THE MERITS OF SPEED RATINGS (YOUR OWN)

Sommerlied and Hashtag Strat recently produced follow-up wins at really decent prices. Both had the top speed ratings for those races.

As a compiler of speed ratings for more than 20 years I have also leaned towards the belief that speed ratings are more suitable to artificial surfaces and lower class races – pleased to say KZN racing is proving them to be more comprehensive.

Sure they take a fair amount of time and effort to compile ( for me 90 mins per racecard and 60 mins plus to process the results) yet the rewards are worthwhile.

This is not a sales pitch, simply a promotion for an approach I have found beneficial and rewarding.

Malcolm, thanks. What is your criteria and how do you evaluate?

Mac...fairly traditional approach, get average times from past results (not class/course records).
Compile standard times for each class and distance. Check raceday actual times against standard times to establish course variation. Allocate speed ratings to each winner and calculate figures for also rans based on lengths beaten.

Speed ratings are a complex business and it is the ability to correctly interpret the merit of race times which is the key and vital in the battle to find an edge.

Books by Nick Mordin and Andrew Beyer are good to start...self discovery remains the best teacher.