The Derby figure

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by tector

If you listen to Beyer on ATR today, he says something similar. The slide of the Belmont figure over the past 25 years is now hitting the Derby as well--not only are today's American horses not bred for 1.5, but 1.25 is getting to be out of reach.

I stopped paying attention to his Belmont figure a few years ago. I add points to it in a way that gives me a result that makes sense.

There is no rule that says 6F in "X" time = 10F in "Y" time = 12F in "Z" time.

The purpose of speed figures is not to equate horses from 20 or more years ago with horses today. IMO there's too much subjective figure drift, drug use has changed (legal and illegal), class structures have changed, training styles have changed etc... to do that really well anyway. People disagree on figures for the same day at the same track, let alone 20-30 years ago.

The purpose of figures is to equate horses running at different distances on different tracks from each others NOW. So IMO if the relationships between distances have changed because the horses have changed, then the speed figure charts have to change.