History Lesson II (Across The Board).

[TGJB]

At one of the seminars at Saratoga this summer Richard Witt suggested I get hold of a 1956 book called \"Across The Board\", by Toney Betts, that had just been put back in print. It\'s available at Amazon, where I bought it. It\'s basically a very colorful collection of anecdotes from the 20\'s through 50\'s concerning horseplayers, bookmakers, gangsters, and everyone around the edges of the racing world. (Miff, it\'s right up your alley. You might know half the guys. Not that I\'m saying you\'re old...).

Anyway, on page 303 Betts talks to \"Al (The Brain) Windeman, champion of the speed charters, the Colonel James of the new generation\". The Brain was out measuring cushion depth, because \"the depth of the cushion affects speed\".

Then he quotes The Brain. \"You should know by now there\'s more slightly used speed charts around than broken-down horse players. It\'s easy to fix one up, with high OR LOW numbers (emphasis added). After you do that-- you need a track variant, and that differs from race to race. The composition of the soil and the moisture it contains affects a track\'s speed. I check the sprinkler wagon all afternoon, because I know the speed varies with every drink. Tracks near the seashore may change in speed with the tides. And the big thing, hard to figure, is the degree of attention the track had in the morning with harrows, levelers or scrapers.

\"... Nowadays the tracks are speeded up for track records and big headlines. The soil is mixed freely with sand, and that acts as a sieve for water, and horses sometimes hang out faster time when a track is sloppy than when it is dry. Mud doesn\'t last long the way it did in the old days when the soil contained more clay, which absorbs moisture\".

Betts goes on to talk about how The Brain adjusts his figures for wind, a practice begun by Colonel James, who used an engineer called \"The Hat\" to do it. James also clocked from the gate, and used run-ups.

So, a couple of things. First of all, this is further proof that Ragozin\'s claims of being the Father Of Speed Figures are demonstrably self-aggrandizing B.S. He stood on the shoulders of those that came before, as I did (except he missed the part about the track changing speed during the day). But that\'s not the interesting part.

What the hell happened? In Donaldson\'s book (\"History Lesson\", in the Archives here), which is from the 30\'s, there are not only explanations of how to make figures but an ad selling ones that are ready to use. The Brain talks about how many speed charts are around (above). Betts talks about speed figures being available in the daily NY papers. But by the 70\'s Ragozin and Beyer are counter-culture figures, and we (Thoro-Graph) are viewed as aliens throughout the 80\'s, outside the mainstream of handicapping. There are a few like Connie (The Beard) Merjos making and using figures, but so few, and so far under the radar, that Ragozin is able to get away with claiming he invented them. What happened in between? It\'s like the mystery of what happened to the dinasours. Anybody?

[dcbred1]

I have an original copy of the book.  Time to start studying.

[miff]

JB,

Old but not THAT old.At 16, I was around some real sharp speed fig guys in NY known to be descendants of Julie Finks Speed Boys.One old timer in the early 60\'s was a direct descendant of Julie Finks group and known to be one of the sharpest\"speed\"gamblers in NY.

They also had a guy \'Vinny The Hat\" who \"knew\" 2 yr old racing well.

No bookmakers wanted really their horse action so they had lots of beards running around betting a couple of hundred here and there.

I clearly remember that they rarely made a play without establishing how the surface was playing that day, the wind direction, the water truck and if John(horse eye baller)was ok with how the horse walked in the paddock.They were very successful for the few years I was around them, cashing a fairly high percentage of their plays, win bets only, mainly speed types.

As to who was really was The Godfather Of Speed Figs, I don\'t know but from the early 80\'s to early 90\'s (pre Beyer in DRF)sheet players took most of the money in NY.Most of those scoring big regularly used either TG or Rags.

Amount of data out there now unreal,some not even for sale yet.Always was the toughest game in the world to beat and may be tougher today than ever.Pools have  less soft money (except big days) with proliferation of data and TVG/HRTV and many other venues where even soft money gets some insight.


Mike

[Boscar Obarra]

Also have an original copy of this, haven\'t looked at it in decades, but remember it as a great read.

 Also , if you can find it, something called  Horse Crazy , by Jesse Lilienthal (1941).

Here\'s someone selling the Betts book for $10 + shipping, a better deal than $50 for a reprint

http://www.biblio.com/books/391120746.html

[devilinahorsesuit]

Try abebooks.com--I looked and they have something on the order of 15 copies there. It\'s a little more expansive a clearing-house of out-of-print titles than biblio.com.

[Topcat]

A SIGNED copy?

It\'s GOLD, Jerry . . . GOLD!