High Tech at the Race Track : Younger Horse Bettors Plugging Into Computer-Full of Information at Laurel

A visitor to the new Sports Palace at Laurel Race Course might wonder if it has become passe to pick winners with a red pen and a rumpled Racing Form.

A row of computer terminals lines one of the walls, and sitting before them is a row of earnest-looking horseplayers, pushing buttons and gathering data on the day’s races. The age of high-tech handicapping has arrived.

When Laurel’s management decided to offer its patrons computerized information on trainers, jockeys, post positions and other factors, it expected a wary response. The typical racing fan is a creature of habits that aren’t easily changed.

“We thought the computers would catch on in time,” said Lynda O’Dea, a Laurel official who led the team that designed the Sports Palace. “But we haven’t had one empty chair. We’re stunned. I definitely think this is the thing of the future.”

The betting public’s receptiveness to the use of computers in handicapping is due in large part to a mathematician and author named William Quirin. His 1979 book, “Winning at the Races: Computer Discoveries in Thoroughbred Handicapping,” became the Bible for a great many horseplayers who think they can unravel the mysteries of the game with modern technology.

Laurel sought out Quirin to create a computer program. Quirin gave the track a system that can appeal to race-track neophytes and has the potential to offer valuable information to the most sophisticated bettors.

At the push of a couple of buttons, the Laurel computer will pour out basic handicapping data on any of that day’s races. It will identify the horse with the top win percentage for the year, the horse with the highest average earnings per start. It will list the horses who are moving up in class, the ones with early speed, the ones racing within 10 days of their last start.

All of this information is available in the Daily Racing Form, but Quirin said, “There are a lot of young kids who don’t read the Form, but who are used to computer terminals and are not afraid of them. This is a way to teach them what the important factors are.”

The system calculates the winning percentage of each post position at each distance for the whole Laurel meeting, and also for the last six days, so handicappers can spot the development of a recent track bias.

Quirin knew, however, that the most sophisticated use of a computer system would be to store data about trainers. When Laurel officials initially approached him and asked for his ideas, he said, “Let’s take trainers to the limit.”

The computer will break down a trainer’s performance into dozens of categories: on the dirt, on the turf, in routes, in sprints, with favorites, with long shots, with first-time starters, with second-time starters. (It also analyzes the records of Maryland jockeys in a similar fashion.)

The one drawback of the system, at present, is the limited volume of the data it contains. Laurel has programmed information from all Maryland races since Sept. 3, but if a handicapper wants to judge a trainer’s skill with first-time starters, he needs years of information, not weeks.

However, if Laurel maintains this system, and keeps feeding it data even when the racing scene shifts to Pimlico, it eventually will become quite valuable.

It won’t miraculously enable its users to make a fortune, but even Quirin has no illusions about this.

“I never thought you could create some magic formula that will beat 50% of the races,” he said. “I’ve worked with computers for the sake of information. The guy who does best in this game is the guy who has the most information and knows how to use it.”