Picks and Musings for 040514 by Harry Watnik There is much to contemplate and so few hours in the day to encompass the twists and turns of form in the modern simulcasting age- a cottage industry of experts & handicappers and clairvoyants, and insiders and crystal ball gazers, and scientists de Handicapping, of every known angle, all are available for paid or free consultations- but I do declare, being of somewhat sound mind, that picking your own is the highest form of race horse joy- Racing has evolved into a game of syndicates piecing together every conceivable outcome and hoping to score a 100K payoff from a 5K investment all in the space of a afternoon but others like dedicated Lawrence of Woburn, spent decades cloistered perfecting his systems who paid his muse 60 years of his life if he spent one day at the task of finding a good show horse or trotter or dog!!- big payoffs usually occur when a pesky long shot or two interrupts the flow of form and condemns thousands of gaming speculators to the art o “stooping” or hitting the bar for a high ball or a couple of brews until funds are replenished- When I was a young man I studied in a handicapping “Yeshiva” with some of the finest minds the game has introduced itself to- in the main we were disciples of Tom Ainslie and his meticulous method of eliminating the chaff from the wheat- and the concept of the playable race- since as many as 30% of races fall into the category of “ask your cat to pick it”- some races just cannot be whirled down to a decent choice; and betting “guesstimates” is an express jaunt to the park bench- Many handicappers will only participate in the exotic wagering realm of horse reality- to them, win or place or show or across the board gaming is strictly for those about to capitulate to dementia or they are weak in the knees nervous wrecks- the exotic handicapper is ready and apparently able to play the all” button with regularity on the notion that a favorite or two may reduce a pick 4 to a pick 2 and so on and so forth- the handicapping wizard “Quick Moe” finds only exactas to his taste and the fabled Rube The Pearl was known as the “triple doctor” back in the day- my own vice is win wagering -but I was taught by the “master” Lawrence of Woburn that the real deal was playing for show!! I doubt any American handicapper had the time in that Lawrence did -at least 65 years of cloistered study!! Racing magazines and racing micro fiche and 1000s of scraps of paper littered his study, each discarded paper containing mystical mathematical formula- for what Lawrence was after was a 99% show accuracy- in the end this one mindedness resulted in Lawrence waiting a week for a play- usually a 1- to 10 chance and hed go out track side and plunk down his available funds, andwin and leave that track as happy as a kid with a new baseball glove! Whatever one may have thout about his practices and money management, no one knew more about horse racing from the perspective of the show wager than Lawrence of Woburn- In manner and dress he was not discernible from a monk in the 14th century copying out the testaments with a chicken feather by candlelight- but I really should refrain from a short reminisce about Lawrence, whose 7 decades of study went to the graveyard with his bones- but it is said that what distinguishes the dead are our memories of them-- if you handicap too many races it is very similar to eating a gallon of ice cream at a sitting- sooner or later youll get so sick of it that you dont really care who wins or anything- you just want to know the result then on to the next problem- Long ago I wa made aware that 19 members of the French Academy of Science were brought together at the behest of the French Jockey Club in order to determine the maximum number of wagers a gambler might endeavor to make during the course of a calender year and thefigure was “18” wagers -anything beyond that sum was almost a sure thing to lead the “punter” to the begging bowl and newspaper shoes. With the French Academys recommendations in mind; I will “punt” on Noble Moon, in the Wood Memorial and California Chrome, in the Santa Anita Derby and Cleburne, in the Calder Derby. The more difficult question is win? Place? Or show? Or all three!
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 05:35:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015