus of some of my handicapping skills that had become underused over the course of time. Steve's work dwarfs another previous computer study "Winning at the Races", by William Quirin, Ph.D., William and Morrow, 1979. Steve's "Power of Early Speed is a must read for any serious horse bettor. I highly recommend it with 5 Stars.

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, January 18, 2006

By	Pick 3 - See all my reviews

The Klein speed points are excellent in showing which horses will have the early lead.I have only used it one day at the track, and the first time I used it in an exacta, the 3 horses I had selected, came in 1-2-3. The charts are great in showing at what tracks, distances,to use it for. I feel that it will help me alot in making me a better handicapper.

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An analytical methodology under-utilized and overdue., January 30, 2006

By	AJF "AJF" - See all my reviews

It is a shame that the vast databanks of information held by Daily Racing Form and Equibase have not been gleaned and explored like Klein has done here. This is a study of 1,671,627 starters and the effect of early speed in racing. It is the first of its kind, to my knowledge.

What Klein provides is not the Rosetta Stone of racing, but rather an affirmation of what critics will say we already knew--early speed is the universal bias in racing. But Klein goes further. He doesn't just prove up early speed's influence, he provides a solid (if in-artful) way of determining how a race will shape up by the first call. His surprisingly simple formula makes the Quirin Speed Point obsolete.

I highly recommend this book to horseplayers, especially those advanced enough to understand the significance of the scale of Klein's study. Any expert horseplayer that can put aside the arrogance of his close-minded commitment to his own hunches, rules, and opinions can undoubtedly benefit from this treatise and avoid the inevitable award of stubborn inflexibility--a slow, grinding loss at the track.

The statistics in this book overwhelmingly establish what should have been known by any horseplayer worth a two dollar bet--find the speed in a race and you are length away from the winner.

The disappointing part of the book is Klein's anecdotal evidence. Klein, like all prior authors of books on handicapping, relies on self-serving anecdotes to prove some of his hypotheses. I do not know why he has chosen to do this considering the volumes of hard-and-fast empirical evidence that he has at his fingertips to make his point. For instance, in his chapter on what speed horses to avoid, he fails to support his argument with any quantitative evidence, but rather relies on a few past races. Why, Mr. Klein? The rest of the book is based on the performances of over a million thoroughbred starts. Why revert to the woefully-inadequate method of proving your point by referring to a solitary (and therefore impenetrable) isolated event in racing? I would have preferred Klein had just admitted that his statistics do not tell us which speed horses to avoid, rather than attempt to tackle the question without any credible data.

Klein's endeavor here was long overdue, and I hope he, or others at DRF, will decide to use this scientific and statistical method for dealing with the other elements of handicapping--speed, class, track biases, angles, and conditions.