Handicapping 101
A past performance reading lesson
This will be the first in a series dedicated to helping you gain more out of the past performance lines listed in the Daily Racing Form. This publication is the leader in handicapping information and is a must for any trip to the track. Other resources may provide similar information but it can be wildly inaccurate or very expensive and geared more towards players who have had experience with this game for a bit longer. What we are going to do is dissect the information in the past performances contained in the racing form, explain what each means and explore ways to utilize the information contained therein. The first part in this series will be a general overview. Please keep this and refer back to it as this is the horse we have chosen to base our article on. The horse was chosen at random but the horses to choose from did have to fit certain criteria and she does.
The past performances appear with the permission and courtesy of Daily Racing Form, LLC and Equibase Company, LLC, Copyright � 2003 all rights reserved. We extend our thanks to them for helping us help you.
The image above is a sample of a Daily Racing Form past performance. It contains large amounts of data that can and should be utilized by both novice and long time readers. Everything bit of information contained in this snapshot of a horse�s record, career & lineage is important but not altogether necessary for each handicapping scenario. We will discuss each briefly in the following paragraphs and in coming months go into more detail on each one.
In the top left hand corner of this image is the number of this horse in this particular race, the name of the horse. The name of the owner, the color of the saddlecloth the horse will be wearing and the owners colors. Finally listed at the bottom of that box is the jockey and his current record of success.
The number is important for wagering purposes as an identifier instead of the name of the horse because it simplifies the betting process greatly. In most but not all cases it also reflects how many stall positions from the rail a horse will break. (There are exceptions to that rule such as entries and scratches but those will be discussed in future articles.) The name of the horse is important as each horse is an individual and just as with people a name is a way of identifying an individual. A further identifier is the colored saddlecloth, which makes it easier for both the track announcer and the fan to follow their horse during the course of the race.
The owner is not as important to the novice as it is too more seasoned players because until you are familiar with a given circuit or racing in general it means little. As one learns more about the game the ownership of a horse becomes more important as to how a horse will be handled and placed. Some owners excel in not only the quality of horse they own but where that animal is placed so it can be given the best chance to win. Each owner has a color combination that is not only unique to him or her but that was selected by that individual (or group). In racing, these colors are referred to as silks. This is another key identifier during the running of a race as most, but not all, silks are different from each other. This enables people to differentiate between similar colored animals traveling at high rates of speed form quite a distance away.
The jockey is the pilot of the horse and makes the decisions on how to best ration out the energy of their horse during a race. Each track has jockeys of varying skill levels plying their trade and after a brief time you will have a basic understanding of who the best riders are on a given circuit and who is hot (riding well) and who is not. The numbers behind the jockeys name provide a quick overall view of how a rider is doing at the current meet and over the course of the year. This is an area we will be discussing in great detail in a future article.
The next block of information we will look at is along the top, just left of dead center. This box contains the color, sex and age of the horse on the top line. The line below that lists the sire (father of the horse), grandsire, and in this case stud fee of the sire. On the next line is the dam (mother) and dam�s sire. If you continue down it brings you to the line that indicates who bred the horse and in what state (or country) they bred the horse. Finally, below that is the trainer�s name, and just as with the jockey, his record of performance.
Most of the information contained in this box will be discussed in future articles so we will just hit the highlights. The color of a horse is another identifying detail and can provide in some cases a possible clue as to whose side of the family the horse may resemble most. This is important for very advanced players with a vast knowledge of the breed. For most players it is a way to differentiate one horse from another by site alone and to the novice should not be a primary area of focus.
The lineage of a horse is important in providing clues in several areas. These areas chiefly are speed, stamina, the ability to handle a wet racetrack or turf course, and the maturity rate of a horse. This is a vastly underrated area of the past performances of a horse but is also just as much an art as it is a science. We will cover this area over the course of several articles and provide you with some insight as to where to get further information in this area.
