Frank, I knew an old horse bettor that was actually pretty good. I don't get involved in handicapping because I understand I don't have the skills. But this old horse bettor told me some things.
He told me that he almost exclusively bet the New York tracks because it was only 13% rake compared to at least 17% elsewhere. And he also had a Canadien account. The American and Canadien money is two separate pools and horses go off on different numbers.
This guy was like 70 years old and he told me he learned handicapping at a young age from some of the best in the world. He also told me that of the thousands of horse bettors he knew over the years there was only about a dozen where if he owned the book he'd tell them to take their business elsewhere. That's pretty much all the math I need to know.
I knew guys that made a living going to the tracks just to pick up discarded tickets.
