A Beginner's Selection Method Although called a "beginner's system", this method can be used by anyone wanting a relatively quick, mechanical selection process. It will usually point toward the best horses in the race, with the winner to be found somewhere in the final three picks most of the time. On May 10th, 1989 Golden Gate Fields, it picked 6 of 9 winners! So you've never been to the racetrack, know virtually nothing about horseracing, but would still like to amaze your friends with you handicapping prowess? Do we have a method for you! The first step, of course, is to purchase the Daily Racing Form. Next turn to the section that contains the past performances of the horses running today at the track you plan to attend. That's the hard part! Frankly, I'd like to reprint a couple of past performances here, but alas I do not have the permission of the copyright holder! Even so, it should be simple to figure out exactly what I'm talking about. This method is very simple and mechanical. You won't have to worry about whether or not you've selected the "right" horse - everything is automatic. The Horse Cents Quick Method For each horse in the race, total the speed rating and track variant for it's last two races. These figures are found in the main body of the past performances. There's a speed rating and track variant for just about every race line on each horse. It looks something like this 77-14. The first number is the speed rating for the race (how fast a horse ran compared to the track record for that distance) and the second number is the track variant (an indication of how fast or slow the track was that day). Sometimes a race did not get a rating at all. In that case, ignore it and simply take the first two rating-variant combinations you find. Start at the top of the past performances as these are the most recent races. If you're having trouble finding the speed ratings and variants, ask someone who looks like he knows what he's doing. Ask a different person the same question just in case the first person was jiving you! Go through each horse totaling those speed ratings and variants. Write the total number somewhere near the horse's past performances and circle it so you can't miss it. This is the SPEED FIGURE for that horse. After you've totaled all the horses, put a big black "bullet" (solid black circle or some other distinguishing mark) next to the horse with the highest figure. If more than one horse has the same high speed figure, give them each a bullet. Now it's time for step 2! Find the lifetime earnings line. This is found just above the latest running line for the latest race. It looks something like this: Lifetime 42 9 8 6 $157,150 What all of that means is that the horse ran 42 times in his life, won 9 times, ran second 8 times, ran third 6 times and made a grand total of over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars! All you really care about is how many times he ran (42) and how much money he made ($157,150). Divide the money by the number of starts into the amount of money and round it to the nearest dollar (157150 / 42 = 3742). Write the result down near the horse's name and circle it. This is the CLASS FIGURE for that horse. Find the horse with the highest class figure and put a bullet by his name. If more than one horse has the same high class, give them each a bullet. The third step is even easier than the first two. However, it's a little confusing to do at first. Looking for a winner really involves looking for losers and eliminating them. You're going to start eliminating horses that don't figure to win the race. You're going to eliminate the lowest CLASS FIGURES and SPEED FIGURES alternately, starting with class. Find the lowest class figure and eliminate that horse from contention - draw a squiggly line through his past performances and forget about him. Next find the lowest remaining speed figure and eliminate that horse. Continue eliminating horses alternating from class to speed until you have only three (3) horses remaining. Remember to start eliminating with CLASS (because C comes before S, you see!). Once you have only THREE horses remaining, look to see if any of those three horses had a "bullet work-out" at the same track they're running on today AFTER his last race. This is a bit confusing, but a bullet work-out is really easy to spot. Look at the bottom of the horse's past performances and you'll see up to four workouts that look something like this: Apr 20 GG 4f ft :49 H That's a work-out, but it's not a bullet work. A bullet work-out would have a black circle in front of it like this: @ May 3 GG 3f ft :34 H (pretend the @ is a bullet!) A bullet work is the fastest recorded work-out for that distance of all horses working that day. It's a good indicator that a horse is ready to run today, especially if it occurred after the horse's last race. (The date of the last race is the first information on the first past performance line, 17Apr89-5GG for example.) If any of your three horses have a bullet work-out after their last race, give them one of your "bullets" next to their name. At this point, your three horses may or may not have bullets. If only one of them has one or more of your bullets, that's your pick. If two or all three have the same amount of bullets, you're going to have to do a little more work. Most of the time, one horse will have the only bullet or (even better) it will have two or three. The more bullets the better the chance of it winning. If you still have a tie, pick the horse who came closest to winning his last race. Find the final "beaten lengths" in his last race - this is the small, superscripted number that occurs just before the jockey's name in the last past performance line (in the Western Edition, anyway.). You'll see four numbers with superscripted numbers right about in the middle of the line - it's the last superscript. The big numbers are the running positions at various points in the race. The superscripts are the number of lengths behind the leader. The last pair of numbers is the final placing and the number of beaten lengths. Pick the horse with the smallest subscripted number if the big number is 2 or more, if the big number is a 1, he did win his last race. In the highly unlikely event you still haven't come up with a pick, pick the horse with the highest class figure. With a little practice and a calculator, you should have no problem doing a race in five minutes or less. The hardest part is dividing for the class figure - just takes a bit of time. You'll be able to do the entire day's races in less than an hour's time and you'll find your picks are as good or better than anyone else's! *** Late (1992) Update *** Since the Daily Racing Form(c) now publishes the Andrew Beyer speed figures for _most_ races, you may substitute these for the Speed Rating - Variant pairs.