Picking Winners - Horseplayer's Guide

by Andrew Beyer

Dust cover has some wear, but inside looks new

Genres: Horse Racing, Sports, Nonfiction, Finance, Reference

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book on a suggestion from Jim Cramer to help teach how to play the stock market. It was a very good book; easy to read and understand. Makes me realize how picking winning horses is very complicated and requires lots of experience and time! I won't be betting on horses soon! But hopefully I can use this knowledge to help me pick stocks.......it's still going to take a lot of experience/research/time though.........ugh!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of knowledge in this book. Of course, I don't recommend anyone "try this at home." I read the book because I moved close to a track that was next to my home and I enjoyed going there as a hobby.

If you want to make a living. Do it elsewhere.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have read both the original edition and a later edition. Very influential and very useful in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Thereafter, the knowledge was too widepread and "domesticated" and the edge was gone.

[Gary Geiger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyer is the Bill James of horse racing.

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feel free to skip the parts where beyer predicts the winners of a race that has already been run. The rest of the book is ok

[Tarik · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of this book was the author walked you through the important pieces of a fairly complex system. He started out as novice and used excellent examples to illustrate concepts he learned from experience.

He started with a passion and turned a collection of insights into a workable system.

Jim Cramer recommended this book for stocks. I’m reading it years later but I learned more from it than handicapping race horses.

[Dave McGrath · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the original treatises on speed handicapping, and the first popular exposition on the method in the USA. Beyer's insights on ground and mounting yard analysis are also still relevant for punters today. It is a short read and I highly recommend it for those interested in punting on the nags.

[Robert Melone]

COVID-19 Quarantine

[Beatles1964 · Rating 1 out of 5]

poor reading.

Very disappointed with this purchase. Mathematical mumbo jumbo that has no relevance to the Australian and the European racing scene.

[Samuel Newell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covered a specific niche topic that I needed to read

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Try walking around at lunch with this tucked under your arm, it always starts a conversation. Strangers come up to you and ask about all your secrets at the track because surely you must know something if you are one of those guys who bets on horses. On more than one occasion I got the "So you like to play the ponies" from someone. While I was not able to put all of this new found knowledge into play on a race track I certainly have benefited from the wisdom in this book on the stock market.

Truth be told I only bought this after reading Jim Cramer's book Confessions of a Street Addict where he says the best investing book ever written is not an investing book at all. He is 100% right. This book was fantastic. If you only read one chapter skip right to 11 and read about money management. I especially like the line on page 186 "As harmful as money problems and alcohol can be, the most deleterious effects on a horseplayer's concentration are caused by women." More true words have never been written. I really liked the pace and conversational tone of this and actually learned way too much about horse racing. I'd recommend it to anyone as it was a fun read but also very insightful.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and completed it in one round trip Seattle to Chicago plane trip.

Andrew Beyer is really able to bring you in to the mind of a horse player and expalin both the joy and the pain involved in this great hobby. More importantly he has devoted his life to understanding the art of handicapping and is able to convey some important strategies to the reader. Only down side is that this book was written in the mid 70;s and does feel a bit dated.

But if you had any interest in becoming a better horse bettor this book is worth a quick read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitive book on handicapping from maybe the most famous handicapper and inventor of the beyer speed ratings. the best book out there if you want to learn basic, logical betting strategies the next time you're at the track. also many tools in here have clear relevance for the investing/trading world (identifying value, calculating expected return vs. risk, etc).

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Good. Excellent for stock options traders as well for insight into the numbers game.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book taught me more about playing the horses than all the others combined. Great book from a easy to read, organized and lucid writer.

[Adam Wiener · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a review of this book for a horse racing site: http://helloracefans.com/reviews/pick...

[Nick Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a recommended book by Jim Cramer, as it has some parallels to investing in the stock market

[Matt Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of outdated in that speed figures are readily available today, but 3/4 of it is good information on class, tracks, trainers, jockeys and personal accounts of why these things matter.

[Pratap Pandit]

A must-read for any railbird or horse racing enthusiast. Great stories and practical advice from a seasoned racing bettor, it has fundamentally changed the way I handicap horses.