Reviews of the book "Horseplayers"
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"Getting hooked on gambling was the best thing that ever happened to me." With an opening line like that, how could this be a bad book? And indeed, it's quite the opposite.
Ted McClelland's Horseplayers: Life at the Track (Chicago Review Press, 263 pages, $24.95) is a zippy, fun and well-written romp around the racetrack. The book includes portraits of all sorts of characters McClelland meets through his habit. And McClelland, a staff writer for the Chicago Reader, also offers novices a thorough glossary of terms to help them understand how to watch and even bet on horse races. So not only is this a lively telling of a live subject, it's educational, too.
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Gambler's story is worth a punt
EVER wondered if you could cut it as a professional punter? Ted McClelland, a columnist for the Chicago Reader, spent a year at racetracks and American off-track betting parlours to see if he could make a living from betting on horses, using as a bankroll the $4,000 he received from his publisher as an advance on the project. Regardless of the outcome, it was money well spent. This is a fine book, a witty examination of life among the community who inhabit the track on a daily basis, trying to scratch a living from playing the horses. Along the way, McClelland encounters a fascinating cast of diverse characters on the Chicago circuit, among them 'Professor Speed' Scott McMannis, a time-figures expert who hosts seminars at the racetrack and despairs of pupils ignoring his precepts. This immensely readable account, by a brutally honest writer who never pretends to any finer feelings or sentimentality when a bet is involved, is a gambler's book that is well worth a punt.
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The horseplayer lives a solitary, frustrating life filled with self-doubt and tough beats -- and he wouldn't have it any other way. Ted McClelland, a Chicago Reader staffer, spent a year at Hawthorne Race Course and Arlington Park betting with the heartiest of the local breed, and his book about his experiences brilliantly captures the pace of track life.
McClelland sheds more insight than any previous racing book into just what motivates horseplayers, who often sacrifice their marriages, jobs and fortunes. We meet all the usual suspects, from the blind beggar and the aging stripper to the high roller and math genius.
McClelland's quest to beat the races may have started as a lark, or fodder for his book, but it became a serious pursuit when Scott "The Professor" McMannis, pied piper to Chicago's sharpest players, became his mentor. Using McMannis and a few other successful players as role models, the relative neophyte bettor begins to develop the "bubble- gum ass" self-control to remain seated when the bugler calls the horses to post for all but the best wagering opportunities.
Does he turn a profit? We'll let you find out for yourself. Does he learn some greater self-truths? You betcha.
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Fancy a flutter? You are not alone. Nearly $16 billion is bet on thoroughbred racing in North America each year. Yet fewer than 5% of bettors turn in a consistent profit. In this thrilling gallop through the world of horseracing and gambling, Ted McClelland describes a year spent betting his publisher's advance to find out whether it was possible to make a living from the sport of kings.
The author spends most of his time at two racetracks in Illinois: pastoral Arlington, which models itself on the great English tracks of Ascot, Epsom and Newmarket, and Hawthorne, "a cesspool" of cigarette smoke, horse manure and shredded tickets.
Pitching himself headfirst into the gambling world, he befriends various track regulars, all of whom have a "foolproof" handicapping system. He discovers that horses are no more than betting units, "like living roulette wheels", and that odds are not set by the house, as in a casino, but by the amount bet on each animal. Such "pari-mutuel" wagering means the more money bet, the lower the odds become.
From his first, and lucky, win on a trifecta (where a gambler must pick the top three finishers in a race), Mr McClelland is hooked. He learns the language of the track. "Chalks" are the favourite and "suckers" those horses that repeatedly finish second, leading bettors to believe they are due for a win. He dreams of a "signer" (a win so big it must be reported to the IRS), experiences several "schneids" (losing streaks), and is amused by "stoopers" (people who look for winning tickets that have been thrown out by mistake). This is not as crazy as it sounds; in one recent year, Hawthorne kept $578,206 in uncashed tickets.
Ultimately, the author realises that the bettor's best skill is a sense of what the odds should be. "Now, at last, I'd discovered the dark heart and soul of the game: it wasn't about predicting the behaviour of horses. It was about predicting the behaviour of other gamblers and exploiting their mistakes", he writes. Furthermore, he discovers that a gambler can beat the races, but only just. Over a seven-week period Mr McClelland was up by $150. He had spent four hours a day gambling, three handicapping, two commuting and one keeping records. He had made a 7% profit on his money, outperforming several Wall Street fund managers. But to make an annual income of, say, $50,000, he would have to gamble $700,000. And betting that much, thanks to the pari-mutuel system, would reduce the odds. As the old adage goes: "You can make a life at the track, but you can't make a living."
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We Bet You'll Like It
Chicagoist was probably one of the last people in the world to read Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand--we finished it at the end of last year. Honestly, we were kind of like: "horses? eh." But then, you know, we read it, and we wanted more. So we're not wasting any time with Ted McClelland's new book, Horseplayers: Life at the Track. McClelland, a staff writer for the Chicago Reader, is the Seabiscuit of horseplayers: people who make a living (or not) at betting on horse races, what McClelland calls "the most mathematically unforgiving form of gambling in the world."
Horseplayers is a first-hand account of McClelland's year spent trying to make a profit betting on horses, bankrolled by his publisher, Chicago Review Press. In the meantime, the Reader also paid him to write a column about his horse-betting efforts. Man, talk about sweet deal. But it was clearly worth it for his financiers as well--McClelland is a great writer and Horseplayers an engaging read, full of some fantastic characters. We had a little trouble grasping some of the math involved, and we're worried that he occasionally assumes too great a familiarity with Chicago for non-Chicagoan readers, but neither issue really gets in the way of the story. We identify with McClelland, who writes:
Handicapping is a nerd's game. Nerds have always been with us. In centuries past, the monasteries took them in and forced them to copy the Bible. Now, they work in computers, and a few of the most fanatical end up at the racetrack.
