Customer Reviews

The Right Horse: How to Win More, Lose Less and Have a Great Time at the Racetrack

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William Murray, The Right Horse (Doubleday, 1997)

availability: amazon

Murray's The Wrong Horse was one of the truly amusing
books in equine literature, a collection of anecdotes
that gives ample evidence that Murphy's Law is a live,
well, and an intimate of every person at a racetrack,
from the grooms to the president to the long-suffering
punters. The Right Horse unfortunately abandons the
jocularity for the most part and takes the tone of an
instruction manual; an odd choice for a book whose
subtitle claims, in part, that the book wants you to
have a great time at the track.

Not to say it's a bad book by any stretch of the
imagination; it's more a question of repetition. If
you've read more than two handicapping primers, it's
likely you've seen a good deal of what's here in the
past. Murray writes well, even when he's not taking
potshots at Mr. Murphy and his law's application to
racing, and the book is certainly readable. I'd just
have liked to see more that hadn't previously been
said. ** 1/2

If you are new to the world of horse racing and would like to increase your fun at the track by placing a few bets, this is good place to start. Yes, there are much more detailed books on handicapping out there, but for the novice, this is not only a good overview but an entertaining read. Peppered with laugh out loud anecdotes and colored with a good old fashioned way of writing that is at the same time unabashed in language, it is a refreshing supplement for the newbie who is reading the Dummies book on the subject (always good), slogging through the Form and buying betting tips on the Internet.