Early speed rating

Good early speed can often be a major influencing factor on the final outcome of a race and often neutralizes the negative influence of a poor box position.

To calculate early speed, look at the animal’s first split position on the race sheet for the previous six races. If a dog shows good early speed it means he will often escape bumping and being bumped.

You can take an average of the value of the first split over the races on the racecard – a dog with an average of less than 2 on a 6 trap course is said to have superior early speed, while the figure would rise to 3 on an 8 trap course. Dogs with an average early speed rating of 3 or 4 (4, or 5 on an 8 trap course) are said to have average early speed, though are still probably likely to try and get to the front of the pack at the start of the race.

Dogs with an early speed rating of 5 or 6 (6, 7 or 8 on an 8 trap course) have poor early speed. These dogs may well be middle or back runners and should be looked at differently.

Where dogs that prefer being front runners are concerned, you should look at the trap preference in tandem with the start speed, to take the analysis a step further.

Where the previous example is concerned:

This shows that the dog on the outside does indeed have the blistering speed that could allow it to get across to the inside without bumping the other dogs, though it should be remembered that it may not be used to running from the outside and may have achieved it’s previous strong early splits when running from inside trap numbers.

It’s likely to be a close call between that dog and the dogs in traps 2 and 3, who both possess good enough early speed to get out in front. The dog in trap 1 is not likely to get out in front, while the dogs in 4 and 5 either need to be assessed as back runners or discounted as contenders.

The was an error performing the Search. Please try again later.
The system cannot find the path specified.