Derby Horse Closing Ability Rankings

[thoroughbred]

The clearly torrid pace of the Derby, which would tend to favor closers, provided a good opportunity to see what the horses' closing ability, as measured by the Friction values, would look like.

Here is a table, where the horses are ranked in order of closing ability, followed by their finish position.

The Friction values were processed using the most recent race of each horse that was raced before the Derby.

With few exception, i.e., Closing Argument and Greater Good, the lower Friction value horses were clustered in the first part of the finish positions and vice versa.

Of special interest, perhaps, is that Giacomo is reasonably high up, i.e. in fifth position among the 20 horse field.




Closing Ability
Horse (Friction) Finish
Afleet Alex -14 3
Greater Good 18 13
Andromedas Hero 28 8
Flower Alley 35 9
Giacomo 38 1
Wilko 61 6
Buzzards Bay 73 5
Don't Get Mad 89 4
Bellamy Road 90 7
Greeley's Galaxy 96 11
Bandini 111 19
Noble Causeway 113 14
Sun King 121 15
High Fly 140 10
Closing Argument 145 2
High Limit 157 20
Coin Silver 161 12
Sort It Out 167 17
Spanish Chestnut 203 16
Going Wild 279 18