I've been looking at a lot of horse stats lately and even though I haven't put a lot of effort into figuring out what all of the data means, I have learned a great deal from just the easiest recognizable numbers; break speed, early speed, top speed, and stamina.
I could only shake my head this evening, seeing race after race where a horse was obviously misplaced. For example, there was a 6F sprint with a stayer who starts slowly and has mediocre speed. Looking at the data, it was painfully obvious that the horse did not have a chance. He was entered in the wrong race and the results were just what I expected.
Not all of the races were easy to predict. I made a game of it and tried to pick the winner by looking at the data first. Not easy. I was wrong more often than not. But it was easy to pick the horses that were gonna lose... a horse with a speed figure of 88, in a sprint with a bunch of 92's and 93's for example, or a horse with a stamina of 66 in a 10F race against horses with 70 or 71 ratings. Those weren't hard to figure out.
Better understanding your horses capabilities and limits will help with race placement. It's easy with a horse like Heat Seeker; just put him in every big money race you can. He'll be fine. For most horses though, placement is more critical, and if you don't understand your horse, it's not gonna be fun.
The more horses I looked at, the more I began to get excited about the possibilities. It seemed so refreshing to be armed with some small bits of data that support a specific race strategy, rather than the usual head-scratching bewilderment.
I'm telling you people...the info is certainly not foolproof, but it is valuable. Very valuable.
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