Six Secrets of Successful Bettors

Frank R. Scatoni

So you want to be a professional horseplayer. What's the first thing you should do? Well, okay, the first thing you should probably learn to do is become a decent handicapper. But if you want to take it to the professional level, sooner or later you're probably going to have to do what everyone needs to do if they want to make it big in any profession: network. Talk to the guys who have already made it. Get pointers on how to do so. Maybe talk to some people not in your chosen profession, but related to it, to get some more universal ideas on theory and practice as well.

Previously, that step, unless you got lucky and had a pro in your backyard (not out of the question if your home track is Keeneland; if you frequent, say, Anthony Downs, however, you're going to be looking a long time), would have required a good deal of searching, a good deal of groveling (after all, the guy's not going to know you from Adam), and probably traversing the country a few times. A pretty expensive itinerary, to say the least, and you need to keep your bankroll up. But now Frank Scatoni has interviewed a bunch of them for you and boiled it all down into this book, which will cost you a whole lot less than plane tickets crisscrossing the country.

Scatoni gets words from some of the best-known professionals in the game, both the pundits (Crist, Beyer, Quinn, etc.) and the guys who've never written a word, but still make their money at the game (Ernie Dahlman, especially, and some players who chose to remain anonymous). He also pulls in a player from the world of baseball betting, a former top Vegas odds-line maker (Roxy Roxborough), some poker and blackjack players, and the like. The end result is a book about why these folks are successful, largely in their own words.

You would expect some conflicting and confusing information. That's life; there are many different ways to win this game. Beyer concentrates his play in exactas, Crist in pick sixes. They both make a living betting. One bettor puts twenty grand through the windows a day, another, if I was extrapolating his numbers right, bets in the vicinity of seventy-five million a year. They all make livings doing it. And a lot of what they have to say has been said time and again in books on handicapping, and you never really picked up on it before, did you? Well, give it another shot, and soak up the new info, as well. One way or the other, this is definitely one you want to pick up before quitting your job and going to the track full-time-- or even if you're a Christmas-and-Easter bettor who wants to get a little more disciplined like yours truly.