Adjusted SR in RDSS
 

I am completely puzzled at times about the adjusted speed ratings in RDSS. It especially seems puzzling when dealing with high class horses. This years Derby has Nyquist a solid favorite and Exaggerator and fairly solid second choice. If you take Nyquists career best SR of 89, and scan the SR's of the rest of the field there are 12 speed figures better than Nyquists best figure. Exaggerators lifetime best was 87. While that matches up well with Nyquist, its way too low compared to other horses. I realize we are dealing with velocity figures, run style, and energy distribution, but if these speed figures in any way play into the velocity figures, all the information they are involved with is possibly not very accurate. American Pharoah was the same way. When entered in the Breeders Cup Classic last year his life time best SR was the 90 he earned in the Arkansas Derby. When scanning the figures of the rest of the horses races, there were 14 figures in the pp's of the rest of the horses higher than the triple crown winners lifetime best. Really? Two of those figures were Frosted's. Four of them belonged to Effinex who AP beat handily. Even though the paceless race helped AP immensely, a horse still has to be able to run fast enough to use the advantage. While we all knew he was fast enough, if you looked at the race for the first time without any previous knowledge of him, one could conclude he wasn't fast enough. These are just two examples of, as far as I'm concerned, terrible handicapping confusion cause by poor speed figures. I realize that SR's are not the end all of handicapping but when you find a pace advantaged horse, you have to know whether he is fast enough to take advantage of it or not.

Kentucky Derby
 

Below is my screenshot from RDSS2

It clearly shows Nyquist as the likely winner, using SR. He is 3 points ahead of the nearest competition.

I feel like everyone should have had Nyquist this year.

Why is Exaggerator so low compared to the other "second tier" horses? Why does Majesto come up so strong on the list? These are the questions I think we should be asking.

Gentz...

Could you post your screen shot so others can see what lines you were using and what you are referring to?

I had Nyquist and Exaggerator in a one way exacta using other speed figures. I love RDSS, but have learned in some races not to use the speed figures.

I wasn't referring to pace line selection. It was a general observation of bet speed ratings. If I'm handicapping a race and i know that among the competition there are 12 Speed ratings faster than my horses best figure, I'm going to be a little hesitant to bet regardless of any pace advantage.

That certainly makes sense. I used all the 9f races for my final pace lines and Nyquist came out easily on top of those, at least in the BL/BL screen's SR.

I use SR a LOT for my exacta betting, and I have found that as long as a horse is within 5 or so points of the first or second highest, it is a contender for the exacta.

Congrats on getting the exacta in the Derby. I had Nyquist over Gun Runner and Creator, and missed that bet.

Dan

You were right Dan with 4 grade one prep race wins how could he NOT be on top. Are we looking at back to back triple crown winners? Bunnies next out will try but who can keep up with this guy. As for longer who can run farther? Answer NO ONE

Some answers to your ? gentz. SR only measure final time and not pace, RDSS measures basically 3 fractions or 3 different SR throughout the race. E.g. 6f race and two horses get an 88 SR. A runs in a race with a pace of 45 and horse B runs in a race with a pace of 45 3/5 th's and both have the same beaten lengths, A is the better horse. SR's don't account for the Pace of the Race( POR).

SR's are not the same for different distances except in theory only, E.g. a SR of 88 at 6F is the same as a SR at 6.5F or 9 F in theory but the SR at longer distances are the better because generally the horse holds its speed longer and can get the distance. Also a horse that has proven the distance with an identical SR vs. one that hasn't is the better horse. The other still has to prove it.

Some SR are better than others with the Beyer being the worse because they use several different humans to make them, therefore there is no unity of effort here (consistency).The only commercial one that includes run-up distances is TrackMaster which RDSS uses. Run-up distances can be crucial to applying variants and track to track adjustments. BRIS SR are very consistent and computer driven.

SR are somewhat old school now. At one time we used them to help pick pace lines but RDSS has much better tools now and their far superior to the old SR + variant. SR's are also dependent on what line you pick, so if you have incorrect lines that'll also contribute to confusion. Using all 3 fractions tend to also smooth out many of these problems such as variants etc. Other tools such as Preceptor measures more than 3 things (about 7 factors to detect moves and are superior to SR's.

