Beyer on Speed

by Andrew Beyer

Book Overview

Andrew Beyer shows the handicapper how to make his Beyer Speed Figures the focal point of a horse wagering strategy for pursuing spectacular profits.No serious horseplayer should be without Beyer on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395735238
• ISBN13: 9780395735237
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Tips from the master

I had had winning days at the racetrack before I read this book. I knew how to watch races, to look for troubled trips, to read the information in the Daily Racing Form, and to keep an eye out for sharp trainers and the patterns they employed with horses. I knew how to do just about everything but win.After reading this book, I went to Hollywood Park on a Friday night and won. It didn't win because of some shocking new revelation, but because Andy Beyer stresses where the handicapper's attention should be, what information is crucially important and what is not. After reading this book, I felt as though I could see the way a race would take shape in my mind, who would go to the lead, who would go four wide on the far turn and make a move. Everything suddenly made sense. I have a lot to look forward to the next time I go to the racetrack, and most of the credit for that is because of this book.

One of the Best I Have Read

This book is not for the beginning handicapper, but has some of the best information in it of any handicapping book I have read. Most books just give you information about how smart they were to make certain picks, but little knowledge is given to the reader. Beyer tries to pass on information from many years as a professional handicapper. I wish he would write a handicapping book that would have racing forms for 4 or 5 days, then show you how they break down the races to make their selections, not with programs they want to sell. It would be interesting to see the steps a professional handicapper goes through to handicap all races for a track, if they would bet it or pass it.

Beyer's third entry is as indispensable as the first two

Reading Andrew Beyer is at once informative and entertaining, which anything on handicapping has no excuse not being. While his first book introduced speed figures, and his second mixed the application of them with an appreciation of other aspects of handicapping, this book revisits the holistic approach - always emphasizing speed figures - in an era when everyone has access to more information than ever, and many even know how to use it. What makes reading Beyer so fascinating is that one is made to see, vividly, the endless testing and working out of new ideas and approaches, in the stories - one might call them lessons - he recounts (the chapter on turf betting is a classic of sports writing). Beyer, like Bill James, is a scientist, and thinks like one, to the edification of all who choose not to keep recycling the same old bromides, and making the same old mistakes. People like Beyer and Steve Davidowitz are largely responsible for the ever-escalating arms race which parimutuel bettors are fighting amongst themselves. It's a wonderful game, but if you don't want to get left behind, better read this.

A lesson for all British handicappers

"Beyer On Speed" was the first American book I read on horserace betting. Many would consider the content irrelevant to British horseplayers, but the reverse is true. American racegoers have access to so much more material than their British counterparts, that those who care to avail themselves of the methods of those such as Beyer have a huge advantage in the quest for profit. Beyer himself refers to a "benighted era" of racing, where his speed figures were so little used that he could make money on blindly backing his top figure horse, an advantage which has all but been eroded in American Pari-mutuel wagering since the inclusion of Beyer speed figures in the Daily Racing Form. In addition to the information contained within, the book is written in pithy and perspicacious style. Beyer is a great anecdotalist; many of his stories are salutory as well as entertaining.

The definitive work on speed handicapping

Beyer's book is entertaining and enlightening at once. The book gives the reader the theory behind speed handicapping and is full of examples, but even if you never cash a ticket, Beyer is so entertaining you won't care. He is not only a shrewd bettor, but a masterful storyteller. It's a great book, and not "stuffy" like some of the more conservative handicapping books we've all read.