Dave Valento is a Minnesota native who cut his teeth on the
game in the late '80's at his local track of Canterbury Downs (Park).
Immediately after attending his first race in 1986, he
read many handicapping books, most notably Andy Beyer's Picking Winners and Steve
Davidowitz's Betting Thoroughbreds. He became the lead handicapper in a
pick 6 syndicate at the age of 18.
Over the years, he honed his skill through old fashioned data mining
through countless stacks of racing forms.
His philosophy on handicapping is it is more right brain versus left
brain thinking and is why he refuses to use software programs.
He feels handicapping is more of an art than science and
requires agile thinkers who have the ability to adjust handicapping
strategies to the uniqueness of every race. He says "never left a longshot
beat you that you haven't given serious consideration to.
It doesn't mean you have to like the horse, but you should have at
least built a case for discounting its chances. By doing this, you may
find positive angles on a longshot you may have missed at first".
Dave has worked in the IT industry as a project manager, program manager
and services director for the past 15 years. In between, he has provided
public analysis for a variety of racing circuits, most notably
Southern California and Midwest racing. His main emphasis is providing
information rather than selections and/or betting strategies.
He feels savvy players get more value from pointing out less
obvious pieces of information than they do from which horse he
selects on top.
Dave handicaps under the name of Track Phantom and will provide an in
depth breakdown of Del Mar's late pick 4. For more information about Dave you can visit his
website at www.trackphantom.com.
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Track Phantom Analysis (PDF Format):
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Selections
