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Book Review

Triple Crown Undercard Handicapper 2007 by Jim Mazur
Progressive Handicapping Inc, April 2007, 124 pages paperback

Jim Mazur's Progressive Handicapping has, in almost two decades, earned a reputation as the source for negative angles in North American racing. Through his flagship products Crushing The Cup and Triple Crown Handicapper, as well as numerous meet-specific guides, bettors can turn to Mazur's publications to help "crush" a race by eliminating non-contenders using his system of knocks. Introduced last year, Triple Crown Undercard Handicapper gives you an additional weapon for your pari-mutuel battles on those big race days.

The Triple Crown races often have longshot winners with boxcar payouts in the exotics because of the large betting pool and many inexperienced handicappers overbetting the favorites. With this new book, Mazur allows you to take advantage of this in the undercard stakes races in addition to the main events covered in Triple Crown Handicapper. He includes the stakes races that are run on the undercards of the Kentucky Oaks, Kentucky Derby, Black-Eyed Susan, Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. These races include main track and turf course events at various distances and age/gender restrictions, so a handicapper can play to his or her strengths.

With so many races to cover in one book, Mazur could not give each race the same attention to detail he gives the Kentucky Derby in Triple Crown Handicapper. Instead, he boils down the analysis to key information needed to make a quick handicapping decision. Like in his other publications, he includes the list of recent winners with trainer, jockey, post position, track condition, win payoff, running time, and the average field size. He then includes a short write-up on the winning profile for that stakes race, a winner's profile chart, Beyer records for the winners, a point-form list of key handicapping factors, running style summary, Beyer patterns, post position stats, and the DRF past performances for the last ten winners.

Where this book can prove most valuable is in multi-race bets. Keying a middle or long priced horse in a Pick 3, or better yet, using the undercard races to nail a Pick 3 which includes the Triple Crown race, will most certainly pay boxcars given the size of the betting pools on those days. The book also helps you determine which races as "chalky", which may be races to avoid or to single the favorite in a multi-race bet in combination with longshots in the other legs. For example, favorites do not do well in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (average payoff is over $17), the race that precedes the Kentucky Derby. A Pick 3 including both the Turf Classic and the Derby has the potential to pay four or five figures.

Triple Crown Undercard Handicapper is a useful tool for anybody who bets on the Triple Crown races and like to get in on the action earlier in the day. New handicappers may want to familiarize themselves with Mazur's techniques in Triple Crown Handicapper or Crushing the Cup first, as this book is mostly statistical and does not have the detailed instructions and background information as in the flagship publications.

Triple Crown Undercard Handicapper has a cover price of $29.95 and is available from Progressive Handicapping Inc. and DRF.com. There are also some package deals available which include Triple Crown Handicapper with the various Zones.

Rating:     4.5/5

You may also want to check out Triple Crown Handicapper 2007

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