This book explains the science and mathematics of "Wager Value" like no other. After reading this excellent book you will understand why the secret of handicapping is NOT determing the horse most likely to win and then betting on that horse (and you will learn Dick's number one rule... "no value, no bet"). As a student of probability I found this work top notch and consider it one of the most overlooked handicapping books ever published. ...it is worth every penny.

The book explains how to break up each race into feet per seconds. You get a complete understanding of pace and speed.The only two factors that matter in a horse race. Study the concept of speed and pace and learn it and you will make money at the races.

The book I bought from you was a steal as far as I'm concerned. I had no real problem understanding it.Sometimes I'd get a little lost with details, but would just read it over. I truly enjoyed it and feel the money was well spent.

A concise, colorful history of the first 120 winners of America's most famous horse race. A short page story accompanies each lovingly done portrait. This lady knows how to draw horses--she doesn't pretty them up, she shows them how they are, beautiful enough without having to add any artificial ingredients. The stories are fascinating if you are a racing fan or like to read biographies of people and animals. The book is relatively inexpensive for art and history of this quality

Tom Ainsley's book is great if your new to harness racing and want to learn how to handicap or if you're already into it and want to refine your skills. MUST READ!

Mark Cramer has written the most thought provoking tome I've read. There are many excellent books on the "SCIENCE" of handicapping. But this book brings home the the reality that races are won by flesh and blood animals prepared by mortals (trainers) who are fraught with their own strengths and weaknessses.Anyone who extrapolates figures from services or computer programs water down the past performance to a number. Predicting the future(handicapping the "ART"), is far more involved in "cycles". This book is a must read for all serious handicappers

One of the classic reference books on horse race handicapping. The book covers a wide range of techniques and tactics in picking winners at the track (from basics for the beginner, to more complex applications for the experienced race track enthusiast). Book is now out of print (in any published form) and is becoming quite a sought after item as it really should be part of any comprehensive personal handicapping reference library.

Maj Ragain, Twist the Axe: A Horseplayer's Story (Bottom Dog Press, 2001)

Twist the Axe is the best book I've read this year, a conglomeration of Ragain's writings on racehorses and the culture surrounding them culled from many years of work. This book collects previously published and unpublished work, poems, stories, journals, and the odd drawing or two, pairing them with newspaper clippings, result charts, family trees, and just about anything else one could think of. Ragain can lay claim to being one of the ten or twenty best poets working in America today; his distinctive poetic style, the storytelling diction Williams tried and failed to achieve time after time, meshes with the juxtaposed images of hopeless, cheap horses and the memories they raise. On one level, of course, it's all about the horses; on another level, it's about the rest of life.

Ragain never makes the reader dig too far; there are layers beneath, of course, for those who want to pursue them, but the average John Q. will certainly be able to understand the connections in 'Morning Line;'

Jim Henson, father beard of muppets,
died of bacterial pneumonia, May 17, 1990.
The next day at Thistledown, fifth race,
a mare named Big Time Bird went off,
unacknowledged, at odds of 134 to 1.
Big Time Bird ran the race of her life,
drenched in and driven by grief,
the hot lasix of tears.
She finished second, a half length short,
beaten by a horse named Woman in Love.
You will never figure out this one.

This is one of those books that, if anyone outside the world of poetry knew of its existence, might have the power to draw thousands back into the fold. It is understandable, perfectly written, accessible not only to the poetry junkie but to the average reader. For most people, it's a pleasurable new world; for the chosen few who have been lucky enough to have been reading Ragain's books for longer, it will be another rest stop on the way to Paradise. They are all too few (this is Ragain's fifth book, with the first published in 1979), and should be eagerly devoured, once found. *****

This is THE best guide that I have ever come across in regards to wagering on horses and greyhounds. It is a must have book for any novice gambler, explaining every type of wager, defining track terms, and providing a guide of tracks of North America.

While the book is a must have for beginners, even most veteran gamblers would find this book quite beneficial. Mr. Andersen begins his book with the most basic of wagering information and progresses into more exotic wagers which would provide much needeed insight to all but the most seasoned gamblers.

There is an entire section devoted to wagering tables. I have found this to be quite indispensible while at the track trying to calculate how much a particular exotic bet will cost. I never go out to the track without this "tool".

The only complaint that I had with this book initially, was that I thought it was a greyhound handicapping book. It covers horses as well as greyhounds and definately is NOT a handicapping book. With that stated, I was very pleasantly surprised at all the wonderful information contained in this book and am happy to have made this particular "mistake". I would definately recommend this book to wagerers at any level.