In light of Dave's series on early speed, what are the early speed favoring tracks and surfaces? thanks. — Jim Michalak

I know this may sound basic, but... How would you define a speed-favoring track?

Is it based upon total wire-to-wire wins or something else?

Horse(s) either on the lead or within 1-2 lengths at the first call that win 30% of the time or more.

30% is a little light.
The 1st call leader (as I recall) is like 52% in sprint races.
IOW, that would be NORMAL.

The "definition" is a tough one to me. Cheaper tracks (PEN, CT, MNR, etc) seem to have the most powerful early speed numbers. But, we also know that in cheaper races, with cheaper horses, early speed will dominate the most. Soooo, I'm not sure how you dig into all of that, and separate it out, to know the "true speed"

I started to run a query on this question.
However, my software is designed to easily answer questions about THIS track as opposed to which track(s) are best at something.

Frankly, it is too much work to produce that answer.

Dave: track bias, preferably early is what I was looking for. Thanks.

Everything we do is one track at a time.
I can do that one track at a time but cannot give you a sorted list without putting in maybe 4 hours of work.

Here is the profile I have for Keeneland's 3 days of racing
I create a short comment with the date for mini track bias
Then I have a profile of the winners with what posts and running styles are best

10/8/2021: BOTH Dirt Sprints and Routes were favouring "Front Runners"
10/9/2021: Dirt Routes and Turf Sprints were favouring "Front Runners"
10/10/2021: BOTH Dirt Sprint and Routes were "Strong Front Runners" Turf Sprints "Front Runners"

Average Lengths Back at 1st and 2nd Calls
10/8/2021
1C/2C
DS: 0.6 and 0.1
DR: 2.2 and 1.0
TS: x
TR: 1.5 and 1.2

10/9/2021
1C/2C
DS: 3.4 and 2.0
DR: 1.9 and 0.7
TS: 0.0 and 0.0
TR: 1.4 and 1.2

10/10/2021
1C/2C
DS: 2.5 and 0.6
DR: 0.5 and 0.2
TS: 0.0 and 0.0
TR: 1.9 and 1.6

4/15/2021 to 10/10/2021
Dirt Sprints
1st Place: Front Runners and middle posts
2nd Place: Front Runners and middle posts
3rd Place: Front Runners and either Rail/middle posts
4th Place: Front Runners and Rail post

Dirt Routes
1st Place: Front Runners and Rail post
2nd Place: Front Runners and middle posts
3rd Place: Front Runners and middle posts
4th Place: Front Runners and Rail post

Turf Sprints
1st Place: Front Runners and Rail post
2nd Place: Stalkers and middle posts
3rd Place: Stalkers with Rail post
4th Place: Stalkers with outside posts

Turf Routes
1st Place: Stalkers with middle posts
2nd Place: Front Runners with middle posts
3rd Place: Front Runners and either Rail or middle posts
4th Place: Stalkers with Rail post

I know this doesn't really have anything to do with what we are talking about but just wanted to show everyone with just a few minutes a day you can figure out track bias!

This is excellent work.
Care to show a screenshot of how you do this work?
(Dang, I wonder if you can do that here.)

That is why I posted that link to PA when I was doing my Keeneland tipsheet (was wrong about that) because there was no way to attach a PDF but only images

It's nothing special that I do all I do is download past results charts from Equibase then using my own observations for tabbing what horses are what running styles along with 1c/2c beaten lengths plus my mini track bias notes I can complete this in under 1-2 hours tops for 4 days

I'll work on it.

It's nothing special that I do all I do is download past results charts from Equibase then using my own observations for tabbing what horses are what running styles along with 1c/2c beaten lengths plus my mini track bias notes I can complete this in under 1-2 hours tops for 4 days — Conley

1-2 hrs Per track?

Sorry no 1-2 for 4 days is the best I have time for lol these days

Jim Michalak
1
Dave: track bias, preferably early is what I was looking for. Thanks

I don't have numbers but observation suggests that the tracks measuring less than 1 mile generally favor speed slightly more than the longer tracks. Notable exceptions would be the Aqueduct inner course and Emerald Downs( probably the fastest and most speed favoring 1 mile track on the continent).

on't have numbers but observation suggests that the tracks measuring less than 1 mile generally favor speed slightly more than the longer tracks. Notable exceptions would be the Aqueduct inner course and Emerald Downs( probably the fastest and most speed favoring 1 mile track on the continent).
It appears that I've been out of the loop too long! Didn't know that the inner at Aqueduct had been replaced in 2017.