Rating: 
Summary: A Handicapping Must
Review: Incorporates a number of techniques to give you a fighting chance at the betting window. A must read and re-read for the horseplayer.
Rating:
Summary: A Handicapping Must
Review: Incorporates a number of techniques to give you a fighting chance at the betting window. A must read and re-read for the horseplayer.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing.
Review: Michael Pizzolla, Handicapping Magic (ITS Press, 2000)It's impossible to write a review of a handicapping book just after reading it, really, and comment on what the mechanics of the writing are all about. I'll be back in a year or so to cogitate on all that and whether it works or not. Or you can take a look at other reviews, which look like, well, reviews of almost every other handicapping book out there. Works for some folks. Not for others. We shall see. From the standpoint of logic, clarity, theory, and understanding, though, Handicapping Magic is simply the holy grail of handicapping books. I've probably read two hundred books on handicapping in the past ten years, ranging from the sublime (Brohamer, Quinn, etc.) to the ridiculous (any book whose handicapping method is based on "smart money", etc.), and despite having read all those and more, there were still some great unanswered questions about handicapping. I've asked them, at the risk of sounding like a rank beginner, on for a far and wide over the course of those ten years, to weekend warriors and professional handicappers alike, to those who author handicapping books and those who run handicapping websites, to the guys in thousand-dollar suits in the clubhouse and the guys in tattered shorts on the apron. Ask a hundred people you get a hundred answers, at least ninety-five of which will be "I don't know" in some dialect of horse. They're simple questions, too, or seem so. "How can you tell if a horse is in good form?" "What IS good form?" "How can you tell where a horse is in his form cycle?" "How do you tell what horse in a race is most likely to be on the lead?" "If a horse isn't on the lead, what are the chances he'll still manage to run well?" (I've gotten many, many answers to that last one, and I still wonder if some of the people who expounded on that one for ten minutes managed to cash tickets on the 2002 Blue Grass Stakes, where perennial frontrunner Millennium Wind, who'd never managed to press a pace in his life, finished second after not once getting his nose in front. I suspect I know the answer.) It is the stuff pace handicapping is made of, and no one from Lucky Jim, the other guy who chainsmokes his tickets at Thistledown, to Tom Brohamer, author of Modern Pace Handicapping, has ever managed to set me straight on any of those questions. Along comes Michael Pizzolla. And he makes the same basic assumptions most racing writers do, I think-that if you're reading a handicapping book for the "advanced" set, you probably already know those answers. But Pizzolla doesn't make the mistake of then assuming that you can skate by those questions and their all-too-elusive answers to get to the meat of the matter; he actually gives you the answers. I'd have been a convert for life halfway through chapter two on Pizzolla's easy-to-follow description of whether a horse is in form and capable of competing in today's race alone. Without testing the actual methods Pizzolla gives us in the book, which is of course the acid test of any handicapping manual, the test of a handicapping book for me is the same as the test for a book of poetry: did I find something in it I can steal, and is the stuff around the stealable material at least readable? In both cases Handicapping Magic gets the loudest "YES!" I've managed since Composer, Jambalaya Jazz, and Knockadoon kicked back twenty-four grand in a minor stakes race at Keeneland in April 1997 on a two-dollar ticket. (And that was the simplest system ever, which I'll give you free: they were the only three also-rans in Triple Crown races competing in the race. No-thought trifecta box. Glory be and alli-lujah.) A number of other reviewers have called this the best book on handicapping they've read, hands down. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it is without doubt on a par with Modern Pace Handicapping, Beyer on Speed, William Quirin's High-Tech Handicapping in the Information Age, Mark Cramer's The Odds on Your Side, Ziemba and Hausch's Inefficiencies in Racetrack Betting Markets, and other such rarefied tomes. Even if you end up not pulling a profit out of the methods listed herein, there is a great deal to be learned, and while it's probably not the best first book one could buy on handicapping, anyone who's read one of the fine primers on the sport to be found (Ainslie's books, Davidowitz' Betting Thoroughbreds, or Chuck Badone's painfully-titled but brilliant Winning Horseracing Handicapping) shouldn't be too far underwater with this. **** ½
Rating:
Summary: A good job for a Handicapping book
Review: Mike did a very good job on this book. Being a professional handicapper I know the hard work involved in picking winners. We all have a system or set of figures and components we create to form our selections and figures. Mike explains his in this book and from my experience he has a good system for himself and for people who buy this book. Best Regards to all MC
Rating: 
Summary: one born every minute
Review: Mr Pizzolla is a clever fellow. It is my guess that he is making more money from selling his "methodologies" than from his betting action. Ask yourself, if someone really has a successful approach, why would he share it? Surely, someone as intelligent as Pizzolla would have learned from the storied experience of Andrew Beyer (who brought down the odds on the horses he would bet by publishing his method).
