DRF Variant
 

Good Day!!

Could I pick a couple brains please?

Tell me about the DRF Variant printed in the Form. If I am correct, I understand the first number is the average of the Beyers numbers for that day. The follow-up number is the variant which is basically 100-(the average for that day). The higher the number, the slower the track ( or the slower the competition) and the lower the number , the faster the track (or the faster the competition).

So, is it generally correct, that if you are handicapping a certain track, and the races that day are "running either slow or fast", deferentiating between routes and sprints, you might have an advantage seeing the previous lines of a horses' pp's and see that their quick times were on a similiar type track (ie..Fast or slow).

I read Brohammers chapter on the DRF variant and it is interesting to me.

Thanks in advance.

The best advice...
 

Would have to come from the horse's mouth (pun intended):

http://www1.drf.com/help/help_speedrate.html

Thanks to those who answered. I needed to do a better job of being specific in my question. The answers I received helped me understand what I need to convey..

My question is on the DRF track variant. I understand the "higher the variant", the slower the track ran that day and vice versa with a lower variant. I understand the concept of two horses running the same fractions, and one horse running these fractions on a course with a higher variant, possibly being the better of the two.

My question??

If I am handicapping Churchill and lets say, I start to notice that a majority of the sprint winners on the day of the races come from past performances indicating they ran on fast tracks (ie variant 0-10) with fast fractions, whether it was Belmont or Gulfstream or Calder or wherever.

So, if I find two horses that ran the same fractions, one ran it on a Variant 25 track and the other ran on a variant 07 track in their last pp line, is there ever a time that a "winners profile" might dictate picking the faster variant horse over the other. Can a horse who runs fast fractions on "slow" track be biased to a slow track and not be as fast on a fast track?


Thanks for the discussion. I am trying to figure it out. I have read Brohammers book...

Am I splitting hairs?



Thanks,,,,
....

This is a use of the old DRF variant that is not talked about a lot. Back when that was all there was, I used to keep track of that. Horses at FL early in the season, with variants higher, say 24, 28, 30 would not perform as well during the summer with variants of 12,14, 16, even though their adjusted speed ratings and pace ratings made them contenders. The reason, I thought, was that some cheap horses have sore feet and can run in deep tracks but not on harder ones. That the track was the same one was a key factor. There were horses who always ran well early and late in the years and those who ran well it the summer months. It made sense to me that horse shipping from California
(hard dirt back then) to deeper East coast tracks did not run as well as expected.

You can only adjust pace lines, not the horses.