Outside of formal education, there are varying ways in which people get to learn things and acquire skills. Scotland and Liverpool’s Bill Shankly, one of the original “school of hard knocks” soccer managers said, “I didn’t have any education, so I had to use my brains.”
Often knowledge in a specific field is passed down through generations – just look at South Africa’s current trainer rankings where Justin Snaith, Alan Greeff, Candice Bass Robinson, Gavin Smith and Glen Kotzen are Top Tenners’ continuing a family tradition. But, what about the education of horseplayers? Insights might be gleaned through reading, observation, practical experience or for the lucky ones, being guided by a wise and supportive guru.
One such mentor to a whole generation of handicappers was Dr Howard Sartin, an iconoclast American “psychologist” active during the 80’s and 90’s. The veracity of his PHd qualification was disputed by critics, but that that did not deter Sartin, who set himself up as a life coach specialising in working with addicted gamblers.
What distinguished him from mainstream counsellors was his insight that gambling is not a problem in itself – but losing is! So, rather than doing the traditional thing and advising diseased gamblers to stop punting – the maverick Doc formed working groups of patients/horseplayers to do research into pace analysis and optimal betting strategies. From this, the renowned Sartin Methodology was formed, a complex handicapping approach designed to assist his clients overcome problem gambling through “win therapy.”
Sartin developed a cult following, especially in liberal California where that states’ citizens have always been more open to unconventional ideas. This was also the start of a high-tech era when computers were being used more widely and his disciples would program detailed feet-per-second mathematical calculations based on the horses’’ velocity at different stages of the race.
Their computers would spit out Early Pace, Average Pace, Sustained Pace and Energy Distribution readings for each horse. Sartin advised his followers to use these precise measurements to construct decision models based on running styles and specific track profiles. Horses would be designated as handy types showing early pace (E), or pressers (P) that stalk the speed or sustained runners (S) that come on late. Sartin’s team would try identify how the races figured to be run. If a track was favouring early speed, then his group would avidly support those (E) runners scoring best in that category.
He usually advocated betting two horses per race, with a goal of hitting between 45% and 60% winners that way. Reaching those targets meant losing streaks were kept at a minimum and steady profits ensued. Trumpeting the successes of his proteges, the good doctor “Certain”” as he became known, embarked on a hyped up national promotional campaign asserting that “win therapy” worked.
But critics were less enthusiastic, some going as far as labelling Dr Sartin an outright fraud. The doubters questioned his academic qualification, alleged fudging of betting results and exposed his paranoid, controlling tendencies. Mark Cramer, then editor of the Gambling Times, gave him the benefit of the doubt, however “My take is that Sartin had a good product and so whatever bizarre marketing techniques he would use could not be raised as evidence against his pace handicapping product. “
Over time, many of his followers left the inner circle to strike out on their own. Tellingly, they did so once they were confirmed winners, armed with sophisticated analytical techniques. That was largely thanks to innovative handicapping research co-ordinated by Dr Sartin, and his unique motivational abilities which brought the competitive best out of people.
Even if the absence of sectional timing data denies South African punters the opportunity to do sophisticated pace analysis, they used other methods to still come up with some sharp recent hits. Kenny Trix (50/1 into 20/1), Undercover Agent (9/2 – 2/1) and Expedite (9/2 – 33/10) were cunning punts at Kenilworth, whilst Hashtagthemost was backed from 10’s into as low as 3/1 at one point, before saluting in Durban.
There were misses, too. Dream Dancer (9/2 – 2/1), Temple Grafin (9/2 – 22/10), Cirillo (11/2 -7/2) and Tennessee (9/2 – 5/2) all got cooked as favourites at Kenilworth. And, some Joburg strikes went awry as well. The Rising Legend was one of the most highly traded horses of the weekend and Iditarod Trail also attracted tons of support. Both floundered.
A full weekend of racing lies ahead. Interbet offers fixed odds on meetings around the globe as well as an array of sports events. The Interbet Tote feature is linked to SafTote, so all those wagers handled through Interbet’s on line platform directly boost official betting turnovers. Crucially, this is money that gets ploughed back into the game, contributing to stakes and making the whole grand racing show sustainable.