by Derek Simon
Little did Andrew Beyer known when he penned Picking Winners back in 1975 what an impact his tome would have. (Critics) view speed handicappers as madmen looking for certainty and easy answers in a game in which they don’t exist, Beyer wrote in his classic work.
Well, what a difference thirty years makes! Not only is speed now accepted as a legitimate handicapping factor, it has become, perhaps, THE factor. Beyer’s own speed figures are featured in every edition of the Daily Racing Form and countless copies and derivations can be found in other publications and throughout cyberspace.
Of course, the inevitable result of this saturation, has been an erosion of the mutual prices top fig horses used to offer. Beyer, himself, has lamented this point, stating that the ground was crumbling beneath my feet in The Winning Horseplayer, published in 1983.
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