Back to the library and "The Stretch Run"

There is so much to say about Raymond DeCapite's The Stretch Run, a terrific novel set in Cleveland during or just after the Vietnam War and featuring a young out-of-work magazine writer who befriends an elderly gambler who has lost his son to the war. A few posts back the Amateur Handicapper quoted a lengthy passage from the novel in which the professional handicapper (Jim Stacy) instructs the novitiate (Frank Bondi) in the finer points of his trade.

When Frank praises Jim for his calm in the face of a disastrous bet, Jim tells him, simply, "I've had plenty of practice."

In a subsequent chapter, Frank goes it alone at Thistledown* in Cleveland and demonstrates the dangers of handicapping without first learning how.

"I was not happy with the horses. I bet and lost the daily double, the quinella in the second, the trifecta in the third. The fourth was a maiden race for two-year-old fillies, three of which had never raced, and so I decided to skip it.

Gold Nugget won by ten lengths.

Impressed, I took another look at her in the Form.

Jim came.

'Well, I started fast,' he said, sitting down.

'You had that horse?'

'Yes. I got here a minute before post. I can't remember the last time I won a bet on a two-year-old making her debut.'

'She was the life of the party.'

'I had a feeling she would be.'

'I don't see anything special in the Form. What did you see in her?'

'She's by Prospector. He was a fast colt. I bet him twice and won both times.'

'So now you bet his daughter. Sometimes we listen when the heart speaks.'

'Did you miss her bullet work? It's in the program. She breezed a half in forty-eight.'

'The heart needs encouragement.'

He studied the fifth race.

'Five minutes to post,' said the race caller. 'Don't get shut out.'

'Are you going to bet?' said Jim.

'Yes. Do you like Varsity at all?'

"Bet ten to win for me on Tall Tale. Put him in an exacta box with Varsity.'

'Why do you prefer Tall Tale?'

'He's a sure thing.'

'That's pretty tall. But I'll invest sixteen.'

Tall Tale won, Varsity ran third.

I won twenty-nine.

'Didn't I tell you he was a sure thing?' he said.

'I'll believe you next time.'

'I might be wrong next time.'

He was wrong in the next four races."

* Of the making of books about thoroughbreds, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes, there is no end. But books about standardbreds, about pacers and trotters, the same is not true. I'm dedicated to finding the best writing about our great sport, but it may take awhile. Until then, great writing about handicapping, even thoroughbred handicapping, will have to suffice!