Bill Quirin died last August

You may not know the name, but if you handicap horse racing you surely use his principles.

He was a mathematics professor at Adelphi University on Long Island, and was the first to use data analysis in handicapping back in the seventies and eighties, Among other things, he was the first to quantify the importance of early speed across all distances and class levels, and developed the Quirin Speed Point method of evaluating a horse's potential to be on the lead in a race. I read several of his books when I was just starting to get interested in horse racing, and I actually exchanged a few emails with him. He was very approachable and willing to interact with fellow horseplayers. His books were numbers intensive and he was a big believer in showing his work, but if you had any math background at all you could follow along. If his books are any indication, he had to have been a great teacher.






Obituary