TurfPedia - The Horse Racing Encyclopedia

ONCE HANDICAPPERS HAVE identified the contenders and evaluated them variously utilizing rating methods, the task at hand is slightly more than half complete.

Which factors take precedence today?
In this race?
Should handicappers emphasize speed over class, class over speed, track bias over all else?
How does the trainer fit in?
And so forth.

It's at this advanced stage, too, where method players carelessly stumble into trouble. Method players are those who belong to an amazingly large, nationwide club of handicappers almost blindly submissive to the procedures and output of pet methods.

1. Speed handicappers entranced by the magical power of their figures.
2. Class handicappers dedicated to the proposition they have discovered the best horse.
3. Pace analysts unable to imagine the race might be run in any other way.
4. Trip handicappers persuaded that horses running into trouble last out will convert the mishaps into clear sailing to victory today.
5. Trainer specialists clinging stubbornly to personal convictions that what a trainer intends to happen today amounts to direct access to reality.