Claimer Topper T's latest Beyer Speed Figure was off the charts
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On a weekend when most racing fans were directing their attention to the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth and the Shuvee Stakes at Saratoga, the most remarkable performance in the sport occurred in a $30,000 claiming race for Iowa-breds at Prairie Meadows.
Topper T, a well-traveled 7-year-old, won that race with a stunning Beyer Speed Figure of 110, the third-highest such figure of the year. Cody’s Wish tops the list with the 112 he earned winning the prestigious Metropolitan Mile.
Readers of Daily Racing Form will rarely see such stratospheric Beyer Speed Figures in ordinary races. When the results of a race appear to defy logic, our figure-makers may suspect that a big figure is an aberration. Perhaps it was the result of a timing error or a sudden change in the condition of the racetrack. So we will scrutinize the race. We don’t want to publish a figure that looks preposterous and undermines our credibility.
But Topper T’s figure made sense. The track variant (the number denoting the inherent speed of the racing surface) was consistent throughout the card in the calculations by fig-maker Rick Lee.
Topper T’s winning margin of 18 3/4 lengths in the six-furlong race translates into 42 Beyer points; runner-up Justa Streak thus earned a 68; he had run a 74 earlier in the meeting. In fact, all five horses behind Topper T received figures that were consistent with their prior form at Prairie Meadows. Lee saw no reason to doubt the legitimacy of the 110.
Topper T had shown enough early promise to run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile as a 2-year-old. (He was trounced.) At 3, he placed in two graded stakes at Gulfstream, and he won a race at Saratoga with Bill Mott as his trainer. Later in life, he found a niche at Prairie Meadows, with its races for Iowa-breds, and he has been especially productive since veteran trainer Jon Arnett claimed him last fall. But he had never run a speed figure higher than 92 before Sunday.
Perhaps the explanation was in his blood. Topper T’s sire was Bellamy Road, who won the 2005 Wood Memorial Stakes by 17 1/2 lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 120 that established him as the favorite for the Kentucky Derby. But that proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime performance (as Topper T’s will surely be.) Bellamy Road never won another race.
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