Dr. Howard Sartin R.I.P. · 8.02.09

Most of what little I know of handicapping I’ve learned from a book titled Pace Makes the Race, given to me by my friend Tim. Sub-titled “An introduction to the Sartin Methodology”, it serves as an introduction to an approach to pace handicapping developed by Dr. Howard Sartin, Ph.D. This book, along with co-author Tom Brohamer’s Modern Pace Handicapping, present pace handicapping as a viable way for even a novice handicapper such as myself to do well at “playing the ponies”.

Dr. Sartin developed his approach when he began treating a group of truck drivers convicted of gambling-related crimes. The drivers had been given suspended sentences and had their drivers licenses renewed on the condition that they attend either Gamblers Anonymous or an alternative psychological treatment programme. Dr. Sartin led one of those programmes. In the course of treating his gambler clients he decided that they were not compulsive or pathological in nature — they were simply “losers”, stuck in a rut of losing approaches to poker, roulette, or other games of chance. He decided to cure them, not of gambling, but of losing — “the cure for losing is winning” became his mantra.

Dr. Sartin re-focussed his clients on betting on horse races, which he considered a positive expectancy activity, as opposed to casino gambling which he classified as negative expectancy. Basically, losers gamble, winners invest. Don’t depend on chance to pick a winner — put as much research into betting decisions as investing in the stock market. The method that he, his clients, and a few others eventually developed almost guarantees picking a winner in 60-65% of all races handicapped. Losers automatically became winners.

The basic premise of pace handicapping is to look at the pace of the past performances, not the speed or the final time. Analyze the early and late pace for each horse, compare them to each other and to the current track bias. Calculate the top two horses based on these parameters, and bet both to win (no, you’re not betting against yourself, you’re automatically doubling your chances to win). Those are the highlights, although such a brief summary of the Sartin Methodology certainly does a disservice to it. Those who want to learn more should track down copies of either or both of the two books cited above.

Dr. Sartin died on January 30. Respected throughout the handicapping community, he wasn’t really a professional handicapper — he was, by training, a psychiatrist, a healer of people. That was how he presented his methodology: as a manifestation of “the psychology of winning”, a means for people to become winners in life, not just at the track.

More discussion here, here, and here.

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What do you think?

  1. A real showman: part Phinneas T. Barnum, part Socrates, he was an original who channelled a completely original handicapping idea into the mainstream. His only real detractor, in spite of his generosity to others, was his paranoia regarding others stealing his ideas. I was lucky enough to moderate a blog where we welcomed his programmer, Guy Wadsworth, who then wrote NEW programs based upon all he had programmed before. This allowed for the original programming codes to be saved for posterity.

    — Dr. TImothy Yatcak · Feb 10, 11:39 AM · #

  2. Last summer a friend took me to Monmouth Park in NJ. I won a couple bucks but it was mostly by luck and making the safest, most conservative bets. Ever since that outing I became fascinated with handicapping as an intellectual exercise. The first book I took out of the library happened to be Brohamer’s, which employs Sartin’s method. It was so intriguing that I just had to purchase my own copy. R.I.P. Dr. Sartin and thanks for sharing your mentally challenging but thoroughly rewarding method.

    — EricTheRed · Aug 30, 12:42 PM · #

  3. Hey Tim, Doc Sartin had very valid concerns about his proprietary material being stolen and was not ‘paranoid,’ for several of his ORIGINAL velocity-based ratings were indeed ripped-off and resold by unscrupulous system peddlers.

    — Pace · Sep 1, 10:46 AM · #

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