Jim Bradshaw's Matchup - 8 Month Update

[RichieP]

I have been learning and working the matchup for the past 8 months.

What follows are 6 KEY areas of learning and understanding that have come to form the core of my applying the techniques on a daily basis.

Some you will recognize from posts while others are well outside the 5 step approach. This is how I have been taught from day 1.


The 6 KEY areas of Jim Bradshaw's Matchup:

1) INTUITION - Allowing the inner voice to be heard as well as Pattern Recognition. Without this there is NO matchup at least Jim's matchup. Take this to the bank man.

2) POSITIONING - Including the virtual NON importance of Beaten Lenghts in The Hat's Matchup.

3) EARLY or OTHER THAN EARLY - Simplifying the matchup regarding running styles PLUS easing confusion regarding WHOM to bet.

4) FIGHTERS - a POWERFUL weapon for the Hat and something which has been taught to me over and over since day ONE.

5) SPOT PLAYS - combining pattern recognition with multi trackiing to maximize PROFITS

6) VOODOO - Jim's LEGENDARY reputation of leaving the best of the best in awe at what he does. Is it possible to learn a BIT of what he does and then APPLY it for ourselves to races and get the "impossible horse"sometime?
YES however to seriously try and apply this a totally OPEN mind is needed. A mind where ALL rules and mainstream stuff is thrown to the curb.

I am going to take EACH of the 6 areas listed beginning Monday and post extensively about them INDIVIDUALLY so as not to rush through and forget ****.

Thank you to the Hat for giving me the ok to post FREELY about what I want to here.

So until Monday stay cool
Richie Pizzicara

[shoeless]

Richie,I will be looking forward to it.Jeff

[tom]

Me too.

[noddub62]

Richie,

Looking forward to your tutoring as well. I am reading & rereading Mr. B.'s book and I can see improvement in my bottom line. Speaking for myself, you guys that post regularly and instruct are much appreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Bud

[dugoutgold]

Great post Rich, Im very interested in the virtual non importance of the beaten lengths, If I can get that part down Ill make some real progress.
Looking forward again to future posts.

[emilio840]

Thats great Richie. The minutes are going very slow, make Monday come faster.

I notice everytime I reread the book, I see something that wasn't there before.

emilio

[lwconner]

I'll be glad to learn more on this subject(s). I just joined yesterday. Many thanks to Jim Bradshaw for directing me here. This seems to be just what the Dr. ordered. Thanks to all who posts here and shares their knowledge and expertise.

Sincerely,

LWConner

[shoeless]

I have to give a BIG THANKS to Richie for getting me off computer programs and back to just using the racing form.I was fooling myself thinking I could learn how to use a program when in reality I can interperate the data in the racing form alone much better.In my 20 race cycle I just finished using lone early only my horse has been no worse than 2nd 18 of those times.I did make a big mistake yesterday in the 9th at CT with a lone early coming from Woodbine that paid 38.00.I wasnt sure how to adjust the times because it's a faster track so I didnt play the race.It cost me but I learned a lesson and wont worry about that anymore and if I have a lone early just play it no matter what.Thanks as well to Hat who is teaching this to Richie and enabling him to pass it on to us.As long as Im thanking people I cant leave out Bill because if it wasnt for him there would be no forum to do this on.Sorry for the long winded post.Shoeless

[RichieP]

Originally Posted by lwconner

I'll be glad to learn more on this subject(s). I just joined yesterday. Many thanks to Jim Bradshaw for directing me here. This seems to be just what the Dr. ordered. Thanks to all who posts here and shares their knowledge and expertise.

Sincerely,

LWConner

Welcome to Bill's board Lw.

I think you will like it here. The Hat told me about you. Says you are very cool!

Again welcome to Pace & Cap.

Richie

[RichieP]

Originally Posted by RichieP

1) INTUITION - Allowing the inner voice to be heard as well as Pattern Recognition. Without this
there is NO matchup at least Jim's matchup. Take this to the bank man.

Intuition:
1) The act or faculty of knowing without the use of rational processes.Immediate cognition.

2) A capacity for guessing accurately.Sharp insight.

