by Melissa Keith

When Robert Reid, Jr. announced he was leaving his role as Woodbine Mohawk Park handicapper, finding a seamless replacement was essential. His full-card analysis and selections had appeared in the Mohawk program for nearly five years following the departure of Mike Hamilton. On the Wednesday (Jan. 22) simulcast show from The Raceway at Western Fair, he revealed that he was moving to a non-handicapping position in the sport effective Jan. 24.

Garnet Barnsdale officially took the lines as the new Horseplayers’ Journal racing analyst on Thursday (Jan. 30). The Etobicoke, ON bettor, handicapper and journalist had previously provided Woodbine Mohawk Park selections for Daily Racing Form’s DRF Harness for roughly a decade.

Barnsdale initially became a public handicapper covering Mohawk around the time of a great personal loss.

“How I remember that is I got asked to do it by [DRF Harness editor] Derick Givner while my sister Linda was in hospital, basically in her last days,” he told HRU. “She was a huge racing fan and we went to the races a lot together, over several decades. I remember mentioning to her that I was so excited about it, but she never got to see one in print. This year is the 10th year of her passing away, and it’s just about a month before I started doing it. So that’s kind of how I remember it’s the 10-year anniversary.”

The younger Barnsdales came by their love of the game naturally.

“Our dad was a big racing fan,” Garnet said. “He liked to go to both [breeds], but he preferred harness racing. He would drag me down to Greenwood [Racetrack] at a very, very young age. We went to Greenwood a lot and made some trips to Mohawk too, with friends.”

Handicapping was a skill Garnet said he had to develop on his own, however.

“I don’t want to speak ill of my dad, because I loved him, but he wasn’t a very good gambler,” Garnet said. “He was no handicapper, so I had to pick up some good habits on my own I guess, once I got into it.”

He recommended a book that he learned from as a teenager, and still kept on his bookshelf.

“One of the things that helped me learn, believe it or not, was Tom Ainslie’s The Complete Guide to Harness Racing,” Garnet said. “Tom Ainslie was a gambler and kind of a scholar back then, and I still have the book. I don’t know how much of that applies anymore, but I used to use the point system that he had in there and it was somewhat successful.”

Garnet said he became a public handicapper by luck, not design.

“There was a website — I don’t even remember the name of it and it doesn’t exist anymore — I think the person that ran it was named Jay Savastano,” he said. “We communicated on social media a little bit, and he asked me if I wanted to do a write-up for Mohawk with my picks, which I started to do. It wasn’t a daily thing, but at a certain point, through the power of social media, [DRF Harness editor] Derick Giwner took notice of it and when he had an opening for Woodbine Mohawk Park, he asked me if I wanted to do it. I was beyond thrilled and a little bit surprised, but I guess there must’ve been something in there that he liked.” 

Known for sweeping the card with his top-choice selections for The Raceway at Western Fair on Feb. 22, 2021, Garnet had a standout moment handicapping Mohawk’s Sept. 26, 2020 Metro Pace final. He gave out $73.90 winner Exploit, driven by Doug McNair, as a spot play for the card.

“That night, I was on the air live with America’s Best Racing, doing a live follow-along,” he said. “I hit the Pick 5 for $2,500 for a dollar ticket that night too… But you know, I like to think that my highlight is that I’m fairly consistent and I don’t always go for the obvious horse.”

Last week, WMP on-air hosts Randy Waples and Chad Rozema expressed their hope that Garnet wouldn’t change his handicapping approach as he moved from DRF Harness to the Horseplayers’ Journal. They praised his good eye for watching a race, and his willingness to stand by unpopular selections.

“I think I’m mostly a visual handicapper more than a mathematical one,” said Garnet, clarifying that he meant someone who watched races closely and kept notes on trips, as opposed to someone focused on equine conformation and body language. “As we know, fractions are set by circumstances in races a lot of times, so just because a horse looks a little bit slower on the program doesn’t mean it couldn’t be faster tonight.”

He added that taking track bias into consideration was essential for assessing a particular performance.

“For example, last Friday night [Jan. 24], there was a very strong bias against horses on the front end,” he said. “The only horse, actually a mare, that won leading wire-to-wire that night was Blue Pacific, who’s currently the hottest horse on the circuit right now. She was the bias-buster, but I’m looking for horses that may have been on the front and maybe got a little bit of heat in the middle of the race, and tired when they were expected to do better, because a lot of times, bettors will jump off those types.”

Information that isn’t readily conveyed via statistics in the program is what Garnet said he tries to incorporate in his analysis.

“If you’re watching every replay, you might see something you did not see if you were at the races and just playing along…” he said. “When you watch 10 replays back-to-back, you really notice something like on the Thursday [Jan. 23] night last week, in the stretch drive, the middle of the track was the preferred spot to be. The inside looked kind of slow, like they were almost racing with snowshoes on, and that has a lot to do with current weather conditions. I try to pick up on stuff like that and apply it to next week’s races.”

Looking ahead as the newest Horseplayers’ Journal writer, Garnet said he is grateful for his time at DRF Harness.

“I want to thank Derick Giwner for having the confidence in me to keep me doing DRF Harness for 10-plus years, and also for being a friend that I always enjoy chatting with and hanging out with at any racetrack,” Garnet said.

The veteran horseplayer said shifting from his former public handicapping platform to the latest means turning particular attention to the different audiences of DRF Harness and the Horseplayers’ Journal.

“The Journal is in the track program and when you go to the track, you see some newbies or infrequent bettors,” he said. “Take last Saturday night: I was in the Mohawk Harvest Kitchen on track and you could see several tables that were occupied by people there for a night out and a little action, not necessarily hardcore gamblers. You don’t want to write analyses full of jargon they might not understand.

“I think the Journal readers are a more varied audience and I try to keep that in mind.”