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 enlarge | Author: Andrew Beyer
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $2.81
You Save: $12.19 (81%)
New (26) Used (31) Collectible (4) from $2.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 41773
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0395701325
Dewey Decimal Number: 798.401
UPC: 046442701327
EAN: 9780395701324
ASIN: 0395701325
Publication Date: May 6, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Over 600,000 Feedbacks Posted!!! Great Buy!!!*** Never Used*** May Have a Publisher's Mark~We have over 3,500,000 Books Sold!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great for picking more than just horses May 15, 2006
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
I've never bet on a horse race. I've actually only been to a track once in my life (we don't have a lot of it in this part of the country), and yet I still found this book tremendously useful. Why? Well, it was recommended to me as a guide to "Picking Winners," not just in the horse racing world but in the stock market as well. And, having now read the book I can say that it has proven a more effective lesson in choosing stocks than most of the investment books I've read.
Some of the areas Beyer explores which I think apply to the stock market as well (or to any investment situation as far as I can tell) are:
-the effect different track conditions can have on a horse's performance.
-considering the effects of trainers on a horse's ability to win, lose, progress, or decline in performance.
-spotting potential cases of insider information.
-When to bet on a consistent performer over an unproven newcomer and vice versa.
-detecting signs of physical malady or deterioration early before you lose money because of them.
-How to detect and hopefully stop a losing streak once one begins.
In short this book provides an incredible amount of insight into the ways of selecting the merits of one horse (ie stock) over another without discounting the influence of other factors (the trainer, ie management, for example) on the outcome. I highly recommend this book as a source of investing knowledge and insight and, were I to take up speed handicapping, would absolutely start here.
 Very Informative April 15, 2006
Andrew Beyer takes an interesting and analytical approach to picking winners at the track, while his easy style makes this a fun and understandable read. Beyer's biggest contribution is the use of speed figures - horses that show bursts of speed in their last race are usually good bets. There's also valuable information about track conditions and other factors. As one that rarely visits the track, I didn't realize that not every horse entered in a race is expected to seriously compete. This book came out in the 1970's, and the author has added additional methods for picking winners, but it still makes an interesting read.
Figure innovator January 6, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
So many folks go to get the racing form and live by the figures without actually understanding what they mean or how they are computed. This was the original volume on computing figures and remains relevant to those who look at Beyer figures. You can't make money using them anymore, but it sure helps to know what you are looking at.
Priceless Education in Analytical Methodology November 17, 2005
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
The last time I went to the races I was five or so, and went to a track just outside Chicago on a beautiful, sunny day. I placed three bets on two races, cashed on none of them, and was thoroughly bored for all but about 2:22 1/5 of the afternoon. As I often did any time I wanted something, I began to pout; knowing I would get what I wanted. I wanted, more than anything else I could imagine at that time, to leave that awful, boring place, and never return.
Almost twenty years later, the writing of one man, published 30 years ago, has done what, just yesterday, seemed impossible, and completely reversed my perception of this sport.
Until reading this fascinating account of horse racing and it's amazing intricacies, I was among those to criticize nearly every facet of the "event" (never one to dignify it as a sport). You name it, I probably disagreed with it: the physical treatment of the horses both during training and races, the drugs that were unquestionably prolific in use, the jockeys' voices becoming unnaturally high as a result of their ghastly profession, the addict gamblers wasting what should be productive lives in the grandstands at some racetrack, and those same gamblers who seemed to care more about horses than people. Nothing about it impressed me and everything about it disgusted me. And when Tony Kornheiser, on both his radio and television sports shows, openly considered and argued Secretariat to be one of the 50 top athletes of all time, well, that was, to me, the most laughable, offensive comment I had ever heard from a sports analyst, on any previous topic. When ESPN dignified his opinions by naming five horseracing-related athletes in their Top 100 All-Century list, including Secretariat (at No. 35, just ahead of Oscar Robertson, Mickey Mantle, Ben Hogan and Walter Payton), I could only shake my head in disbelief. I was appalled. I simply could not understand how anyone, let alone any group as respectable as ESPN, could be so irrational. That was five years ago, but my views had not changed.
Then I read "Picking Winners". I had just finished reading the chapters covering the speed rating process when, on page 158, I read, "romanticists could appreciate Secretariat for his strength, his grace, his exciting style of running. But for me the most awesome moment of his career came two days after the Belmont Stakes, when I sat down with paper, pencil, and the Belmont charts, calculated my track variant and wrote down the number 148 for the eighth race that day. For a true addict, speed figures are the most beautiful part of the game."
Upon reading this, I went back and read it again; and then I read it again; and then I stopped reading and paused as I realized how greatly I had underestimated this sport. I paused to think about Secretariat, and how I remembered my aunt crying on both the occasions she tried to talk about him. Crying. About a horse. That she never even owned.
I can understand, now, just why that is. His perfection inspired awe in all that encountered him, and on that one day at Belmont, he outdid his own perfection in an astonishing performance, the enormity of which is most appropriately expressed not with words, but by wordless emotion, awe-inspired tears. Or, in my preferred language, numbers, through Beyer's speed rating. This passage comes at the end of the three chapters that describe the basic intricacies that formulate Beyer's speed ratings, just when the power of a speed figure of 148 can be adequately understood and absorbed. I now understand.
Picking up this book was, for me, never about horse racing. I didn't plan to use this information at the tracks, nor did I plan to alter my opinions of the sport. I bought this book and read it based on the recommendation of the brilliant stock analyst, Jim Cramer, who claims this book helped him develop a strategy for analyzing and picking stocks. Similarly, all I wanted from this book was insight I could extract and use as a parallel method for stock analysis. I found what I was looking for. This book is a great educator of a methodical analytical technique that has been proved effective; and, as written by Beyer, can be understood and applied easily, by most anyone. I am more pleased, however, that I did not find exactly and only that for which I was looking. I found much more. I have developed an appreciation for this sport that I, otherwise, would likely never have obtained. As a result, I enthusiastically recommend this fantastic read for two reasons: to anyone wanting to gain a unique perspective on horseracing, this book will provide you with a greatly increased appreciation for the sport and all its components; and to anyone interested in improving their analytical abilities, methods and applications, regardless of where or how they choose to apply them, i recommend this book because it will prove meaningful, creatively inspiring, and pertinent for many applications even fully unrelated to horseracing. A truly exceptional read.
Well done, Mr. Beyer.
Sound Advice August 7, 2005
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I found this book to contain some really sound advice and I would suggest it for anyone that was contemplating risking their money on the ponies.
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