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Articles by Dave "Spotplay" Maycock

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FIGS! FIGS! Who's Got the FIGS?
This is a study to compare the various final speed figures being used by many horse players today. The study points out the various discrepancies among the various numbers. The numbers for the last five races are listed for each horse. The numbers are staggered back and forth to note improvement or decline, with higher numbers "moving" to the right and slower numbers on the left. All races were run on July 30, 2000.
 
Track/Horse
TrackMaster/
Equibase
BRIS
TSN
Beyer
DMR race 3

Wild n' Wet

     86
79
          91
          91
  84		          91
  81
                  102
              96
              96		        88
78
                98
          93
         89		          93
76
                 100
             96
            95
DRM race 4

Dark Moondancer

             96
DNF
     89
             98
       92		             101
DNF
               104
              103
               104		               98
DNF
            97
                   103
               99		                   106
DNF
                 105
                  106
               103
CBY race 4

Trumbull
 

          74
     69
 64
     69
     69		            78
      73
61
      73
      73		             71
      63
 57
      63
          69		           63
  52
49
  52
            65
CBY race 4

Hy de ose

    68
         76
               83
              82
        75		         77
        77
           80
              82
        77		           79
   74
            80
     75
71		     59
     60
          65
                  80
       63
CBY race 1

Sure Uh Huh

           69
                76
      64
   61
56		   53
             64
        60
                 69
   54		     45
              58
      46
            55
       47		       42
             51
  34
         45
23

The idea of this study was to see just how the various public numbers compares. No testing was done on how ell these ratings did in predictingwinners.

Take a look at the two horses that ran at Del Mar, You'll notice that when you compare the various  numbers in terms of declining or improving form, the numbers more or less  were the same, or followed the same pattern.

The horse Wild'n Wet is a good example. His second race back was clearly not as good as  the last race and yet this last race was still not as good as his third, fourth, and fifth races back. All four sets of numbers agreed right down the line on this horse.

Now late a look at Hy de ose. This Canterbury horse has numbers shotgunned all over the place. Gee! I wonder who is right and who is wrong. Do you suppose that the second and third tier tracks get the same attention as the big tracks??

If you're going to be playing the smaller tracks, you might stronly consider just what speed ratings you use. Our research shows this study to hold up at nearly all the smaller tracks.

Don't say you weren't warned.

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