Improvement
A lot has been made recently about super trainers and improvement. Now, I certainly realize that Beyer speed figures aren't the be all and end all of performance evaluation, but they are a fairly accurate measure by most people's estimations. That said, I decided to look at my book Champions and see in the 90s and early 2000s what kind of similar improvements I could find to recent Dutrow and Wolfson's recent work. Keep in my mind, we are talking about the top trainers and best horses in the game.
These are the biggest improvements I could find after 8 starts since Beyers were published in the DRF in 1992. Surface and distance irrelevant. The following all showed improvement of 20 points or more:
Charasmatic, 85 to 108
Cigar, 99 to 121
Hollywood Wildcat, 86 to 110
Jewel Princess, 90 to 116
Not Surprising, 90 to 120
Real Quiet, 93 to 115
Serena's Song, 90 to 113
Skip Away, 100 to 125
Lemon Drop Kid, 98 to 118
Squirtle Squirt, 93 to 119
Xtra Heat, 88 to 120
Nearly all of these improved much later in there career, and gradually. I couldn't find a single horse that had a huge jump after 8 starts like that of This One's for Phil.
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