We also get a kick out of all the crazy horse names. (We don't know about you, but we plan to name our first horse Coocoo For Coconuts.)
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"Horseplayers: Life at the Track" is a delightful memoir of the year Chicago writer and aspiring professional handicapper Ted McClelland spent playing the horses, and a funny, honest account of what it means to devote one's life to beating the races. McClelland details his transformation from casual fan to obsessed racing geek with humor, as when he tells the story of calling his father to let him know he'd be visiting Dubai World Cup weekend -- "That's also Easter weekend," says his father. "Is it? I didn't see anything about that in the Racing Form," replies McClelland -- and captures the handicapper's daily grind with equal parts wit and exasperation. Very little comes easily to McClelland or most of the other players he meets during the year -- none have the preternatural discipline of one of the author's mentors, the handicapper Scott McMannis -- but among the losses, there's an occasional big score, and eventually, an epiphany:
Now, at last, I'd discovered the dark heart and soul of the game: it wasn't about predicting the behavior of the horses. It was about predicting the behavior of the other gamblers and exploiting their mistakes. That's one of the most useful statements anyone has ever made about the game, even if it is a little bleak.
Racegoers who want to know more about predicting equine behavior though and profiting off of it would do well to pick up a copy of "Insider's Guide to Horseracing," by New York trainer T.A. Landers. This highly readable racing primer is reminiscent of "Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing" with its clear, concise, and intelligent approach to giving curious fans information on everything from equipment, shoes, and bandages, to training principles, track conditions, and reading past performances. Landers fills in the gaps left by many handicapping books, making this one an essential for the reference shelf.
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For most racing fans, the racetrack is a place to enjoy an afternoon betting a few dollars on each of ten live races, maybe dabbling in a few simulcasts, and writing off any losses as the cost of entertainment. But for a small few, betting on the races is a full-time job, the source of their livelihood. Readers of major racing publications may have heard of handicapping legends like Steve Davidowitz and Andrew Beyer, who have made profitable careers as horseplayers. But they are the exception and not the rule. In fact, only two to five percent of horseplayers can turn a consistent profit. In his latest book, Chicago Reader staff writer Ted McClelland sets out to meet the exact opposites of Davidowitz and Beyer, full-time horseplayers who ply the Chicago racing circuit in relative obscurity and who, for the most part, are members of the 95-98% who consistently lose.
Infiltrating the small community of Chicago horseplayers, he meets many interesting, unique characters who came from many different backgrounds. He finds that each may use different handicapping methods and have vastly differing levels of play (determined by a combination of available bankroll and comfort level), and often they get into heated arguments with each other over the validity of their strategies, but all have one thing in common. They each believe that they have the secret to winning and the insatiable need to prove to themselves and to others that their strategy is the right one. Some dabble in speed figures religiously, others rely on pace and trip handicapping, and others take the lazy way out, spending hundreds of dollars on expensive software and datafiles, the "sheets," or other third-party sources. And finally, one man in the book seems to pull numbers out of the air, using all sorts of convoluted numerology and superstition. His method is found to be bogus when he picks the 8 horse to win in a 6-horse field. A few more turns at the crank and his bet suddenly goes to the 3 horse. And sure enough, the 3 horse runs out of the money.
Not surprisingly, many of them fit the stereotype of the compulsive gambler. They have made the conscious decision to forego everything else that those not in the community hold dear, such as family, friends, other entertainment, and stable employment. Instead, they have committed themselves to the 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week grind of the horseplayer's life. McClelland wanted to find out what makes these men (there were few women) make such a decision so foreign to those outside of the community. He found that the most successful players completely immerse themselves into the game and never miss watching a single race, because if you take a day off, that is the day your 20-1 shot comes in.
McClelland did not spend so much time with these people simply to observe. He also wanted to try his hand as a professional himself, fully immersing himself into this rather alternative lifestyle. After a few big scores he could see the allure in becoming a full-time player, but the long losing streaks and the need to win back those losses made it crystal clear what gets these people trapped into the game. Horseplayers are betting against the odds in what is mathematically the most unforgiving form of gambling in the world.
Not every player in the book is a lifetime loser. He spends a lot of time with Scott McGinniss, a "professor" of handicapping at Hawthorne who teaches classes on betting and is a consistent winner. The fact the man at the front of the classroom wears a custom tailored suit while his students wear clothes with the track's logo on them that were either free giveaways or "purchased" using horseplayer club card points, is very telling indeed. And as a welcome break from the daily grind of Chicago racing, McClelland takes a road trip to Oklahoma and Montana with Terry "McChump" Bjork, whose hobby is to drive to bush league tracks across North America, bet the live races to help the locals out, and then write about his travels.
McClelland said, "Through these horseplayers I was learning something every day about how to be a stronger gambler and what life was like at the racetrack. But playing the horses wasn't about the money, at least not for me. It was an intellectual game, like chess. It was about trying to be smarter than the rest of the gambling world."
This is an excellent book about people in the racing community who are mostly ignored and sometimes vilified by the mainstream press but who, through the takeout on their heavy wagering levels, ultimately pay for the operation of the sport. Without them, there would not be a sport for the rest of us to enjoy. McClelland produced an excellent wake-up call to anybody considering making the serious jump up from casual fan to professional horseplayer. It is a decision not to be taken lightly, and in his book, you read about people for whom the decision was, sadly, the wrong one. We strongly recommend this book to racing fans who want to learn about the horseplayer's life, and especially to those who think that betting on the horses is "easy money".
Horseplayers: Life at the Track has a list price of $24.96 and is available from Amazon.com for $16.47.
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