Speed and Class

Speed and Class Horse Racing Tips


This post has been long overdue and is prompted by the long awaited successes of the Speed and Class selections yesterday. I have also been waiting for the publishers of Andrew Beyers 'Picking Winners' to give me permission to take extracts from the 'Class' chapter. Unfortunately there has been no reply from the publishers for over a month and I have resigned myself to not receiving any reply! 

How welcome the wins of 'Troopingthecolour' available at 16-1 and 'Barnet Fair' at 5-2 yesterday after a host of places and poor performances. Speed and Class is now in profit for the first time in June.

A few followers have already written and have received replies outlining 'Speed and Class' but for those who are yet to receive an explanation this post is for you.

In the introduction of the 'Class' chapter Andrew Beyer tells the story of a special trip he made to Belmont Park to back a 2yo called Stonewalk.

Stonewalk had run in Maiden and Allowance company but had earned speed figures worthy of a champion. Taking the view that ‘Class’ is relatively unimportant, over lunch he struck up a conversation with Mannie Kalish a well known handicapper and staunch believer in ‘Class’. When Beyer expressed his enthusiasm for Stonewalk, Kalish stated his preference for Protagonist who had been knocked about in the ‘Futurity Stakes’ and still finished third. Beyer argued that Stonewalk had run 10 lengths faster than Protagonist and that time was a far more precise measurement of their respective abilities than some vague, elusive, undefinable thing called class!

Protagonist beat Stonewalk by two lengths leaving Beyer scratching his head. 

If I could some day discover and define the interrelationship between the two factors, I would consider it an intellectual breakthrough of the first magnitude (Picking Winners - Andrew Beyer)

Without going in to to much detail, while my speed figures show a reduced strike rate during the summer, the means I use to measured Class seems to remain constant. My idealistic view that the faster a horse can run will eventual dictate the class in which it can be competitive frequently makes a fool of a speed handicapper and being somewhat of a purest, I loathe the idea of adjusting my speed figures to make an allowance for the vague, elusive and undefinable variable 'Class' but there is no room for pomposity when results dictate otherwise.

Since the start of the All Weather season in October 2010 my chosen selection method for Speed and Class has recorded the following results at SP:

Oct 10 29.7% +4.29, Nov 10 31.3% +20.65, Dec 10 32.8% -16.71, Jan 11 47.2% +58.53, Feb 11 41.2% +29.47, Mar 11 32.0% +1.97, April 11 34.0% +27.20, May 11 44.0% +24.18,

The results above put my disappointment for June in to context and the sense of relief that yesterdays results provided. But for the need to continue with 'On The Money' as an integral part of 'The Marias' I feel that not only will 'Speed and Class' provide better results in the long term, I am hopeful it may keep us on the map during the summer months.   

Good Luck to you all and thank you for your continued support and making the blog the success it has become!