Influential handicapper Steve Davidowitz dies at 77

Steve Davidowitz, whose “Betting Thoroughbreds” is considered one of the most influential handicapping books ever written, has died, his son, Brad, said Sunday.

Davidowitz, 77, was found at his apartment in Summerlin, Nev., a suburb of Las Vegas where he most recently lived.

“I’d like to imagine he basically died doing what he loved, that he passed while doing what he loved,” Brad Davidowitz said from his home in Minneapolis. “Romantically, I envision that he was writing a story, watching replays preparing for a story. He really enjoyed still being able to do relevant things about horse racing.”

“Betting Thoroughbreds” was first released in 1977, and it quickly became a must-read for those looking to improve their handicapping techniques – or even as an introduction to the novice horseplayer. The book covered an immense amount of ground over more than 300 pages and included several new concepts, including the identification of “key races” and track biases.

Andrew Beyer, whose “Picking Winners” is considered just as prestigious as Davidowitz’s book, said Monday that he considered Davidowitz a “mentor” after a chance meeting in the early 1970s in the grandstand at Saratoga Race Course in New York. Beyer credited Davidowitz for the novel concepts he introduced in “Betting Thoroughbreds” and said that there was no one from that era “who understood the game better,” as evidenced by the wide-ranging analyses within the book.

“He believed that horseplayers had to be adaptable – to see that angles which worked at Saratoga might be irrelevant, or opposite, to those that worked at the Fair Grounds,” Beyer said. “Steve was always opinionated, but as a handicapper he was rarely dogmatic.”

Davidowitz most recently wrote for Horse Racing Nation, but he had a career that took him to all corners of the nation, writing for newspapers in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Houston, Oakland, and St. Petersburg, Fla. He also worked for Daily Racing Form and was the Northern California correspondent for The Racing Times. He was an editor of Turf and Sport Digest and wrote for Sport magazine and Gaming Today.

Davidowitz a decade ago updated his seminal book, re-releasing it as “Betting Thoroughbreds for the 21st Century.” His other racing books included “The Best and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing” and “Cashing Big on Racing’s Biggest Days,” both published by DRF Press. He also was a previous editor of the American Racing Manual.

His last column for Horse Racing Nation, written under his usual blog-post moniker “Across the Board,” appeared on March 20 and analyzed the field for the Louisiana Derby. At the time of his death, according to acquaintances, Davidowitz was working on his memoirs.

Davidowitz also was a featured speaker at Horseplayer’s Expo and did numerous handicapping seminars at tracks and racebooks.

He is survived by his son, two grandchildren, a brother, and two sisters.

Services are pending.

–additional reporting
by Matt Hegarty