My Starting Library

[mick]

If you're an RDSS user, then Pace Makes the Race (both first and second editions) and Modern Pace Handicapping are required reading, along with the later "Follow Ups," which are available on this site.

From the world of conventional handicapping, Quinn's The Complete Handicapper and Quirin's Winning at the Races are two of the best, in my opinion. (Dave Schwartz's Percentages and Probabilities is a more recent and much larger treatment of the concepts and material in Dr. Quirin's book, so you may want to go there instead.)

Pook makes a great comment though about any edge there may have been at the time (when these books were published) is now eroded.

Regarding Andy Beyer, all of his books are well-written and entertaining but, in my opinion (again), there's little in them that will help you become a better horseplayer today. Basically, he killed the game for himself and others when he revealed his "secret" of speed figs. Twenty years ago, he admitted that he could no longer make a profit betting horses to win with his approach and that his play was limited to exotics. If that was true then, it's even more so now.