When we look at the key factors report for speed horses we are going to be looking at two categories, horses passed and lengths gained. Horses passed is a measure of the number of horses passed during a race. A score above 50 indicates a horse usually passes other horses. A score below 50 indicates a horse is usually passed by other horses. The closer to 100, the more horses are passed by this horse during a race. So the horses with the higher number are the closers and the horses with the lower number are the speed horses.

Lengths gained is a measure of the number of lengths the horse gained during previous races. A score above 80 indicates a horse usually gains on the leaders during a race. A score below 80 indicates a horse usually loses lengths during a race. The closer to 100, the more lengths are gained during a race. The closer to 100, the more the horse improves their position from the leader during previous races. Again the high numbers are usually the closers and a lower number the early speed horses.

Looking at the Mother Goose we see that Include Betty is the highest ranked horse in horses passed with a rating of 90.02 with Danessa Deluxe next at 80.27. They are the best closers in the race. The two lowest ranked horses in the category are Money’soncharlotte at 54.13 and Embellish the Lace at 54.17.

With the lengths gained category, the leader is Include Betty at 88 with Eskenformoney next at 85. When we look at our two early speed horses, Embellish the Lace is actually tied for 4th with Munasara at 84 while Money’soncharlotte is next to last at 77.60. That tells us Embellish the Lace has more staying power and doesn’t necessarily need the lead.

We see that Embellish the Lace has a tactical speed advantage. We also notice that in the workout column, Embellish the Lace is the leader with an 80.18 rating, with Money’soncharlotte next at 79.39.

Even though Money’soncharlotte broke her maiden in the slop at Belmont at a mile last year, the one thing about her that bothers us is that she had shown trouble at the start of her races three and four starts back. But at 20-1 on the morning line and the fact she was 28-1 or higher in her last four starts, she is worth using with a saver win bet and in exotics. But our top choice will be Embellish the Lace, the 7-2 second choice that will be breaking from the rail. Use those two horses in an exacta box with the best closer in the race, Include Betty. But if you wanted to key one horse in the exotics, it should be Embellish the Lace.

Here at Thoroughbred Analytics the goal is to provide you, the customer, with the best information possible so that you can make the best handicapping selection possible for a particular race. But not everyone has time to put in the work and handicap properly. So one of the options you can use to handicap quickly is to take the top ranked horse in the TA ranks.
The TA Rank lists the horse with highest to lowest TA Indicators. The horse within each race with the highest TA Indicator has a TA Rank of l. The horse with the second highest TA Indicator has a rank of 2, the third highest TA Indicator has a rank of three and so forth for each horse in the race. To see how strong the TA Rank is, you can use the TA Ratio for comparison.

The TA Ratio is one of Thoroughbred Analytics most powerful tools. This represents a horse’s overall relative strength or weakness compared to all other horses entered in the race. The TA Ratio is the TA Indicator of each horse divided by the average TA Indicator of all horses entered in the race. If the TA Ratio is greater than 1.00, this horse is expected to perform better than the average horse in the race. The more the ratio is over 1.00, say 1.15, then the stronger the horse is relative to the field. If the TA Ratio is less than 1.00, this horse is expected to perform more poorly than the average horse in the race. The more the ratio is less than 1.00, say 0.85, then the weaker the horse is relative to the rest of the field.

If you look at Santa Anita on Saturday, June 13, 2015, you see how successful just playing the top ranked horse in the TA rank fared.

In the first race Big Book was the top-ranked horse with a TA Ratio of 1.12, which was .09 better than the second ranked horse Thermodynamics. She paid $7.60 to win.

In the second race, Distinctive B was the top-ranked horse with a TA Ratio of 1.18, .10 better than Broke the Mold. She paid $7.00 to win.

In the third race, which was a turf sprint down the hill, Majestic Minister was the top-ranked horse with the TA Ratio of 1.11, .05 better than Chilada. She paid $4.40 to win.

In the fourth race, Ralis was the top ranked horse with a TA Ratio of 1.14. Castle was the second ranked horse but scratched, so we move down to Carlos Dangerous as the next ranked horse and he was .06 behind the eventual winner. She paid $4.60 to win.

So far we have seen low priced horses, but this system does produce price horses as well. In the fifth race, the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile, Talco, morning line of 5-1, drifted up to 13-1 at post time despite being the top-ranked horse in TA Rank. Coming off the pace under Rafael Bejarano, the John Sadler trainee blew by the field and won, paying $28.40 to win. The early pick five using the top choice in TA Rank paid $1,039.00 for 50 cents.

In the sixth race, My Slew was the top-ranked horse with a slight advantage of .02 over Frensham, paying $6.20 to win.

The seventh race was a disappointing one for us. The top-ranked TA Rank horse Somethings Unusual, finished first but unfortunately was disqualified and placed fifth, ending our run of official winners being ranked first start as the TA ranked horse.

In the eighth race, the whole world not only had Beholder as the easy winner, but also had Warren’s Veneda as the most likely second place finisher, as the $4 exacta for $2 indicates.

In the ninth race, Big Move won as the top-ranked TA Rank horse with an advantage of .1 over the second ranked horse, Take It Easyplease.

At the end of the day you would not have hit the Pick Six cold because of the disqualification. But you still would have collected $74.40 for having five of six.

The TA Rank and TA Ratio are some of the powerful tools available in the handicapping reports and if you don’t have time to handicap as long as you like, using these tools will save you plenty of time and help lead you into the winners circle.

This week was also a sad week in the horse racing industry as one of the legends of the press box will be leaving the Bloodhorse. Steve Haskin announced his resignation from the Bloodhorse effective immediately. Widely considered one of the best at spotting horses ready to win the Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown races, Haskin was able to discover American Pharoah’s potential early on and had him ranked number one on his Derby Dozen list despite others jumping ship because the horse had not started his season until March. He may also have been the originator of the photo bomb because he always found a way to get himself in television shots. The man was a walking library of horse racing history and he will be missed greatly at the Bloodhorse. Haskin has said that his work will be appearing in the future at the site or sites to be determined.