Quote:
Originally Posted by shoeless
Davidowitz new book is good and you realize just how many of his handicapping ideas in his original version were way ahead of others.
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hello Shoeless:
Yes, Davidowitz has had some ideas that were truly ahead of its time, such as saving results charts to monitor 'key' races, and the novel use of qualifying class-within-class claiming levels.
But, over the years I have found it hard to be on the Davidowitz bandwagon because in his first book, he never mention Secretariat's first race in 1972, if I recall correctly. But in each subsequent editions, not only does he mention Big Red, but also claimed that he was at the press box in New York that day, and that
he was the lone person up there that called Secretariat 'next year's Derby winner'. This was b-shat as he was not there that afternoon, July 4, 1972 at Aqueduct.
Now, I understand this is a minor point, but his disengenous, arrogant behavior always stuck in my craw. Oh, one another thing : one two occasions, again in the infamous NY press box in the early 1980s, I was asked to throw in and contribute $5 or $10 -- the reason? Ol' Steve needed some money so he could take the train from Manhattan to Baltimore---evidently he tapped out and didn't have enough to get home. It bothered me because this genius needed a handout from peons like myself, even though he was a book author who was a self-proclaimed expert.
Now, boys, we've all have a rough day or two at the races, and I am sure that many times we've all had losing days but you must understand that on that day, and on many, many days prior, yours truly and others in the press box kept hearing Stevie D. drone on and on and on about how great a handicapper he is, much sharper than all you "New York know-it-alls".
If I bored anyone with this, I am sorry, but Stevie D. has gotten alot of miles out of so little ability.