Longbows and Longshots

[TGJB]

So nobody commented on \"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers\", either because they recognized it, or because they didn\'t. I\'m going to choose the latter, because I feel like it.

The quote is from the greatest locker room speech of all time, or Shakespeare\'s version of it-- the St. Crispian\'s day speech of Henry V (Prince Hal all grown up), before the battle of Agincort. The British, badly outnumbered by at least 5-1, depending on the source,  destroyed the French, in part because the French were, well, French-- they spent the night before the battle partying, and their unprofessional army fought with a complete lack of discipline. They also were in heavy armor, while Henry had a light, disciplined group of professional fighters.

But the British had something else-- they had perfected the longbow, while the French had crossbows, and cannon that could not be brought up to the bottlenecked front. Henry\'s archers had specialty arrows, too-- some had heads designed to pierce armor-- and they set up 300 yards out and cut loose. By the time the dust settled, the British had suffered a few hundred casualties, the French around 10,000.

Anyway-- as noted here recently, an astounding 28 TG on-line account holders qualified for the NTRA contest, 25 of whom used our data in it, and six of those finished in the top 20. At this past week\'s World Series of Handicapping you didn\'t have to qualify, so just short of 800 players participated, of which around 3% (the happy few) were our guys. Well, they haven\'t released the names of all those who earned checks yet, but we do know about the top eleven (only because two of our guys finished in a dead heat for tenth). There were FOUR who used Thoro-Graph in that group.

Thoro-Graph. The longbow of handicapping.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

I\'m not up on this era of World History, but after a quick review, it seems Mr. Brown was quite aware of his facts. Henry the V was kicking the French pretty good on their own soil with a much smaller force. The quote is Shakespeare, from his play Henry V.  Apparently, this Henry was promised succession to the French thrown after running roughshod over a good part of Northern France. Henry wanted to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and start another round of the \"Crusades\". It didn\'t happen when he died young.

Apparently the French got it all back somewhere along the way. The next Crusade had to wait for another 600 years to pass and the advent of the Longbow helicopter. I\'m not sure the new Henry V is up to the old one in diplomacy or skill, as his army is vastly superior to the \"neo-French\". The previous Longbows couldn\'t keep France from the French. I guess we\'ll have to wait and see if the new ones can keep countries from the neo French.  

I\'m going to take a position agaisnt new Henry\'s longbows and a position acknowledging Tgraphs. Its an effective weapon when used righteously.

[BitPlayer]

You\'re right. The speech is a classic.  Kenneth Branagh\'s movie version is worth a look, even if you don\'t generally go in for Shakespeare (although, admittedly, Emma Thompson is no Katharine Ross.)

On the other hand, as a small player doing a parimutuel battle with rebate players armed with Thorograph data, batch betting capability, and inside info on whose performance is being chemically enhanced today, I feel some empathy for the French infantry.  Finley is mistaken when he says rebate players are racing\'s best customers.  Without people willing to consistently lose 30 cents on a betting dollar, it all goes away.

I\'ve never read the Ragozin board.  Do they do Shakespeare there?  If TGJB is Prince Hal, who is LF?  Henry IV?  Falstaff?



Post Edited (02-01-05 23:14)