Beyer Figure for FrontRunner adjusted

Bolt D’Oro’s winning Beyer Speed Figure in the FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita has been adjusted from 100 to 103, the highest number earned by a 2-year-old this year.

The time of the Sept. 30 race was spectacularly fast in comparison with other stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the card. If that time was taken at face value, Bolt d’Oro would have earned a Beyer Figure of 113, equaling the best performance by 2-year-old in 25 years. Such a figure would have meant that the top four finishers all improved on their previous best efforts by 16 points or more – a highly implausible scenario, in the view of the Beyer team. Accordingly, they assigned the FrontRunner an arbitrary figure of 100.

On Saturday, the top two finishers in the FrontRunner, Bolt d”Oro and Solomini, were soundly beaten in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by Good Magic, who earned a no-doubt-about-it figure of 100. “The Breeders’ Cup confirmed that the figure for the FrontRunner couldn’t have been a 113,” Andrew Beyer said. “But it made us conclude that our figure should have been a little higher.”

Bolt d’Oro raced so wide around both turns at Del Mar that the loss of ground probably cost him the race. With a decent trip, he might have run a figure better than 100. Solomini earned a 93 for his second-place finish in the Juvenile, six points higher than his FrontRunner figure. Some of this difference could be due to the natural improvement of a 2-year-old in the third start of his career, but Solomini’s performance did suggest that the FrontRunner figure could be higher.

“We believe the 103 defines Bolt d’Oro properly,” Beyer said. “He’s not the fastest 2-year-old of the millennium, but he’s certainly one of the best in the last few years.”