Welcome to The Tampa Bay Downs Handicapper!

My name is John J. Barile (a.k.a. Johnny B.). I have been handicapping Tampa since the 1970s when I was a teenager, and then only casually, while working my conventional job, but upon retiring in 2007, I dedicated myself full-time to The Tampa Bay Downs Handicapper.

The upcoming meeting will be our 18th and our product and web traffic continue to grow.  In 2023-2024, on FREE PLAY WEDNESDAYs, thousands visited each month from 36 countries around the world. Total web traffic (to all associated sites) has now exceeded 2.2 million visits.

I handicap Tampa publicly, as well as Arizona Downs, Mountaineer and Saratoga for exclusive clients. During the racing season, I’m handicapping every day and during the off-season I’m working almost every day to prepare for the upcoming season. You won’t find the resources we’ve got here anywhere else.

My Trainer Profiles are the only ones in the handicapping business that provide analysis and stats across multiple angles simultaneously and you’ll find that the Win and ITM % for each of the featured trainers run high. Please get acquainted with my site and all that it has to offer. As you peruse the site, I think you’ll find that I’ve been working hard to provide you with the best handicapping tools money can buy.

You’ll also find that I have an eclectic handicapping style that combines pace and speed figures, trainer angles, trips, track biases and pure statistics.

Since 2007, we’ve shown a comfortable profit at 12 of the last 17 meetings!

I’m presently lining up a series of Handicapping Seminars for the 2023-2024 meeting. If you’re interested in sponsoring a seminar, don’t hesitate to contact me at tamselections@gmail.com

You can also sponsor a Guided Day at the Races for your Employees or Club. I’ll walk you through the basics of wagering, provide a history lesson on racing at Tampa and handicap the day’s card for your guests in real time.

When I’m not doing the foregoing, I’ll be trackside (in the grandstand, near the wire). Stop by and introduce yourself. And thanks for making the Tampa Bay Downs Handicapper the most visited site on the web exclusively dedicated to handicapping Tampa.

“The Tampa Bay Downs Handicapper” was the Special Guest on Dave Schwartz’s Handicapping Live show. You can see and hear my presentation here: http://www.practicalhandicapping.com/desktop/package/Videos/Workshops/HcpLive/HcpLive-0004/HcpLive-0004.html (Copy and Past the Link”)

You’ll also find references to some of my work in the  Tampa Bay Downs Bettor’s Guide’s by Peter Mallett from 2012-1016.

My work was featured in the Dec. 2012 issue of the FTBOA magazine, The Florida Horse, in an article on Handicapping Tampa Bay Downs (page 38).
http://issuu.com/floridahorse/docs/dec2012binder?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage

I was featured in the January 2011 Tampa Bay Downs magazine (click here to view) and I was a weekly contributor to the Tampa Bay Beaches online magazine for several years at http://tampabaybeaches.homestead.com which is now defunct.

You can hear my handicapping analysis from time to time on “Racing Across America” (see Capitol OTB) throughout the season and I have been be heard around Opening Day on Jason Beem’s “Bet America” radio show.

My revolutionary new handicapping book “The Horseplayers Guide to Advanced Trainer Profiling” is now available in digital format here on the website. The 2nd edition is now available and it’s Free.

I’m also a regular contributor at the Up In Class and Pace Advantage forums.

Good luck and good racing!

Johnny B.