Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem for Oct. 6, 2025

Jason discusses the weekend and remembers longtime Southern California-based handicapper Jeff Siegel. 

A good Monday morning to you all, and I hope the busy weekend went well for you. Currently typing an hour before gametime of my beloved Seattle Mariners, who lost their first playoff game last night and need to avoid a 2-0 hole tonight. Send me some good wishes!

Obviously, Keeneland was the primary story from the weekend, but I wanted to write a little bit about the passing of the great handicapper Jeff Siegel. 

Jeff, who was 74 when he passed away on Saturday, had a wonderful career in our game that saw him as a public handicapper, morning line maker, television analyst, and longtime syndicate owner as well. The tributes from people who worked with him over the years were pouring in, as were those from people who simply admired his work. 

Being an analyst and handicapper is a funny job because you’re essentially doing the same thing that the public is doing. You’re trying to scope out a winner and make money betting the races. 

Jockeys, trainers, racecallers – none of us are doing the same thing that our customers are doing each day. I’ve often joked to analyst friends that “everyone watching thinks they’re better at this than you are.” You have to have a level of confidence, I think, to be a good horseplayer. And you have to learn to fail and accept that because it’s going to happen so often. 

That’s partly why what Jeff did throughout his career was so impressive. He garnered respect from those same players who are trying to do what he did. I also loved seeing many people, both pro and recreational players, commenting about how they’d learned from him and that he’d taken time to speak with them. 

Giving out or selling picks isn’t the most tangible thing. Most of us move on to the next race or the next day, regardless of the successes or failures, and the work and results vanish into the ether. 

But those moments of real education I think are what stick with people and what a good analyst can do. It’s a complex role because you end up being one part host, one part educator, one part tout or pick giver, and certainly one part personality. Jeff always struck me as a total professional in watching his work, which I became aware of first back at HRTV in the mid-to-late 2000s. 

One of the best tributes I saw was about how Jeff had injured his calf while rooting a horse home too hard. That sounds to me like one of those great horseplayer stories that people will share with their horse racing pals for decades and never not laugh about. 

A lot of horseplayers seem to love it when they find out an analyst really is a big bettor. “One of us” really bonds an analyst with the players if they know he or she is going through the same trials and tribulations as they are. Jeff was indeed “one of us” and was a great representation for our game. 

Rest in peace, Jeff.