[mamojica]

Originally Posted by RichieP

FORGETTING the races themselves think back to the losing months of June/July ( I read what you wrote about "looking back" on lost races) and then your winning month of September:

1) What was going on in your personal/business/financial life in those months? What was different?

2) What was your environment surrounding you like(when you sat down to match races) in the losing months and then fast forwarding to the winning month? What was different?

3) Did you have a game plan during those losing months? Did you have a game plan during the winning month? What was different?

4) Did you work races the same time of day (night) during the bad and winning times? Or did something change?

Rich:

These are interesting questions. The only thing that I can think of that was different was that it got hot. I was doing OK in late winter and early spring. But when June began, it started getting warmer, and my seasonal allergies started acting up. When it comes to hot weather, I'm a wuss. I'm a fall and winter man. I'm much more comfortable when it is cooler.

Here where I live (Bronx, NY), it was much hotter in August this year than in June and July, but it was in August when I started to come out of my slump. I deliberately took time off from horseracing, and did little wagering. I also took time out to review my winning races and to think about what I needed to do to improve my game. It was during this time that I reached some of the conclusions I discuss in my opening post. When September came around, I started applying what I learned in August. It was also much cooler, and the much more comfortable weather brought with it a more relaxed and positive attitude.

Other than that, my financial and business life was pretty much the same, and I don't remember anything else I was doing differently. It's just that hot and sticky weather get me down. Is there a link between that and my poor performance? A very interesting question indeed.

Originally Posted by mikesal57

In your post I see that you don't apply tandems , believe me ..DO IT...9 out of 10 times if will bite you if you think he can reverse it.

Also you didn't mentioned "projected pace of race"....this is a biggie for me...if a horse cant win vs a projected time , it should be eliminated.
I prefer sprint races, I cant pick a route if it had one horse in the race...so sticking with your strengths will also limit the # of races that you cap..

Mike:

Thanks for your encouragement and advice. The tandem thing has me baffled. It's not that I don't think it's valuable. I'm not sure how to apply it correctly. It's something I need to study more.

And I almost always project a pace for the race and match the horses against it. The only time I don't is when there is a lone early. Once I determine that there is only one early horse in a race, I stop handicapping. If the horse goes off at 3/2 odds or higher, I make the bet. I started doing this in September and so far it is working well.

Originally Posted by For The Lead

I wrote a post not long ago on this subject. The point of my post was situations where horse "A" ( a closer) is beat by horse "B" ( a lone early). When these two horses meet again and horse "B" is now confronted with other early types capable of running like early fractions, cannot horse "A" reverse the previous order of finish between the two of them? The same holds true for the reverse of this scenario....

If two horses entered in today's race have raced together previously, you must know the match up from their previous race and apply that match up to today's race. That is to say, the match up from their previous race must be compared to the match up of today's race in order to determine if the match ups are similar and MAY lead to a similar race and finish or if that finish can be reversed.

For The Lead:

Thanks for the information. Tandems are problem area for me, but this has provided some clarification, and given me something to think about.

Best regards to everyone,
Marc