Essential Reading Material

[Houndog]

Other than the Follow-Ups, Sartin Seminar Workbooks and tapes I think several books should be read carefully to get a deeper understanding of pace analysis. These are books that many are already familiar with, but certain books will be more helpful than others depending on the program being used.

SYNERGISM II - Other than the user's manual, and some of the Follow-Up's Modern Pace Handicapping by Tom Brohamer is the best book I have read about velocity based handicapping period. I really think you need to get a feel for the FPS figures to use SYNERGISM II to it's full potential. This for me lays out the concepts of velocity based handicapping in great detail. Tom Brohamer has a lucid writing style, but I have still re-read some of the sections to get a grasp of what he was trying to say. It is worth the effort as I think you will need to rely on more than the rankings to achieve optimal success with this program.

Later versions of the Synergism seem to rely more on TPR numbers, so Pace Makes the Race by Schmidt, Hambleton, Sartin, and Pizzolla give detailed examples on using TPR ratings for handicapping. It also seem the new RDSS program has a CPR rating that seems similiar to TPR to me. The latter edition of the book just has Schmidt and Hambleton, but the concepts remain the same.

One of the earliest works that explored Energy concepts The Race Is Pace by Huey Mahl was unique at the time. Doc Sartin has given Huey Mahl credit for this innovative book.

For any of the advanced programs understanding the concepts of Jim Bradshaw's Match-Up and Match-Up2 will only make handicapping with your programs better.

Nothing new here, as this has been posted by myself and others several times in the past. This may just help some of the newer members on this board, and encourage others to post their ideas as well.

[shoeless]

Houndog,Thanks for the suggestions.Jeff