Beyer on Speed: New Strategies for Racetrack Betting

ISBN: 9780395673904

定价: 63.00

内容简介

The Value of Speed Figures
When I started calculating speed figures and using them to bet the
horses??? I saw quickly that they were the most powerful tool in the
game. By taking into account the difference in surfaces over which
horses run and the different distances of thoroughbred races??? they
translated every horse s performance into a single number that
neatly defined his ability. They addressed the central question of
handicapping: Who can run faster than whom? But there was a
time and place where speed figures were more than a tool. They
were magic.
Winter racing in Florida has traditionally attracted stables from
all parts of the country??? and in the 1970s??? before speed handicap-
ping became fashionable??? the nature of this competition bewil-
dered most horseplayers. Could a $15???000 horse from New York
beat a $25???000 horse from Chicago? Was an allowance-class horse
from Canada better than a high-priced claimer from Kentucky?
Conventional handicappers could only guess??? because there were
no direct lines of comparison between those horses. I didn t have
to guess. I knew.
Before each Florida season??? I spent weeks at a desk stacked high
with regional editions of the Daily Racing Form.