Len Ragozin, developer of The Sheets, dead at 92

Len Ragozin, the New York leftist whose use of statistical tools to analyze the performance of horses ushered in the era of speed figures in racing, died on May 13 at an assisted living facility in White River Junction, Vermont. Ragozin was 92.

With a business partner, Len Friedman, Ragozin created The Sheets, a handicapping tool sold to owners, trainers, breeders, and gamblers, that laid the groundwork for a handful of similar analytical tools that came to be known as speed figures, including the Beyer Speed Figures used by Daily Racing Form. Ragozin used his tools to build a racing stable and to bet, and he later outlined the theories behind the figures in a 1997 book, “The Odds Must Be Crazy.”

Most modern horseplayers are familiar with one widely embraced theory that was introduced by Ragozin, the concept of “the bounce,” a term used to describe a horse’s regression from a top effort in its next race.

The Sheets used a single numerical figure that took into account wind, weight carried, distance traveled, and other factors to rate a horse’s performance. The lower the number, the better. On The Sheets, a 0 was considered a “perfect” race, though the number could go into negative territory if external factors such as wind merited it.

The low-to-high ranking was adopted by Jerry Brown, a former employee of Ragozin, when he struck out on his own to create Thoro-Graph, which combined traditional running-line data with the single figure. The figures created by Andrew Beyer shortly after Ragozin debuted his system uses a ranking in which higher figures denote better performances.

Len Ragozin was born in New York to leftist parents. His father was a textile production manager who frequented the racetrack, and his mother was a math major at the University of Wisconsin. He graduated from Harvard University in 1949, with, he said, a “major in poker,” and then briefly led labor organization efforts before working as an editor in the publishing industry.

He launched The Sheets in 1968, building it into a profitable business while advocating for civil rights and embracing anti-racist causes. In 1970, he used profits from the company to underwrite a mortgage for the City & Country School in Greenwich Village, which he attended, when it began facing financial difficulties. In 2012, he sold the company to Steve Davison, an owner and breeder, and a longtime employee, Jake Haddad.

Ragozin used the profits from the sale to launch the Len Ragozin Foundation, which provides “support to groups and individuals working on innovative ways to put progressive ideas into practice,” according to the foundation.