Episode · Freakonomics Radio · 2025-11-14

Books mentioned on 653. Does Horse Racing Have a Future?

1 book · With Anne Archer Hinkle, Cormac Breathnach, Emily Plant, Mark Taylor, Marshall Gramm, Richard Migliore, Sean Feld, Scott Heider, Thomas Lambert · Listen · Watch on YouTube

Thoroughbred auction prices keep setting records. But tracks are closing, gambling revenues are falling, and the sport is increasingly reliant on subsidies.

Marshall Gramm discussed Calculated Bets: Computers, Gambling, and Mathematical Modeling to Win by Steven Skiena.

Books mentioned, in the order they came up

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  1. Calculated Bets: Computers, Gambling, and Mathematical Modeling to Win

    Steven Skiena · at 42:58

    Discussed
    “The guy who wrote about horse racing in the Washington Post was a guy named Andy Byer. Byer was the popularizer of speed figures as a high schooler. I bought his books. I was at the age where a lot of boys get into baseball because of all the statistics. I love baseball, but I realized that horse racing was”
    Where to get it