Features

This weekend’s North American racing action is highlighted by the Maryland Million series on Saturday at Laurel Park. The featured race, the Classic, offers a contentious field of ten starters with three also-eligibles. Morning-line favorite Bonus Points is last on the AEs, so the main body favoritism falls to Saratoga Bob, a 4-year-old son of […]

Some handicappers argue speed figures are so ubiquitous these days, it’s hard for horseplayers to find an edge. But the Paulick Report’s series this week on performance ratings revealed the many differences between the figure makers and perhaps how astute handicappers can use them to capitalize on various angles. In today’s edition of The Friday […]

There’s no doubt about it, Brookline was bred for greatness. Out of the iconic broodmare Cara Rafaela, a Grade 1 winner herself who produced the likes of superstar sire Bernardini, Brookline had some big shoes to fill. It was at Margaux Farm, a Thoroughbred training center located in Midway, Ky., that farm trainer Dermot Littlefield […]

So far in our series on speed figures, we’ve seen how numbers get adjusted using the Beyer method, how pace is incorporated into TimeformUS ratings and how so-called “designer” figure makers like Thoro-Graph and The Sheets take into account factors such as ground loss and wind speed. In our final installment, we’re looking at two […]

Chasing Yesterday, the 2-year-old half-sister to Triple Crown Champion American Pharoah, is certainly special to her legion of fans. After watching the homebred Tapit filly earn her first stakes victory at Santa Anita on Sunday, owner Jane Lyon explained the Bob Baffert trainee has a special place in her own heart. “When we started this, […]

In the first two parts of our series on speed figures, we’ve seen two contrasting approaches for analyzing how fast racehorses run — Beyer Speed Figures and TimeformUS. Now for something completely different. By its own description, Thoro-Graph isn’t even a speed figure. It’s a performance figure. While the company uses some conventional speed figure […]

In looking at the winners of the two Group 1 races for juveniles at Newmarket, Iridessa (by Ruler of the World) in the Fillies Mile and Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) in the Dewhurst, I was immediately tempted to paraphrase Charles Dickens. We shouldn’t say that “it was the best of pedigrees; it was the worst […]

One thing that will be clear at the end of our series this week on speed figures is that no two numbers are the same. Each of the figure makers we’re exploring takes a different approach to rating race performance, and understanding the differences between them is critical to getting the best use out of […]

The creation of speed figures to handicap horse races dates back further than you might think. Horseplayer tomes published in the mid-1930’s suggested people were boiling down race performances to one number, teaching others how to do it and selling their ready-made figures. Today, a number of companies offer speed or performance figures to the […]

A trio of Grade 1 races highlights the North American action this weekend, with the QEII Challenge Cup to be held Saturday at Keeneland and Woodbine to host both the Canadian International and E.P. Taylor Stakes. The Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup features last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Rushing Fall, who has […]