Horse Racing Fantasy Community

Many years ago, I worked with daily Racing Form speed ratings (before Beyer) (possibly even before the Racing Form used variants)and created my own adjusted speed ratings by adding the variant figure to the original speed rating. I used someone else's system as the variants were new to me at the time and I was learning. I think this goes back to the sixties. Yes, the sixties, I remember now as I type. Please bare with me as I'm trying to rely on my memory and am going way back in time.

It (the system) was somewhat complex in that you had to go by each race every day and create a variant for each day. It involved the final time of the winning horse in each race and an understanding of the horses class value in each individual race. After figuring all 8 or 9 races, you did some simple, basic, math work and came up with your daily variant. It was mostly a 2 digit number, but sometimes only 1 digit, but never a 3 digit number. The bigger the number, the slower the track on that day. Hence, a muddy track mostly had a higher 2 digit variant. It was time consuming, but if you put the time in and got better with experience, it did help you win races by including this variant with the Racing Forms speed rating for each horse.
Now all of the hard work is done for you and the variant is included next to the speed rating figures. Add this variant number to the speed rating and it could and should help you with your handicapping skills.
I soon dropped out of creating my own personal variants (too much work) when I created what I call, velocity ratings. A term and system often used now by others. However, at the time, I never once read about velocity ratings.

Yes......a negative variant means that the track played fast that day. Often happened on a Saturday when the ground crews made special efforts for big name horses in a big race, hoping for a track record.
In the sixties, I purchased Ray Talbot's plastic pace calculator for $20.00........ I was Talbot fan and read many of his handicapping tips in a popular race horse magazine. I think it was Turf And Sports Digest. I should know, but again, I'm going back in time and trying to rely on my memory. Anyway I learned a lot about speed from this man. Oh, what I was getting at, it was with his guide that came with the calculator, that I was learning and applying his method of compiling daily track variants. Very interesting, but time consuming.

Anyway, I'd highly recommend that anyone interested in speed handicapping, look up this man on the Internet. I think that there might be a newer computer like version of the original plastic slide rule calculator. I won with his calculator, but like in all serious handicapping, one must use other variables and practice good judgment.