Class horses tend to only due what they have to do to win. Amer. Phar. was like this and so is Nyquist so their true ability remains hidden till they come up against better horses such as Amer. Phar. in the BC Classic. Additionally he was only trained for what he had to do but going against older horses with better figures he was trained harder to meet the task and was probably his best ever race. Just getting these horses to go longer requires them to train forward for the TC. Some can handle it and some fall by the wayside. Class is the hardest thing to quantify. Place less emphasis on SR and more on RDSS better readouts as their superior to SR's. Hope this helps.

Mitch44

Many questions
 

Greetings..

In your short paragraph, you asked many questions yet it seems that you have do have a hint in answering your own questions....I will spew some (humble two cents) opinions from my own experiences with the use of speed figures.

I am going to focus my opinions on speed figures, energy expenditures, form cycles and/or the developing horse and the match-up.

Regarding American Pharoah in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic;

We have a match-up section on this website and many great contributions especially from Richie P. and the legendary Jim "the Hat" Bradshaw.

With regards to the matchup of the Classic, American Pharoah was the lone early speed with sufficient ability as determined by Howard Sartin's programs. End of discussion.

Speed Figures:

The less you focus on speed figures as your main assessment tool; the better. My opinion is that most or all speed figures are erroneous at best. Why??? Most speed figures are based on linear formulas with the most errors occurring when an early speed horse sets an extremely fast pace and ends up at the finish line with a late closer at the same time.

In general, early speed horses that can set a fast early pace are under-rated while deep closers are generally over-rated on speed figures. Nowadays, we have an impressive system in Trak-us to measure the actual distance traveled in a horse race except it does not account for the daily friction of the racing surface on dirt or on turf. This determination of "friction" or as we know as "daily variants" is highly subjective; dependent on the judgement of an individual or accounting methods of the services used.

You mentioned Effinex; mostly it closes from off the pace in most of its races...I am going to show Honor Code; another "deep closer" and Liam's Map who exited from the same race as Honor Code.

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Regarding Effinex, it ran a highly sustained line from its race on March 27 at Aqueduct. This line would have made you consider it as a major contender in the Excelsior and the Suburban.

In the Breeders' Cup Classic, if one enters pacelines from mile and 1/4 distances, these pacelines will not ranked well. It might rank well if one uses Jim Bradshaw's Marathon Method by only using the mile times and fractions from those mile and1/4 distances. (JMHO)

In the above example of Honor Code and Liam's Map; let's focus on the Whitney Stakes in which Honor Code beat Liam's Map by a neck.

In all linear based speed figures, you expect Honor Code to have a higher speed figure than Liam's Map since it finished in front of Liam's Map. It just makes sense logically and visually, correct??? Well....I beg to differ...

many formulas for measuring energy
 

There are many formulas that can measure energy used and rate of velocity travel:

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As you can see in the above diagram, there are many formulas but let's focus on the concept of "kinetic energy versus potential energy."

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In this thread, let's refer to "potential energy" as the early pace expenditure of horses and let's refer to "kinetic energy" as the final time speed figures of horses.

Horses that can set a fast early pace with a respectable final fraction have more "potential energy" than "stone cold" closers. Horses like Liam's Map can control the pace of the race and if they can reserve early energy in setting the pace of the race; they can produce much faster final times or "kinetic energy" than horses like Honor Code who are at the mercy of the early pace or lack thereof.

Liam's Map has more "potential energy" than Honor Code once they produce the extreme early pace. Even though Liam's Map lost the Whitney Race against Honor Code. Liam's Map will always win the rematches or go on to win more races than horses like Honor Code.

Horses like Liam's Map expend more energy expenditures thus more abilities than horses like Honor Code. The ability to expend more energy expenditures is like a car engine with more "horsepower."
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A speed figure that measures energy expenditures will be more useful in assessing a horse's ability than speed figures which is linear based and only measures estimated final times.