Still confused

[jasperson]

Since nobody was willing to define what is meant by speed rating and speed figure in my other post I am posting a poll. In my opinion the beyer number is a speed rating and any number computed in a similar manner. A speed figure is a speed rating modified by pace or some other factor. E-ponies speed number is an example of a speed figure because it is modified by pace and it doesn't look like any traditional speed number.

[classhandicapper]

I use speed figure and speed rating interchangeably to mean a final time number.

I use the term performance figure to mean numbers that may include pace, weight, ground loss or other things that could impact time.

[cj]

As long as you know what the numbers entail for the provider you use, don't really see how it matters what you call them.

[thaskalos]

I have never seen Andy Beyer use the word "ratings" to describe the numbers which bear his name. He always calls them "FIGURES".

[Overlay]

Speaking just for myself, I use the term "speed ratings" to refer to the types of numbers provided by the Daily Racing Form since long before Beyer's Picking Winners came out, based on the number of fifths of a second off of the track record (or, later, off of the best two-year time at the track) that a horse ran at a particular distance, running surface, and track on a given day, which the Form combined with a variant indicating (if I recall correctly) the average number of fifths of a second below the track record (or best two-year time) that winners at the distance (or distance category) and surface ran at the track on that same day.

Ever since Picking Winners was published, I have always referred to the types of numbers produced by a Beyer-style methodology (regardless of who was producing them) as "speed figures" or just "figures".

[Dave Schwartz]

To me, "speed rating," "speed figure," "final time rating," and possibly some others, are completely interchangeable.

I guess, for me the question would be, "What else could possibly be meant by 'Speed Figure' other than referencing a speed rating?"

[Broad Brush]

The only possible difference I see is this:

A "figure" is something that is completely calculated to reach the number.

A "rating" while calculated also includes some judgment and opinion----how you "rate" something??

[Pick 'em Charlie]

To me a speed figure is for a single line on a past performance line which denotes the relative speed as compared to any other past performance line.

Speed rating, for me, is attempt at figuring the speed of horse in today's race by some process such as best 2 of last 3 races. A composite figure like this would be used to compare all horses in the race, a way of projecting the horse's speed value.

[Tom]

Whatever happened to the DRF Speed INDEX?

[pandy]

Speed Figure or Speed Rating, same thing. Thoroughgraph calls its numbers Performance Figures and Ragozin calls its numbers Performance Ratings. If they called their numbers speed figures or speed ratings it would be misleading because their numbers are clearly performance ratings.

TimeformUS calls its numbers Speed Figures, but it really isn't a traditional speed figure because it's adjusted for pace. The raw number, which is also in the pps, is a speed figure or speed rating.

[Pick 'em Charlie]

For me, anything that isn't derived purely from speed figures isn't a speed rating. Combining speed and pace is more of a pace rating.

[pandy]

For me, anything that isn't derived purely from speed figures isn't a speed rating. Combining speed and pace is more of a pace rating.


Agree, it's a pace rating.