Reviews of Horse Racing Systems

Review of “How To ‘Place Bet’ On Favorites For A Living”

Review of a classic handicapping book

Anyone Can Make Money At The Races by Randolph Reynolds (Pagurian Press Ltd., 1971)
 
As a life-long horseplayer, I used to pride myself on cracking the code of racehorse selection. This, after all, was the fun of the game, the challenge of applying my experience and skills to this wonderful challenge of picking the winners. Which horse among the field was going to win? That was the question I would continually ask myself as I sat down with my Daily Racing Form.

My success in the beginning was sporadic. I lost far more than I won and I was beginning to feel that this whole handicapping business was simply a game of luck. It was at about this time that I discovered a small paperback book buried in the back of my closet. It had been left behind by one of my older brothers who had left the house a few years before. He must have forgotten to take this book with him because inside the book I could see several pages had been dog-eared and the pages appeared to be well worn. This was a book, I could tell, which had been studied hard.

The book was titled “Anyone Can Make Money At The Races”, by Randolph Reynolds. You can probably guess that it was this book which inspired the title of this Web site. It was the first handicapping book I came across which actually generated consistent profits for me and, perhaps more importantly, it ignited a passion and interest in handicapping, which continues to the present day.

Written in a direct and easy to understand style, the book methodically covers a system of handicapping based on a number of factors or, as Reynolds calls them, “indicators” which will show up in a horse’s past performance. The most important indicators, according to Reynolds, are “breaks” and “trials”.

A horse is credited with a “break”, for example, if that horse is leading at the 1st call or in the 1st and 2nd calls combined. A few other conditions must be met if that horse is to be credited with a “break”. A horse qualifies for a “trial” if that horse’s workout does not exceed the average time of the top 20 percent workouts of all other horses. A table showing track conditions, distances, and maximum times to qualify for a “trial” make this task quite easy.

Other indicators follow these top two and are also used to determine which horse would be in the best form to win. Those other indicators include “Decreasing Number of Lengths Behind in Successive Races” (number of lengths behind at the 1st pole decreases steadily in successive races), “The Closing Factor” (horse improves its position during the running of a race), and “Running Room” (amount of distance or number of lengths behind which a horse has in reserve before reaching its best performance).

The second part of the book lays out a system of rating based on adjusting running times by establishing theoretical values of the horses. I read through this second part of the book, but never incorporated into my handicapping. I was doing too well just using the system in the first part of the book and never really grasped the concept Reynolds was advancing in his rating system involving theoretical valuations and time-adjusted winning times. I simply did not become a believer in this and stuck to what was tried and true, the form indicators he laid out in the first half of the book.
 
I am not certain if Randolph Reynolds ever wrote another handicapping book after “Anyone Can Make Money At The Races”, but I sure wish he had. He was the first handicapper I read which ignited my interest in the game. Recently, I tried to find out whatever happened to Randolph Reynolds and, thanks to George Kaywood of Handicapping.Com, I learned he had passed away sometime in the early 1980’s in Toronto. I am certain if Mr. Reynolds were around today he would be an even better handicapper given all the handicapping information which would have been available to him on his desktop with a single keystroke.

I leave you with one of Randolph Reynold’s paragraphs in the first chapter of his book which I think sums up his theory on identifying indicators in a horse’s past performance:

“Of course, our handicapping problems would be easily solved if we could ask the horse how he feels before any designated race: is he alert, sharp and ready to go, or does he feel dull and stagnant? Since we are unable to obtain the answer from the horse, we must rely on certain discernible factors which reflect the horse’s feelings to a high degree of accuracy.”

We welcome your comments and experiences with any of the horse racing and betting systems you may have tried. Please send your comments to info@makemoneyattheraces.com

                          Broad Brush Euthanized at 26

It was with some sadness that I read the news that Broad Brush had been euthanized on May 15, 2009. I suppose it was one of those news items that brings you back more than a few years to the time that you first remember getting excited about horses running around a dirt or grass track. I remember quite well his father, Ack Ack, one of the first horses that brought me into the thrilling sport of horseracing.

And with Ack Ack, of course, how can you not recall Willie Shoemaker and Charlie Whittingham teaming up to make Ack Ack the Horse of the Year in 1971. Winning 19 races in 27 starts put Ack Ack in the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1986. With Broad Brush's passing this week, a lot of those memories came flooding back.

And Broad Brush did not fall far from the tree. He won 14 races over his career, including 12 stakes, in his 27 starts. Perhaps most memorable for me was his victory in the 1987 Santa Anita Handicap over the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, Ferdinand. That same year Broad Brush finished third in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. He finished his career with $2,656,793 in earnings. Ack Ack would have been proud.