JB,

Old but not THAT old.At 16, I was around some real sharp speed fig guys in NY known to be descendants of Julie Finks Speed Boys.One old timer in the early 60's was a direct descendant of Julie Finks group and known to be one of the sharpest"speed"gamblers in NY.

They also had a guy 'Vinny The Hat" who "knew" 2 yr old racing well.

No bookmakers wanted really their horse action so they had lots of beards running around betting a couple of hundred here and there.

I clearly remember that they rarely made a play without establishing how the surface was playing that day, the wind direction, the water truck and if John(horse eye baller)was ok with how the horse walked in the paddock.They were very successful for the few years I was around them, cashing a fairly high percentage of their plays, win bets only, mainly speed types.

As to who was really was The Godfather Of Speed Figs, I don't know but from the early 80's to early 90's (pre Beyer in DRF)sheet players took most of the money in NY.Most of those scoring big regularly used either TG or Rags.

Amount of data out there now unreal,some not even for sale yet.Always was the toughest game in the world to beat and may be tougher today than ever.Pools have less soft money (except big days) with proliferation of data and TVG/HRTV and many other venues where even soft money gets some insight.


Mike