A new tool for handicappers: Pace figures in Formulator

The addition of TimeformUS Pace Figures to DRF Formulator past performances is great news for all types of Formulator users. If you already have experience with TimeformUS, you know that TimeformUS Pace Figures are a perfect supplement to the diverse set of handicapping tools that Formulator already offers. Conversely, if you are new to TimeformUS data, pace figures are natural introduction to TimeformUS’s intuitive approach to horse racing past performances.

In my own handicapping, I find that the best way to incorporate pace figures is to look for patterns in a horse’s past performances and compare those patterns to the situation that the horse is likely to encounter today.

Let’s look at a hypothetical scenario: Horse A and Horse B are entered in the same race today. Horse A is a frontrunner who is coming off numerous races in which the pace figures have been colorcoded red, indicating paces that were faster than average. Horse B is a closer, and he is exiting a number of races in which the pace figures are color-coded blue, indicating that the paces of those races have been slower than average. It would be fair to say that both of these horses have not had opportunities to put forth their best efforts in recent starts, since they have encountered race flows – whether red (fast) or blue (slow) – that have not been conducive to their respective running styles.

In order to determine which, if either, of these horses is a good bet today, it is necessary to assess how the race at hand might unfold. Is speedy Horse A likely to be the lone speed today? Or does late-running Horse B find himself in a race where Horse A will have plenty of company on the front end? Whether you’re using the TimeformUS Pace Projector to help predict today’s race flow or are making your own determinations, TimeformUS Pace Figures can help you quickly assess which horses are in favorable or unfavorable situations in any given race.

I often use TimeformUS Pace Figures in conjunction with TimeformUS Early and Late Pace Ratings, which can be found in all DRF past performances. For example, if a particular field features many front-runners exiting fastpaced races (red color-coded pace figures) and a fast pace is predicted again, you can use TimeformUS Late Pace Ratings to find the horse with the best closing kick.

TimeformUS Pace Figures can be especially valuable when paired with the wide array of filters and views that DRF Formulator offers. These tools allow handicappers to truly maximize the potential value of pace figures.

Some of the basic Formulator filters include those for surface and distance. If a race is being run on the dirt, we can use these filters to exclude all of the turf and synthetic races from the PPs. Additionally, we can filter the PPs to view how horses have performed at distances similar to today’s race. By only viewing the most relevant races within horses’ past performances, we can use pace figures to determine what types of pace scenarios have led to particularly successful or poor performances whenever those horses have found themselves in similar situations.

Another valuable Formulator filter is the “Early Pace” filter. Using this tool, we can choose to only view races in which horses “raced on the lead,” or “raced within two lengths” of the leader. This can be especially valuable when assessing the chances of frontrunners and stalkers. When paired with TimeformUS Pace Figures, this filter allows us to quickly assess what kind of pace scenarios have been most favorable to speed horses in the past. For instance, if a horse has encountered slow paces every time he has used frontrunning tactics, and a fast pace is predicted this time, he may be a bad bet.

Handicappers also can try out Formulator’s different view options to help explain extreme pace situations. For instance, users can choose to view a race’s interior fractions in incremental splits rather than elapsed time. In situations where TimeformUS Pace Figures indicate an extreme pace situation, this feature allows handicappers to connect the dots by visualizing which parts of a race featured particularly fast or slow interior splits.

TimeformUS Pace Figures in DRF Formulator PPs transform pace into a more intuitive handicapping tool, allowing handicappers to quickly spot betting opportunities that they otherwise might have missed.