The Skeptical Handicapper: Using Data and Brains to Win At the Racetrack

by Barry Meadow

Winning at the racetrack, however you define it, is neither easy nor a sure thing. But before you can think about winning, you need to learn which handicapping strategies are valuable, and which ones aren't. The Skeptical Using Data and Brains to Win at the Racetrack examines both popular and little-known angles to see what really works at the pari-mutuel windows. Author Barry Meadow, who wrote Money Secrets at the Racetrack, became an authority on the subject not simply by writing about it, but by playing the races full-time for decades as his major source of income. With the help of thoroughbred analytic researcher Ken Massa, Meadow checks out what happened in every race run in the U.S. and Canada between 2014 and 2017, more than 168,000 races in all. What if you had bet every first-time Lasix horse who was in the top three at the first call in his most recent start? Or followed each horse handled by a trainer-jockey combination with more than 20% wins if the horse showed the fastest first quarter last time out? Or played every 2-year-old first-time starter whose last workout was a 5-furlong bullet? This book answers these and many other handicapping problems. Your game is sure to improve by asking the key questions that Meadow raises and answers in this book. He shows you how to use both the data and your brain to profit in this most challenging of arenas.

670 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 14, 2019

Reviews

[peter t cheung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book with statistics

One the best books in horse racing handicappers and with many types of races in thourghbred races. The data is for 2014 to 2017

[Pauly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book could have been about 66% shorter as all it does is repeat itself over and over again. The last two chapters are pretty decent, the the first six are a repetitive bore.

[DK Simoneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was entirely too pessimistic. It seemed the author was trying to say - there is no way to win ever.

[Robert Natale · Rating 2 out of 5]

400 pages of what not to do.

Most people who love handicapping know all too well what not to do.