Webster's Dictionary
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Why start here? How do I KNOW this is the most important part of Jim's matchup?

Because ignoring this aspect led to the ONE and only time I QUIT the matchup and swore off it. This after I had been working it for 3 months.

Yup if I am gonna write it has to be the truth. Only Bill and Jim knew what I just wrote to be true.

It was September and I had lost 3 races in a row. For some reason I looked back on those 3 races AFTER they had run and found a way to make the winner come up strong. This after being told by Jim NOT to do this because I would wind up all messed up. I didn't care. I HAD to get that winner to come up and figured once I did everything going forward would take care of itself.

Boy was I WRONG. The following day I matched 3 races and found myself taking all this extra time looking for this and looking for that. Same thing I had done on the completed races the day before BUT this race hadn't run yet. Bottom line I lost ALL 3 races. So I go back and once again make the winner come up AFTER the race runs.

Long story short this goes on for 15 races over 4-5 days and I lose them ALL. I stopped talking with Jim and stopped talking with Bill. Just wouldn't answer the phone. So that Saturday Bill shows up at my door unannounced and we go out and talk.

He then tells me to call Jim. I do and he says "what the hell is wrong Rich". I told him I lost a ton of races in a row and he says he KNOWS what I am doing. He tells me "Rich you started looking back at the races you lost AFTER it ran didn't you?" I said YES.

He told me "you can NOT look back after the fact because your ability to make the right choice on a LIVE race will be destroyed by all the SECOND GUESSING you did after the fact. See that stuff is gonna be in your head when looking live and you can NOT win". So we spent the next week working hard on races and focusing ONLY on the race at hand. Goodbye long losing streak.
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Jim stresses over and over that intuition is recognizing patterns that keep repeating. He tells me in order to hear that "little voice" inside an environment that is QUIET and RELAXED is needed. He tells me that EVERY time he goes to play the races he sits alone for a couple of minutes and just closes his eyes and "gets quiet" with himself. He calls it getting in the zone.

2 months ago I was talking with him when all of a sudden he tells me "Rich don't go crazy after I tell you this ok? I do NOT pay attention to tandems. I do NOT project a pace. When I am "ON" I open the form and there is the winner of the race. Try it sometime and see".

I asked him if he was messing with me again and he said "NO I am serious. The race has run already even though it hasn't. Now just find the horse that has already won". I hear LeRoi in the backround telling me "he's doing that weird stuff again Richie!"

I heard what he said that day but honestly did NOT understand what he was telling me. I DO now. It's PATTERN RECOGNITION at a very high level.

When we look at a race it is something that HAS run before. Many many times as a matter of fact. Things change such as
names
tracks
distances
surfaces
but the CORE of the race is the same.

What we CAN do as beginning "matchers" is to be aware of one or two certain types of races that we HAVE seen run and KNOW who the winner "looks like" in the pp's BEFORE the race runs. We can FOCUS on finding these type races to wager on.

This is where Jim's SPOT PLAYS become a SERIOUS weapon for us to use if we have PATIENCE and DISCIPLINE to wait on them.

He tells me "Rich focus on the races that you RECOGNIZE. As you gain more experience with the matchup you will be able to recognize more races to bet on. Take things one step at a time and realize you are doing this for 8 months while I am at it for over 20 YEARS."

Regarding patterns I am also seeing that there are patterns of races that tell me I have NO business looking at the race cause I will NOT win it based on what I have seen BEFORE. NEGATIVE patterns if you will. Jim says these are also extremely important and when that feeling comes to run as fast as I can AWAY from the race.

Ok this screenshot shows what MY favorite type of EARLY looks like at the FIRST call (first fraction in routes). I have seen this PATTERN over and over and over in successful "Spot play early" races.

" Intuition is pattern recognition. Relax and open your mind to recognize certain races that have run before. Then go to the pp's and find the horse that has already won based on what has happened BEFORE" - The Hat

I will end here with a screenshot that shows one small thing BUT is something that has shown itself to be VERY powerful with early runners. This is the WINNING "picture" for me for an EARLY horse at the FIRST call.

Richie
Intuition - A capacity for guessing accurately.Sharp insight.