[Because I Can Jim]

Pace Makes The Race (PMTR)
Ahhhhh....I remember....Because I am restudying it for the umpteenth time right now!!!

Back in the day...for me PMTR was just being published. At that time, as Bill said, "The best book on handicapping I ever read was Pace Makes The Race." (By the way, Bill is a living, breathing Sartin encyclopedia IMO. Pay attention to what he has to say.)

The software program of choice at that time was Phase III. Ultrascan was just ready to be released. Phase III was all about incremental velocity. You had to manually input the times and beaten lengths for each paceline you wanted to use. It was being used two different ways. First was to enter all of the lines for one horse's past performance and the other was to enter the lines of the contenders. Notice that you were picking contenders and selecting pacelines before you entered them into the program. Although it could be used to select contenders and pacelines using it the first way, it is obvious that "it was a lot of work." More work than the average person was willing or able to do. I worked full time. Had family considerations and was aspiring to handicapping professionalism. The amount of work between that, track profiles, par charts, variants, Brohamer Models, etc... was very overwhelming.
On top of that, for me, the readouts were very confusing. See the Yellow Manual for some examples. I would look at a readout with velocities of 1F, 2F, 2C, FT, Total for not just the POR but POH for 5, 6, 7 horses. Sure, my pea sized brain could see that 58.25 was less than 58.32, but it did not mean anything to me. Still doesn't. I could not get a "feel" for what the difference of 0.07 meant other than this number is higher than that. So as a personal preference I don't use the Velocity POR & POH tabs in RDSS.

What PMTR did was simplify things and it provided some structure as to process and workflow. While the Follow Ups were being published every couple of months and did provide information, they left me confused. You were always given glowing reports from how this person was doing well by doing this an that, yet, I struggled because it was not geling for me from the bits and pieces that were being written. (Now I am no dummy. I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Accounting. Yes, I am an accountant and just like doctors and lawyers, you are trained to be able to apply concepts and theory and not just memorize and repeat.) Even today, as I go back over Follow Ups and Manuals, I still shake my head. PMTR changed that. It simplified the numbers, but, more importantly, it provided a workflow, and the thought process that you could wrap your mind around and get better at the more you practiced.

My recommendation - it does not matter if it costs $50, $75 or even $100... Buy that book!!!

A word of warning though, get the first edition. As I wrote before, I have a unique perspective. I was around back in 1985. But walked away from handicapping. I decided in February 2013 to return to handicapping. That is why I am "new". A lot has changed, but, a lot has remained the same. I did not get the RDSS software until it was released as RDSS2 to everyone back in April I think. I had searched for the Methodolgy and was lucky enough to find Pace and Cap. (My undying appreciation to Bill and Ted for keeping the Methodology alive through this site and the software and to other oldtimers on this forum such as ForTheLead, Shoeless, lone speed and many others who I have not mentioned but are equally appreciated for keeping this sense of community and sharing strong.) When I looked back, what I found was that Michael Pizzolla went in another direction. Now my understanding is that in later editions of PMTR (I think the 3rd ed.), his contributions were taken out of the book. (I am not sure about this.) I personally was able to find a pristine copy of the 1st ed. and spent the good money to get it. Pizzola's contribution is very important. Again, I may be wrong about later editions, so be careful, but, do get the book.

Next.....LOL
Back in the day....again...LOL
Class was something that was being struggle with. Studies were done and a chart of track class was created that you were to follow and a brief explanation of what to do but no real practical application was presented on making your own. "Keep track of this and that at your own track and circuit and if a horse is coming from another track and you do not have class charts, extrapolate it." HUH???? Again, it was one more thing that required data collection and interpretation. So many of us would do a quick APV calc along with a cursory look at the lifetime winnings chart when it came to class. We read the saying "Pace is Class, is Form, Is Pace..." and that was about it because we were using pace so we did nto consder class. The amount of staggeringly, overwhelming amount of work involved (I said that before right? LOL) that class did not seem as important and APV "sort of got you there" so I just let it be.
ForTheLead is someone you should hang on to every word he writes. His knowledge about class (and other things) is immense. For me, obviously, I am extremely weak when it comes to class, yet, I can see how it can be effectively used for contender selection. Therefore, it is definitely an area of study on my list along with everything he has to say.

Now, for my humble opinions....
On to 9 Truetap...
For me a non contender and therefore I am not agonizing over a paceline. There are a couple of sprinters in the race who can run around a 111 in sprints. While I don't think that will be the POR at the 2C, Truetap recently shows that it isn't competing at 113 - Out - slop or no slop.

For 10 Livonzin - Out - no need for selecting a paceline. There is another sprinter in the race. Can Livonzin compete with Tiz Tee Time? Possibly...except that Tiz likes to move in the final fraction and today is running at a longer distance. Livonzin was laid off for 147 days and is now on its second race back. While it ran as expected for the 1C and made a move in the 2F, today's race is a route. A move to the 2C is only the 1F of a route. Not enough for me. Granted, we don't know what it will do in a route, but, neither do we know that about Tiz. When I compare the two - out goes Livonzin - even before I have considered the other routers in the race.


Hope all of that helps.
Jim