By Craig Walker - TrackMaster, An Equibase Company

The Platinum Past Performances offer powerful information in an easy to use format. The following quick and easy method takes advantage of these factors to select horses that have run fastest at today's distance and fit well versus the rest of the field. The Final Pace Figure that we use is an average of the speed figures of a horse's last five starts within one-half furlong of today's distance. This measure of a horse's speed is valuable because it is a strong predictor of success today and it isn't used by the masses. By using a horse's ranking in the field in different categories, we are selecting a horse which isn't only fast, but is in the top flight in different aspects of Pace, Speed and Class.

Every horse is ranked in relation to the rest of the field (rank/number of horses in the race) in the categories of:

Power Rating (Power) - An overall indicator of Pace (Style), Speed & Class. The relative weighting of these three factors is different for each track and is determined by what has been winning in the recent past.

Average Class Rating (AvgCR) - Reflects the average quality of the field in a horse's last ten starts.

Average Speed Rating (AvgSR) - Reflects the average speed figure of a horse in its last ten starts.

Earnings Per Start (EPS) - The horse's Earnings Per Start over the past year.

These are found in the upper right-hand corner of the Platinum Past Performances.

Beneath the horse's record are the Pace Figures. These are basically "Speed Figures" at each point of call, averaged over a number of races, and are abbreviated Erl (Early), Mid (Middle), Fin (Final). While these are all useful statistics, in this quick and easy method, we are only considering the Final figure.

Let's take a look at the fifth race at Bay Meadows on May 20th, 2001.

Sulton's Glass Rankings in Power, AvgCR, AvgSR, and EPS are 1+1+2+6=10. We divide by 2 to get 5.

The Fin Rating is 78.7 minus 5, gives us a rating of 73.7. Let's take a look at the entire field...

Sulton's Glass won this race, paying $27.00. A Sharper Buzz finished second and Rough Hustle finished third.

Here is how other top rated horses did at Bay Meadows on Sunday, May 20th, 2001.

Race1: Airman Turner- 64 ran second paid $4.20 to place

Race2: Field mostly made up of first time starters

Race3: Rich Domino- 76 ran second paid $8.20 to place (beaten by a first time starter)

Race4: Back Seat Babe- 75.7 won paid $5.60

Race5: Sulton's Glass- 73.7 won paid $27.00

Race6: Jeffrey And Son's- 71 ran out of the money

Race7: Rocaco- 75.2 ran second paid $6.60 to place

Race8: Lesters Boy- 88 ran out of the money

Race9: Red Rover- 64.5 won paid $3.60

Click here to see the results for yourself.

This method also picked Redas Skydancer ($42.20) in the second race at Pimlico on Preakness Day along with two other winners.

Any questions or comments ? Send your email to craig@trackmaster.com