Sep 26 2008
The Bookshelf
In many ways, horse racing is like running a flight school: There’s money to be made, but it often requires the investment of even more money upfront.
Even as the sport wrestles with declining attendance, shrinking purse money, and public criticism, it continues to reinvent and harness new technology. As these changes unfold, new opportunities for those attached to the industry are manifest.
Handicappers and trainers, for example, have struggled with predicting the impact of synthetic track surfaces. While the industry carefully charts how it affects the safety of the horses, others are also watching speed and stats.
The upshot: Betting Synthetic Surfaces: Conquering Racing’s Newest Frontier, by longtime T-bred journalist Bill Finley. It’s a badly needed update to the crop of racing literature; check it out if you’re interested in learning more about how to take polytrack into consideration at the betting window.