The breeder of the horse is similar to the owner (and in many cases they are the same); it is more important to seasoned players and even then usually only for a brief time. Over the course of a year you can get a good overall idea of who are the best breeders and who are not. This basic knowledge should be helpful enough in the situations where this information is relevant.
The trainer box is a very underrated segment by most of the betting populace. The better trainers get the better horses and spot their charges where they can win. Almost all trainers have strengths and weaknesses, which should be a critical part of any analysis you do. While an overall knowledge of the trainer hierarchy is a good starting point, to at least keep up with the masses you must learn the strengths of individuals. This is yet another area we will be covering in great detail in future articles.
The next area is the box in the upper right hand corner, which contains a list of medications the horse is running on, the weight they will carry in today�s race, and the career box. The weight and medication portions of this are subjects of endless debate on both importance and tradition. The medication is in my eyes, vastly more important but only in a few limited circumstances. The first of which is when a horse is getting medication for either the first or second time. The other is when a horse changes racing circuits and thus has a different set of medication statutes to comply with. I will deal with these as they pertain to New York since that is the circuit that I am most familiar with and that too will be a subject handled down the road.
The career box breaks down the record of a horse below it�s overall lifetime record, which is listed atop that area. This area is an important part of the handicapping process on several levels and is a must use for players of any level. This area indicates at a glance the following information: a glimpse of the most recent and past form of a horse, how well the horse is and was managed over time, how well the horse handles the track condition and or surface and the distance of the race today. This information is conveyed by four different statistics or listings in this box and they are the record of the horse, the money earned, the pedigree rating number for certain circumstances and last but not least, the highest speed figure the horse in question has ever recorded in the different categories. There will obviously be more articles that deal with not only this box but each category in the future.
The next area and one we will only skim today is the actual past performance box or �running lines� of the horse in question.
The columns are from left to right: date of the horses last race, race number and track at which it occurred, track condition, and distance. The next area contains 3 individual sets of fractional times for that race, finish time of the race, and the conditions of that race. Standing alone in bold numerals is the speed figure (for more on what figures are and how they are arrived at please refer to Andrew Beyer�s Picking Winner�s) that this horse earned in that race. Right behind the speed figures is the following information post position, breaking position (the indicator of how the horse came out of the gate), points of call and the lengths behind or ahead the horse was at each, and which jockey was aboard for that race. In this case the medication indicator (the bold capital L) is the next item listed, then the weight and equipment the horse had during that race. The next set of numerals are the final odds of the horse for that race and the set of numbers behind that are the track speed rating and variant for that horse and day respectively. Directly behind those numbers are the top three finishers of that race along with the weight each carried and the lengths ahead of the next horse they were, a brief comment about how the horse ran or if he encountered trouble, and finally how many horses where in that race. The rows chronologically list the dates of the races this horse has been in with the most recent being on top and then traveling further back in time with each successive row. Then at the bottom of the rows in bold type are the most recent workouts, if any, of the horse. These indicate when the horse worked, where, how far, on what track condition, the time of the work, whether or not the horse was being urged or not and finally how that time compared with other works of that morning. Just below that in the final row, is a breakdown of the record of the trainer with horses in areas similar to what he is asking this horse to do today.
This whole area en masse, will take innumerable articles to cover but we will do just that. In the meantime, if you want to start learning the basics of the game head to a local library or bookstore and see what they have available. My recommendation of books for the novice to start with is short, Ainslie�s Complete Guide To Thoroughbred Racing by Tom Ainslie, Betting Thoroughbreds by Steven Davidowitz or Picking Winners by Andrew Beyer. There are other books out there but these are in my opinion the best places to start.
So ends the start of what I hope will be a great learning experience for everyone involved and that includes myself. Have a great day and good luck to all.
Dave Gonzalez
Past performances are from Copyright � 2003 Daily Racing Form, LLC and Equibase Company, LLC, all
rights reserved. They are used with their permission and our sincerest thanks.
