Horse Racing Positions Affect the Outcome of a Race

By Bill Peterson

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Speed points are often used to determine where a horse will run or try to position itself during the early stages of a race. Speed points were the brainchild of a handicapper named Quirin who developed a simple but very useful method for determining where horses run during the early part of a race. If you've been handicapping for a while you probably know about speed points and also that early speed is critical, even in long races.

The old saying, "pace makes the race," is often true. However, pace and speed and position are not all the same. Let's say you have a horse with the top speed point rating of 8. That means the horse is a front runner and will try very hard to got to the front and stay ahead of all the other horses. The horse doesn't want to see another horse ahead of it.

The only problem is that while this one wants to lead, its best time in a quarter mile, the first fraction of the race, is only 24 seconds. There are other horses in the race with early speed who can run the quarter in 23. Now what happens to that front running horse? It will often wear itself out trying to get to the top and then fade in the later stages of the race unless the jockey can slow it down, getting it to "settle," as it is called. Front runners with speed points of 8 rarely want to settle for less than the front, however.


Early speed battles soften up front runners and early speed types so that horses that come from off the pace can sometimes pass them in the stretch and win. So comparing speed points to actual pace figures is a good way to determine who the real contenders in the race may be. You will often find horses with high speed points who are unable to maintain the fast pace of the race that are over bet, opening up the possibility of finding another horse with more or a chance of winning at good odds.

Position and ability go hand in hand and one plays off the other. Wherever a horse wants to run in the race, it has to have the ability to actually run there and compete against the other runners in that part of the field in order to finish well. If you learn to break the field down according to where they want to run, based on speed points, then compare their actual pace figures, you will often find one horse in each position, front, middle, back, who appear to have an advantage.

You will often find the exacta from among these horses and sometimes even the trifecta.

If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://williewins.homestead.com/true.html and get the truth about betting on horses and winning. Bill Peterson is a former race horse owner and professional handicapper. To see all Bill's horse racing material go to Horse Racing Handicapping, Bill's handicapping store.

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