I have taken a few years away from the track, but I seem to recall strong speed favoring tracks seem to get fewer and farther between as the years go by and as alluded to above it takes a fast pace and horses carrying speed to get those Beyers that are high on the scale.
From 1979-93 I made my own Beyer figures and since I followed him whenever he was on TV handicapping it was pretty obvious we were coming up with similar numbers. It was not unusual for low level claiming sprints to be won with a Beyer in the high 80's or low 90's, with the ones in the $32-$40k range hitting 100+, on days when speed was holding at both Santa Anita and Delmar. At SA I frequently saw have $10k claimers duel in a 44 and change first half and keep right on going, I doubt you will see that much anymore.
You used to see riders occasionally whip horses out of the gate because early speed often did so well.
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