New Thoro-Graph record?
 

"Thoro-Graph banter has Royal Delta in the negative 5 range for Fleur de Lis. Might end up being their best number ever for a female."

I'd be interested to see Thoro-Graph post the 10 fastest figures from the entire year of 1994 in all races...

And compare them with the 10 fastest figures earned by horses in $10,000 claiming races or less in 2009.

I think people would be very surprised by the results.

Ya there was an interesting seminar at one of the DRF conferences in Las Vegas with Len Friedman, Jerry Brown and Beyer and a major topic of conversation was whether horses have gotten faster or slower. The sheets guys said faster, while Beyer said slower.

Yep. That is what is reflected on their figures.

On Beyers, horses have become a few points slower at all class levels over the last few years. A 115 twelve years ago would be like a 108-to-110 today. A 85 from 1999 would be like a 79 today.

On Ragozin Sheets, horses have become a little faster at all class levels over the last 10 to 12 years.

On Thoro-Graph Sheets, horses have become MUCH faster at all class levels over the last 10 to 12 years. Cheap claimers are now as fast as Great Hall of Famers.

However, all 3 figures have remained fairly consistent from class level to class level through time period to time period.

Thus, if you anchor the scales down with class pars -- all 3 of them will allow you a very comparison of todays horses with past horses at all class levels.

What are the fastest TG numbers ever for a male horse? I think Midnight Lute twice ran a negative 7. I've never seen better than that.

Midnight Lute broke Ghostzapper's record and currently holds it.

Thorograph as usual has too many negative numbers

The scale only matters when comparing horses from different time periods.

I know she has always had a fairly big reputation, but had Royal Delta ever run a fast race before the Fleur de Lis? Who was behind her?

I kinda of thought she won the BC by default, with Havre de Grace opting for the Classic. Before that, she seemed to be an in-and-outer.

Her BC Distaff win was very good imo. She closed into a slow pace and flew late to beat It's Tricky ... but no, she never ran super fast before this weekend.

Keep in mind, on Thoro-Graph, they factor in weight (this race was a handicap) and ground loss (she's a closer and gets wide trips) -- so a 110 Beyer type race for her is always going to look faster on Sheets.

Seems like virtually all of the record figures come at age 4.

Why 1994?

Thoro-Graph had all of the horses at all of the class levels throughout the country relatively very slow to where they are now as recently as the Mid 1990's.

By about 2009 -- the scale had reached peak after peak and Brown talked about doing stuff manually to scale it back and slow horses down.

What was Lawyer Ron's # in the 2007 Whitney?

negative 6

https://www.thorograph.com/archive/files/bc2007.pdf (Midnight Lute sheet in that BC package as well..)

Hey thanks man!

For whatever it's worth, while Midnight Lute did pair negative 7's, the fastest TG figure EVER was Quality Road's Negative 7.5 at Gulfstream in Feb of 2010, Donn Handcap.

Thanks. I guess I had finally stopped paying attention to all the new Thoro-Graph records by that point.

Quality Road was also a 4-year-old when he ran that negative 7.5 in the Donn.

I don't know enough about TG, but I posted why the Beyer was wrong for that race, too high of course, and nothing that happened after did anything to change my mind.

I remember that.

It's the Mike Smith factor. :D

That reminds me of a story. I once asked Jerry Brown if he ever came accross a jockey that actually made the horses faster. He said only one. Laffit Pincay Jr. Said he did a study that showed times when the data seemed to prove that Pincay sometimes changed the number by a quarter point. Sounded rather fantastic to me but having seen Spend A Buck's Jersey Derby live. I was in no position to argue.