Night School Study Aid: Handicapping A-Z
By Dana Byerly, Hello Race Fans Co-founder
Are you planning on attending Night School tonight? Tonight’s topic is Handicapping A-Z and we have plenty of content to help you prepare.
Before you embark on the journey of becoming a handicapper there are few things you should ask yourself and a few things you should know. We have a series called Letter to a New Horseplayer where industry professionals and players have written letters to new players, such as yourself, sharing their insights and suggestions. My letter, entitled Start Slow, addresses how to go about forming your own opinion.
And more to the point, your own opinion is the most important thing in your handicapping toolkit. Contributing Editor Chris Rossi also shares his thoughts on forming one’s own opinion.
As for the mechanics of handicapping, we have a piece that addresses how to think like a handicapper. The best way to start is by asking a lot of questions.
Everyone has their own approach to handicapping. If you’re just starting out your approach will change and mature with experience. We asked a group of handicappers to discuss their handicapping process. How long have they been handicapping, how has their routine changed, what factors to do think are most important or least important? There’s also a bonus discussion of using an iPad to handicap.
Go to A Discussion on Handicapping Process
And finally, if it’s handicapping books you’re looking for, we have suggestions! We polled a group of players on their favorite handicapping books and produced a list of the top five. We also have book reviews for all them!
Go to HRF Index: Top 5 Handicapping Books
Go to Handicapping Book Reviews
And if you want to dive into specific aspects, such as pace, class, speed or pedigree (just to name a few), try our Beginners’ Corner for a listing of all our content by task (“I’m going to the track”) or by topic (“I want to learn about handicapping”).
This week’s guest at Night School is Steve Byk (@Steve_Byk), host of the At the Races daily radio show available Sirius XM and as a podcast. If you’re not familiar with At the Races, be sure to check it out!
Not sure what Night School is? It’s a free chat-based fan education tool that occurs every Tuesday night. You can check your local track’s site or just visit Night School here.