Ask Beyer: How to adjust weight for figures

Q. As someone who worked as a handicapper (providing what I think you would call “class ratings”) for the British Racing Authority, I am interested to know why you appear not to take into account weight carried by horses when producing your speed figures.

–Stephen Hindle, Miami Fla.

A. I developed speed figures in the 1970s when I realized that time was the most important single factor in the game, and that I needed precise calculations to compare horses’ times over different distances and different tracks. I never aspired to create a figure that was an all-encompassing definition of a horse’s ability (what you might call a class rating). I felt that if I had an accurate speed figure, I could then use my own handicapping to deal with other key factors such as trips, pace, track bias, trainers, etc.

I never paid much attention to weight, but I got a fast education in the importance of weight in the early 1990s when I spent a few months playing the races in Australia. Many of the races there were handicaps in the truest sense of the word; it was not unusual to see the top-weighted horse carrying 140 pounds in a run-of-the mill race. After considerable study, I concluded that one pound equaled four-tenths of a point on the Beyer scale. Thus, if a horse was assigned to carry 20 pounds more than he did in his prior start, I would subtract 8 points from his previous figure. If you’d like to incorporate weight while handicapping with the Beyer Speed Figures, I’d recommend that adjustment.