Derek Simon fell in love with the Sport of Kings at the now-defunct Longacres racetrack in Renton, Washington back when he was still in high school. He credits Andrew Beyer, Steve Davidowitz, James Quinn, Tom Brohamer, Mark Cramer, and particularly William Quirin for his early development as a handicapper.

Derek Simon is a full-time freelance business/sports writer, who currently pens a weekly column and hosts a weekly podcast on the Sport of Kings for Youbet.com. He has been published by Motley Fool, Newsmax, Dulcinea Media, iStockAnalyst, Beacon Equity Research and a host of other online and offline venues.

His sports and handicapping pieces have been featured by AOL.com, Handicapping.com, Equidaily.com and others. Derek is sincerely interested in helping new and old fans alike become better players and welcomes questions and comments.

Derek Simon

Mark Ripple first became interested in racing when as a teenager his family moved to Saratoga Springs, New York. Though he initially only played harness races, he became increasingly interested in Thoroughbreds.

Ripple was recruited from college early to become a stockbroker and worked for such firms as Merrill Lynch and Prudential-Bache Securities. His experience as a stockbroker opened his eyes to a new way to approach handicapping and thus the seeds for Handicapping the Wall Street Way: Picking Xtra Winners at the Track were sewn.

Ripple, who has written articles for American Turf Monthly, Southern Gaming Magazine, The Horse Jockey and Canada's ZOOMER Magazine, continues to trade stocks when he is not studying the Daily Racing Form or visiting a North American race track.