Friday, March 22, 2013

On handicapping systems in general

You know, handicapping systems always sound great in theory.

In ... (long pause) ... THEORY! (happy Talk-like-William-Shatner Day, btw!)

But in practice, you wind up winning ... and losing ... about the same amounts of money.

Except in books and movies, I've NEVER known anyone who actually won a lot of money, consistently, on every race day.

Definitely not ME!

So my best advice to you would be: come up with your OWN handicapping system!

Make sure it's:

1. EASY TO REMEMBER: "Let's see, was I betting on all horses with the post position of 3 who have a sire or dam who once ran on turf? Or was it #3 in turf races only? OR ... ?"

2. HARD TO EXPLAIN TO ANYONE ELSE EXCEPT YOURSELF: See #1.

3. FLEXIBLE: "Oh, no, #3 got scratched! But #4 looks good ... but ... but ..."

4. FUN! If you aren't having fun at the races then it doesn't matter what system you're using. If you've lost three races in a row, skip the fourth and invest that $2.00 in a hot dog (assuming you can find one for $2.00 - it may just be a down payment!).

My current system is actually working pretty well. I've got a few "key words" floating around in my head and I look for horses whose names correspond in some way to those key words.

And that's actually not as illogical as you might think. For example, one of my "key words" is CAT. I look for horses with the word "Cat" as part of their names. Now you might think, "Oh, how stupid and arbitrary."

But actually, I've noticed that there aren't that many horses with "Cat" in their names - and strangely enough very few once you get away from the U.S. tracks. I have yet to find one in the U.K. or Australia.

So perhaps horses like "Tiger Cat" or "Tale of the Cat" tend to be bred and run more in the U.S. - particularly the West Coast - than elsewhere.

And since I'm primarily only looking at two Western tracks - Santa Anita and Turf Paradise - I'm going to see a lot more "Cats" than I would if I were in Melbourne.

And as long as they don't start singing, we're golden.

(Oh, and "Gold/Golden/Oro"? Another key word!)

So bottom line: (a) figure out what works best for you, (b) do it, and (c) never apologize!

Trust me, you are winning just as much as anyone else is with their ridiculous systems!

(No, I'm NOT saying your system is ridiculous! I'm just saying ... aw, forget it!)

And ... HAPPY ... BIRTHDAY ... MR. ... SHATNER!  Live ... long ... and PROSPER!!!


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