Greyhound Handicapping Systems - What Works And What Doesn't
By www.statisticspoker.net
This is purely my own opinion, but I want to say right off the bat that I don't believe that there's such a thing as a completely mechanical system for picking winning dogs.
True, there are systems that I use myself that come awfully close. But there's nothing that I can think of that doesn't take at least a little bit of judgment on the handicapper's part. I use a system that I invented to pick winners in Maiden races that's almost automatic, but I still weigh whether to include a dog or not, so it's not technically mechanical.
I think it's rather naive to think that there's a way to just use a mathematical formula or some method of assigning points to dogs to pick the winner of a race, every time, without fail. I don't think it can be done and I'd like to hear from anyone who says he can do it.
I do think that it makes sense to use a system to pick dogs, as long as you realize that it takes judgment and practice to make the system work for you. I always tell my buyers to try it on paper first, get used to it and see how it works at your track.
Often, a little tweaking is necessary to fine-tune a good system so that it works at your particular track. Tracks all have their little quirks such as different lengths, differences in track surfaces and other things that affect how the dogs run at that track.
Often,
