Fast Horses, Fast Money: The Complete Guide to Quarter Horse Racing

MISSION VIEJO, CA—SLQH Racing Publications is offering a special Christmas offer on its groundbreaking Quarter Horse racing book, Fast Horses, Fast Money: The Complete Guide to Quarter Horse Racing.

Australian racing fans that purchase the book at www.fasthorsesfastmoney.com will not only receive a 30% discount but also a free bonus gift. In addition, the author will personally sign every copy (while supplies last), and 10% of the book’s net first-edition profits will be donated to racetrack charities.

Immediate shipment ensures that the book will arrive before Christmas.

The book analyzes 286 real winning racehorses, examining more than 33 factors that are shared by these winners. Many US racing industry leaders—including Butch Wise, Ben Hudson, Paul Jones, Ed Burgart, and Don Stevens—endorse Fast Horses, Fast Money.

Excerpts from the book have now appeared in a variety of racing publications, including the American Quarter Horse Racing Journal, The Iowa Quarter Horse Magazine, The Indiana Quarter Horse Journal, Bridle and Bit, stallionesearch.com, and numerous online sites. The author has appeared both on TVG’s Quarter Horse racing show, “The Quarters,” and Los Alamitos Race Course’s televised program, “Handicapper’s Corner.”

The author, Steve Sharp, can be contacted at his e-mail address: slqhracing@yahoo.com.

Below is an excerpt from “Fast Horses, Fast Money: The Complete Guide to Quarter Horse Racing.”

Handicapping the Breeders

Can it be financially productive for Quarter Horse handicappers to analyze a horse’s breeder in their assessment of an animal’s chances to win? After all, there are plenty of other variables to consider, including a horse’s speed, form, class, jockey, owner, and trainer. Why worry about yet another factor that, on the surface at least, hardly seems that critical in determining which animal poses for a photo? Handicapping’s complex enough, with more angles than Rubik’s cube.

However, imagine handicapping a Maiden Special contest (an allowance race for non-winners) for unraced 2-year-olds. How can we separate the pretenders from the contenders in these races? There are no past performance lines because these babies have no race history. No speed ratings to assess, no first-call positions, no comment lines, no class. These sprinters are pure rookies, not professional racehorses.

When the gates open, will their mind be on business, or will they be too green or rank to run well? Our selection may wilt under the competitive pressure of his first race, like a minor-league pitcher facing the New York Yankees for the first time. The horse may break like Carl Lewis. Or Buddha. Unaccustomed to running in straight lines, he may veer in or out during the race. Or get intimidated. These uncertainties actually create wonderful opportunities for overlays or long shots in races for two-year-olds.

When assessing these contests, you have five factors to consider: the animal’s trainer, jockey, breeder, breeding, and workouts. Naturally, most horseplayers use workouts as their key variable. The following example shows an animal that ran 350 yards in 18.70 seconds on Aug. 11 at Los Al.

WORKS: Aug 11 LA 350 ft :18.70h

The horse with the fastest workouts often becomes the favorite; bettors assume that if this animal duplicates his workout time in the actual race, he’ll rake in all the chips. (And often this horse doesn’t disappoint his backers.) Once again, the betting public largely consists of speed handicappers who handicap the horse rather than the horsemen.

WORKOUTS VS. ACTUAL RACES

However, workouts alone don’t always identify the best horse. They are, after all, only dress rehearsals for the main event, and they don’t come close to simulating actual race conditions. In these practice sessions the horse either works alone or with one or two other competitors. Nothing’s really on the line, so the animal may not take them seriously. Or run as fast as he can.

Truth is, the real race poses many new challenges for the untested rookie. The horse may have to race at night rather than in broad daylight. With strange shadows crisscrossing the track. With horses throwing fits in the starting gate. Fans yelling. Jockeys whistling and urging. And eight or nine other fierce competitors breathing fire, trying to blow him away. In these pressure-packed circumstances, the youngster may flunk his first real racing test. No matter how sharp he looked in workouts.

It is possible to make a healthy profit in these maiden races, since the betting public often overlooks the sleeper: an animal with relatively slower workouts, a stellar pedigree, and a top Quarter Horse breeder (that is, one with considerable experience in the industry and a relatively high win percentage). When this horse suddenly fires at 25-1 (yes, lightning strikes; not necessarily in the animal’s first race, but perhaps after a few losses, when the public’s lost faith in him), bettors wail like banshees once again, blaming their losses on some shadowy track conspiracy that always victimizes them. Wah, wah, wah.

What really happened? The long shot finally answered the bell and came out fighting. Its superior breeding--and breeder--materialized. About time.

WHY IS THE BREEDER IMPORTANT?

The breeder’s another forgotten horseman whose work is rarely appreciated by the betting public. When analyzing a race, the vast majority of bettors focus almost exclusively on a horse’s racing performances rather than the animal’s “creator.” It’s almost unheard of to hear horseplayers say that they bet a certain horse because the animal’s breeder is a high-percentage horseman with tons of experience in the industry.

The animal “begins” with the breeder, of course, who brought mommy and daddy together. Not as a genetic experiment. Not for fun. Not to produce a ranch horse. Mommy and daddy were brought together to produce a racehorse—an animal capable of tearing up the track and winning stakes races with big purses. Breeding racehorses is what these horsemen do for a living, so their business depends on producing and selling high-quality animals—not future $2,500 claimers. With in-depth knowledge of Quarter Horse racing’s most productive sires and dams, the most successful breeders know which “crosses” are likely to work and which ones may not pan out.

Because the breeder is responsible for the genetic makeup of their “offspring,” in a sense this horseman is the racehorse’s true “parent.” There’s obviously a special connection between the animal and its breeder, who may closely monitor the progress of the horse on the track. Many breeders raise and nurture their stock on their own ranches.

Not surprisingly, a number of these industry veterans (see Chapter 24 for the nation’s top breeders and win percentages) double as top owners of racing Quarter Horses, with high win percentages in both areas--further proof of their expertise and commitment to the sport.