[lsosa54]

Tom specialized in both the SoCal and NorCal circuits and did his variants for both. At the time, Golden Gate & Bay Meadows in NorCal and the same tracks as today in SoCal. I believe he used to take Fairplex off. Of course, all the tracks had dirt surfaces back then.

When Tom went to Vegas he played multiple tracks and as he went around the country to seminars, he played the nearby tracks. He used his same concepts and was successful everywhere. Par charts and the "Brohamer Model" were keys to his success.

While an ex boss who took me to the Turf Club on closing day 1988 is responsible for me getting interested in handicapping, the hour that Tom spend with me privately at a McDonald's near Santa Anita in 1989 at my request was probably what spurred me on. I had the privilege to spend time as part of many small groups with Tom and at Santa Anita with his friends Quinn and Romano.

I also participated in Dick Mitchell's handicapping classes at Cynthia Pub in the early 90's in the evenings. I would drive from Pasadena where I worked to Studio City once a week - think they lasted about 7 weeks. Gordon Pine, Ron Ambrose, and Kitts Anderson manning the front desk were around Cynthia then.

I also paid for a day at Hollywood Park of private handicapping with the trio of Dick Mitchell, Ron Ambrose, and Barry Meadow. Watching Barry watch the monitors with his overlay charts was fascinating - don't know how he did it.

I consider my style mainly Brohamer with a touch of Quinn and Mitchell, and a pinch of Meadow. I currently use a mix of AOdds and EXDC Thoromation to fine tune my contenders into potential bets.

BTW, I fully agree with FTL's opinion on the value of modeling in whatever way works for the individual. Since we can't win all the races we invest in, it's about putting as much of the percentages in our favor as we can. That's also why Dorianmode's approach sounds logical.

If the last 30 races at 6F have been won by E types running close to the lead and my analysis comes up with a couple of S horses as my win candidates, why buck the percentages? The only reason would be ego centered and any time I've gone that way, it's cost me money. Either re-analyze or pass. If one of the S types does end up winning, just smile and move on.

I also agree with FTL's thoughts on class that he has posted before and class is critical to my handicapping but that's a discussion for another day. With few exceptions, horses do move up and down a track's class levels in an orderly and logically determined manner and there are no bargains at the track.