The Power of Early Speed

Steve Klein

There are a whole lot of handicapping books on the market. Few of them contribute anything new to the genre. The Power of Early Speed may be one of the books that does, though I plan to give it a lot of testing before I start making that claim with any force.

Steve Klein here gives us a new method for calculating early speed points. Despite the book's rather considerable (for a handicapping tome) bulk, that's the long and short of it; much of the book's three hundred-odd pages is taken up with lists of tracks, trainers, and jockeys to refine the original early speed points calculation. As you could probably compress the actual information in this book into an eight-page pamphlet, you have to ask yourself if it's really worth the cover price. My answer, for the moment: it depends. If Klein's early speed points turn out to be the best handicapping tool since the Beyer Speed Figures (and the promise is certainly there), I guarantee you this book will be worth its weight in gold many times over. Otherwise, you'll end up having paid for a curious collector's item, like those horrid William Baumann books you want to forget you ever even read. It's hard to tell simply from the book; Klein has not yet recognized the value of a technique many handicappers have adopted since William Scott first popularized it: showing when your system loses along with when it wins. If you read this book without a critical eye, you're likely to think Klein has uncovered the secret to your own personal banking industry. Hopefully, you'll come to your senses before you go broke.

It is possible, however, that Klein has provided us with a valuable handicapping tool, and that is an intriguing proposition. I'll be testing the numbers out over the next few months.