The best effort I have ever seen here on any one day and hard to do
well done

arrowson, excellant keep up the good work,,,grundy

Hi all,
Arrowson, can't fault you. Hope you had a profitable day and not just a good one.
Credit where its due.
See you soon, Mike.

Arrowson,

Thats a great performance. Well done.

In all of VDW`s writings, was it ever evident that the man possessed a sense of humour.

A serious answer would be well received, no answer would be conclusive.

graham hepburn,

well done with your analysis yesterday, you were right about red striker

III

Tony Peach suggests that VDW had suffered as a prisoner of the Nazis. If that is correct, he probably lost his sense of humour in the early 1940s.

Thankyou Fulham.

Three Legs
The ability rating was quite a good joke apparently.

One of the people that I considered to have a brilliant sense of humour,was an old chap who was a Japanese POW.
If you're an up yourself,miserable old git.you are and that's it.

Quite so, one of the most effective ways of surviving tough times is to lean heavily on your SOH.

Arrowson,
Well done with yesterday's analysis.

JohnD,
Good call with shotgun Willy - hope us doubters didn't put you off!

Barney,
Thanks.

All the best

Graham

Sense of humour.

I agree we all need a sense of humour. The problem is not everyone has the same idea about what is funny. Taking the piss is a cheap, easy way, and not everyone finds it funny. I personally don't like slap stick, but a clever aside can crack me up. So why not just live and let live, and except it would be a sad world if everyone was the same?

Be Lucky

Mtoto
I agree with the major sentiments expressed in your post. However I feel it's against the spirit of this thread, after all the hard core want to follow VDW such that they would make the same selections for the same reasons. In fact an entire repression of individuality and creativity.

Epiglotis,

I think this thread is about trying to understand how VDW worked. Guest and Fulham + a few others think they are on the way to understanding it. When the likes of Johnd, and myself come up with a different interruption of the methods. All they are doing is pointing out were they think we are going wrong. I read what they have to say and then go away and think about it. I don't feel repressed, and I understand that before changes can be made (if one feels they are necessary) we should understand the methods in detail. I don't agree with Investor, I think this thread has come a long way in the last year. This latest move in discussing how we think VDW read the form book is a major step forward. If you had told me a few months ago this would be happening I would have found it hard to believe. I hope it has everyone thinking about how they evaluate form. When we really understand what VDW was saying then the creative can begin, if we feel the ideas can be improved. This weekend raised the question could a horse be a form horse after a long lay off. The only example I could find of this was Homeson, who VDW said was not a form horse. Was that because of the lay off, or was there another reason? I pointed to a possible reason a little while ago. How the question has been brought up again because of the discussion about Shotgun Willie, some will at least have another look at Homeson.

I continue to use the methods my way, because I find it works for me. That doesn't stop me looking at other ways they can be used. I try to throw in the odd comment to keep the discussion going, and find out what others think. The major element about VDW's views on horse racing I don't except is the weight factor. I except that may hamper me when trying to follow his thinking.

Be Lucky

Mtoto
Thanks for the well considered reply. I think your point of view is commendable, however there are posters on this thread who appear to have resorted to VDW on account of an inability to think for themselves. I wouldn't like to see this tendency encouraged.

[This message was edited by epiglotis on March 02, 2003 at 06:30 PM.]

Epiglotis,

What you say may well be true, but I haven't found many that can't think for themselves. The few that can't, soon get fed up, or turn to systems that make the decisions out of their hands. Haven't you noticed this?

Be Lucky

Interesting comment made over the weekend -

quote:

---

Days since last run are now not so relevent - as AW training facilities are now much more common.

---

Therfore a trainer can be more confident that his horse is at peak fittness than he could be 20 years ago !!

Days since last run - less relevent !!

Racing Changes and Racing moves on !!

VDW is not "Written in Stone"

and must be modified to suit todays circumstances. -

VDW would have changed his approach to suit !!

Tc

Mtoto - your contributions are much appreciated !



**** - see "Shotgun Willy" re days !

[This message was edited by Tuppenycat on March 02, 2003 at 08:06 PM.]

[This message was edited by Tuppenycat on March 02, 2003 at 08:08 PM.]

111,

I think VDW did indeed have a sense of humour. It’s only recently I discovered a couple of sentences he wrote that could be interpreted in different ways. In my opinion that was deliberate and to me suggests a rye sense of humour.He intended that only someone who had put a certain amount of effort in was likely to get the double meaning. As Mtoto points out everyones sense of humour is different, but when I saw what I thought were those double meanings it certainly made me laugh out loud.

One of the funniest guys I ever worked with I used to have down as a miserable old git and he similarly disliked me. But for some reason one day I realised that his sense of humour was extremely dry and once I could see it I realised he was cracking jokes by the bucketload. Once I started laughing at his jokes he warmed to me because he had me down as an equally miserable sod for not laughing at his jokes. I don’t think its any coincidence that the some of the best comedians have come from the industrialised areas.That may be partly to do with the club circuit ,but often the only thing that makes your job pleasurable is having a laugh with your mates and the sense of humour developed there tends to carry over into your family and social life.

All the best.