Quote:
Originally Posted by cody
I am trying to find out what the abreviations mean on the Workout section of the program,any help would be welcome.
thanks
Mike
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Mike,
My apologies for delay! I also moved this Thread to the RDSS2 Forum. This
Workout Form Pattern section of the program has been undocumented for far too long. Originally a private add-on, it entered the public version a few years ago. It ultimately derived from the works of Ray Taulbot, enhanced by several others. I have been reluctant to document it too much as I have always intended to simplify all the Workout observations and to portray them in a more intuitive visual manner, but never got (or made) the time.
Meanwhile, a number of people have been making good use of it in select circumstances. For example, where there is a question about the fitness of a horse returning from a
Layoff, or for
First Time Starters, or
Foreign Horses - or any circumstance where there is a question about current fitness not otherwise answered by a series of recent actual races (which are always the ultimate measure of current fitness).
One caveat about the reliability of Workout based information at all - it is unreliable! Too much confusion happens in the morning workout sessions at the track: too many horses, ill-identified, darkness!, horses running alone / in company, inside or outside each other, different speeds at different segments of the run, etc, etc. Plus not all workouts are public - some barns have private facilities.
That said, the most useful information in my opinion, is the
frequency of works, which indicates a training pattern of regular buildup of stamina or speed (HWL pattern) along with indications of brilliant speed (Workout Speed Ratings of
92 or over).
Cast a wary eye against First Time Starters with brilliant works, plenty of good patterns, good Speed Ratings - compared to other Maidens in the race with actual racing histories! There is no substitute test of ability for the hurly-burly and mental and physical stress (to the horses) of an actual race. That said, when a first timer, especially one let go at a good price (and thus paying a premium against the inevitable frequency of failure which you will experience) - shows workouts as good as or better than some of the actual posted race times of some of its competitors, along with a regular frequency of works, perhaps improving in Speed Rating - these are instances to consider (if you have to or like to play these kinds of races) including such neophytes in your consideration of Contenders today.
Workout Form Patterns are found in the Workout Tab for each horse, and summarized on the Entries Screen for the race, right-hand side.
Allowing for the above caveats, following is a description of the
Workout Patterns. At its crudest use, just look for '
more is better', and faster Speed Ratings, especially in longer works (5f+). Pay attention to Workouts with
bolded SR of
92+ .
Warning: I will be simplifying and consolidating some of the patterns described below in a future version. And don't worry too much about the 'shades' of patterns (* ! + -) modifiers - there's a bit too much detail in these patterns as is, given how reliable overall the workout data can be.
Workout Form Patterns
FPD - Furlongs Per Day. When there are 2 or more workouts since the last race, and within the past 30 days: count the furlongs worked including the distance of today's race and divide by days since the last race. 1 furlong per day = FPD, less is -FPD, more is +FPD. We're trying to get a coarse idea of how much public work the horse has been doing to return to racing. You can only put so much value in this info - this does not tell us how much private work the horse has done, the ferquency, the speed, the pressure during (e.g. working in company, working inside/outside other horses, etc), the distance, etc. Consult other Workout Patterns for some of these.
5f / 6f - 5 or 6 Furlong Workout. The last workout within 9 days of today's race was either 5 or 6 furlongs, an important endurance distance associated with at least a certain degree of fitness, especially if combined with a good Speed Rating and coming at the end of an evenly spaced series of works (see HWL group). If the last work was within 6 days = +5f or +6f. Consider referring to William Scott's excellent book '
How Will Your Horse Run Today', some of which is now rather outdated, but including his treatise on the 5f workout, beginning on Page 42.
SRW - a Short Recent Work between 2f - 4f within 3 to 5 days of today's race
SW - Super Workout. Depending on distance and recency, a designation for the LAST workout within the past 14 days, run faster than a certain time for each distance.
GW - Gate Workout. Within the past 8 days, a workout from the Gate. Extra credit for more recent gate workouts (* ! + modifiers)
HWL1 - Heavy Workload 1. 3 or more workouts within the last 21 days. +HWL1 for 4 works in 20 days or 3 works in 16 days. -HWL1 for 3 works in 21 days
SAR - Heavy Workload 2. Between 4 and 7 workouts since the last race at *regularly* spaced intervals. Extra credit for more workouts.
SCW - Special Condition Workouts. Comparing workout immediately prior to the last race within 60 days to workout immediately following that last race - the latter workout is faster and may indicate that the last race did not adversely affect the horse. Or, comparing workouts immediately preceding and following the last 2 races with an out of the money finish, the later workout should be faster, perhaps indicating that the previous 2 races also did not adversely affect the horse's condition and it may be ready to offer at least as good an effort today.
PIW - Progressively Improving Workouts. Comparing the past 3 workouts within 75 days (preferrably shorter), each next workout should be run at increasing average speed.
TCW - Turf Course Work. For a horse's first Turf race, its last workout is on Turf.
Adjunct to Workout Patterns themselves are the Workout Rank and the Workout Speed Rating.
WR - Work Rank. A computation based on the average percentile of a horse's workout rank for all workouts in a day (when at least 5 workouts recorded that day), plus furlongs worked and raced - over the past 30 days. A measure of its fitness.
SR - Speed Rating. A rating of workout time, based on a parallel time chart equating times for different workout distances. Speed Ratings of 92+ may indicate the horse is extremely fit and sharp, especially if the workout distance is 5f or longer.
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