So, either Pizzolla is more interested in talking (writing) about what to do than doing it. Or flat out can not make a living with his own insights. I have read the online reviews and come to the conclusion that those raving about being winners are mistaking luck for skill.
Buyer beware.
Rating: 
Summary: While not 5 Stars, Still the best I've read thus far
Review: No book is going to replace experience, but this book comes very close. The content is well worth the hefty price, though the price is high by handicapping book standards. You may need to buy a Primer before this book if you have no background handicapping. Four methods describe how to quantify in a numeric fashion a horse’s ability. With the explanation of how to derive the handicapping numbers and then Michael’s explanation of how he then bets, the reader is armed with the knowledge that they have enough information so as NOT to make foolish bets. This is truly a handicapping system that is honest and allows room for the handicapper to use his own intuition and the odds of the horse in determining when to make a wager or to pass. Michael adds a few too many redundant racing forms and repeats himself three or four times while advertising his software package and affiliation with itsdata. While this is a bit annoying and if those pages were removed the price of the book could have been dropped .... But this should not sway you from buying the book. If you are serious about becoming a better bettor this is the book for you. If I had read this book six months ago I would have hit the Superfecta in the 2001 Kentucky Derby for $58,000, so I can’t really complain. I will use the method in this book in handicapping all upcoming Superfecta’s in future Derby’s. While it would be in my best interest to either stay mute or write a poor review of this book, I think too highly of it to keep quiet. I bought this book based on other reviews ... and was not disappointed. I would have recommended ... a one page synopsis of his ideas at the end of his chapters and avoid redundancy’s. Aside from that the content is 5 out of 5. Warning though: Don’t expect to Get rich quick. Horse racing is still Gambling.
Rating:
Summary: Through the pace window, clearly........
Review: One of the half dozen best (meaning most valuable in terms of actually winning money at the track) handicapping books I've read in over 30 years in the game. The best, and simplest, method for rating pace I've seen. The method of play suggested by Mr. Pizzolla is bent toward the production of longshot winners. I began playing the method within a few days of reading the book. I cashed tickets on longshots (like Statesville, at better than 19.00 to one, in the 9th at Woodbine on September 14, 2001) I'd not have given a second thought to before. You will have to accept some contrary ideas and absorb some detailed practice. It is worth the time and effort.
Rating: 
Summary: It was okay
Review: The principles don't apply to every race-and be prepared to have a large bankroll, you'll need it. I was generally disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Handicapping Magic
Review: The rating may change after having applied those methods. This book is excellent in formulating a general and systematic prinicples of picking winner. My only questions how to apply those formula in the other country.
Rating:
Summary: No Black Box - Analysis still required
Review: The software is easy to use and the book does not teach any new principles of pace handicapping. The two simple pace rating is as good as any pace rating which one can create. The problem with the software is that it picks the last paceline of the horse for dirt races, and on turf races, it selects all the turf pacelines for the horse. This leaves the user with the task of proper contender and paceline selection. The author provides guidelines to contender and paceline selection; however the user will still need to make analysis of the race in order to succeed, if one follows blinded to the computer output, one will be greatly disappointed. It's not a black box, judgment and thinking is required to interpret the numbers. The section on money management is a little vague, the author shows in his book that he makes most of his money in exactas and trifectas betting rather than straight win bets. Unless, one has a big bankroll for exotic betting, be ready to go through a roller coaster ride in exotic betting.
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