A lot of questions about this; there’s so much good information it’s hard to know where and how to start. So here’s a simple approach. Look at the AVG SPD column. The top horse is the one that has run the fastest considering its last ten races, or however many there are in the pp’s.
I’ve attached yesterday’s card at Aqueduct with the winners marked so you can see what I’m talkig about.
It stands to reason the top horses will win their share, right? And they do. About 90% of winners come from the top six horses in this column, and about 78% come from the top four. How do they get beaten when they do? Usually by pace. You can get an idea of that in the SYS1, SYS2, TDS1 and TDS2 columns.
Of course sometimes they’re not really ready to run. Maybe they’re not running on their preferred surface, but you can check that out in the ASP 110 column, which tells you the fastest horses at this exact distance on this surface.
But starting your handicapping knowing which horses are the fastest overall is a pretty sensible rule.
