The Logical Choice: Tote Board Handicapping Made Easy

By Gerald Cohail

Generations of racing fans learned to handicap horse races with one goal in mind: consistently picking winners. Because of their conditioning most people who bet on horse races use the same past performance records as everyone else. Is it any wonder then that most people have zeroed-in on the same three low-priced horses when post time rolls around. Unfortunately, you cannot make long-term profits betting on such horses. You need to find those horses that pay you $14.60, $27.40, $16.80, etc. – what the author calls Value Plays – if you want to make money. This book will show you how.

The author, professional handicapper G W Cohail, has handicapped horse races for over fifty years. In this book, he challenges many aspects of traditional handicapping others take for granted, including the revered Beyer Speed Figures, par times, and daily track variants. He then demonstrates how he successfully bets on horse races with making money, not picking winners, as his primary goal.

Mr. Cohail spent decades handicapping races in a traditional way, always looking for “the winner.” For three decades he never made a lot of money from his handicapping skills, though he tried hard. Luckily, he never lost the rent money either. Then one day while watching the tote board his life changed forever.

Is it possible to wager on horse races and win? The Logical Choice: Tote Board Handicapping Made Easy provides insights into wagering for profit. The concepts presented in this work are usable by anyone, whether they be an experienced handicapper or a budding novice. In many respects, not knowing how to handicap races makes you a better candidate as the less you think you know about handicapping, the less you will have to unlearn.

Even if you find the betting concepts presented in this book difficult to understand, the sections on Beyer Speed Figures, track variants, how to calculate more accurate running times, and how to find 59% winners and still lose money are more than worth the price of this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Cohail
• Release date: May 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301630783

Gerald Cohail

Author: The Logical Choice: Tote Board Handicapping Made Easy; Professional Handicapper; member of the Horseplayers Association of North America.

Book preview

The Logical Choice

Tote Board Handicapping

Made Easy

G W Cohail

Published by Calvin Cahail at Smashwords

Copyright © 2013 by Calvin Cahail.

All rights reserved. Neither this book or parts thereof may be reproduced in any form without permission.

Editing, cover design, and formatting by Sabertooth Books

Preface

There are many references throughout this book to QuickCapper, now-defunct selection service and the website, quickcapper.com. These references have been left in this revised edition even though I no longer offer a handicapping service. That does not mean the concepts presented within no longer work. It simply means I have reached an age where I'm not willing to devote the long hours required to operate such a service.

It should also be noted that throughout this book, I have based the results offered on $5 win wagers and $20 place wagers. These are bets many handicappers can afford And I wanted to show everyone it is possible to start with a small amount of money and build a bankroll suitable for operating a full-time business.

As a horseplayer, your temperament has a lot to do with how much money you win or lose. Be honest with yourself and decide which of the following scenarios best sets you.

You spent a warm Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita Park in sunny Southern California. There were nine races. You made a $2 win bet on each of them and you had the winner of three.

They paid $8.20, $4.60, and $9.80 resulting in a betting profit of $4.60.

You spent a hot, humid, rainy Sunday afternoon at Belmont Park near New York City. There were nine races. You bet $2 to win on seven of them and failed to cash a ticket until your 7th bet. It was your only winner and the horse paid $23.80. Your betting profit for the day was $9.80/.

Note that in both scenarios you would have made money for the day, but in scenario number two, you would have made $5.20 more than scenario number one.

This book is about scenario #2 so if you chose scenario number one, you should probably stop reading this book. It is not for you as most people find it hard to accept five, six, maybe even eight losses in a row while waiting for that ten-to-one longshot that makes everything OK.

However, if you are the type of person who does not pay attention to the weather and can keep your cool while experiencing a prolonged losing streak, you might be suited to life making money betting on horse races. It takes the second kind of person to become a full-time gambler.

I am sure I will hear someone complain that the information contained within these pages is hogwash. So be it. This process works for me and the opinions of others are of no real importance. Just be aware that what may look easy on the printed page often requires hard work, diligence, patience, and resolve to make happen in reality. you will make costly mistakes while learning, so if you are looking for an easy road to riches, be aware this is not it.

Most folks who read this will never be able to make the concepts presented within this book work for them. Even if they see its merits, there is a predisposition among human beings to follow the herd, to follow the leader of that herd. That is a strong tendency to overcome.

I remember one time when I was still focused on finding the winner in every race, I had zeroed in on the eventual winner only to end up betting the favorite, my second choice because I ended up doubting myself. After all, how could my fifteen-to-one longshot possibly beat the four-to-five favorite? Hopefully, after you read this book, you will understand that longshots routinely beat favorites. You just must decide which horse to bet on when the opportunity presents itself.

Special Note

The following book was written by my brother and copyrighted in 2013. He has since passed away. His wisdom and handicapping experience live on though. The book’s continued popularity speaks volumes about its contents. It is as relevant today as ever. The examples presented by him in the book have not been updated. I do not pretend to have my brother’s understanding of the system.

But I have seen firsthand his approach. It works.

Calvin Cahail

Chapter 1 Goal: $100,000 Per Year

I was never a bad handicapper. Even in my early teens, I was able to pick winners consistently. Unfortunately, picking winners does not always equate with making money, and decades passed before I realized that playing what seemed like the logical choice in the race was an absurd way to approach the game.

Three things can happen when you spend your days wagering on horse races: you can win money, you can lose money, or you can break even. I prefer the first group.

My year begins the day after Christmas when the first gates open at Santa Anita, and ends in early September Shortly after the last horse crosses the finish line at Del Mar. I then spend eleven weeks ‘recharging my batteries,’ not thinking about horse racing. It is then that I get to spend some of the winning accrued earlier in the year.

My goal is to profit $625 per day; $2500 profit for a four-day workweek. To achieve that goal, I needed to make sizable bets, and while some bettors excel at making exotic wagers – The Exacta,