Beyer Speed Figures unavailable for juvenile turf races due to lack of data

Three horses in race 3 on Wednesday at Saratoga have running lines in their past performances lacking Beyer Speed Figures because a representative figure for the horses’ respective starts couldn’t be produced.

The race in question is a maiden turf route for 2-year-olds, and the horses with previous starts – Mo Normal, Stunning Princess, and Funwhileitlasted – don’t have Beyer Figures included in their past performance lines. Mo Normal and Stunning Princess both started in the same July 23 turf race at Saratoga; Funwhileitlasted raced on turf at Belmont Park and at Tampa Bay Downs.

Andrew Beyer, creator of the figures and still chief figure maker for the system, said the Beyer team declined to publish figures because a number couldn’t be calculated with any certainty.

In the case of all three previous races under consideration – one each at Saratoga, Belmont, and Tampa – there were no other turf races at the same distance contested on the same card, making it difficult to assess the speed of the course, a key component to figure-making. And since these races were filled with first-time starters, there also was no basis for projecting a figure using previous performance level.

Taken together, Beyer said, the circumstances created a situation where it seemed more prudent not to publish a figure than to make a projection that could prove to badly miss the mark.