You've perhaps heard that Rachel Alexandra scored the highest Beyer Speed Figure (116) of ANY North American racehorse last year - 2009? Well, here are her breakdowns for Beyer Speed figures for her most recent races:
2010
New Orleans Ladies 100
2009
Woodward 109
Haskell 116
Mother Goose 111
Preakness 108
Kentucky Oaks 108
Fantasy 101
Fair Grounds Oaks 103
Martha Washington 100
To give you an idea of what this means, Zenyatta's career best Beyer Speed Figure was when she beat the boys in the Classic last year (2009), at 112. Here are some other recent 3 yo filly champs and their top BSFs during their 3 yo filly season:
2008 Proud Spell – Tops of 101, 99, 99, 97
2007 Rags to Riches – Tops of 107, 104, 98, 96
2006 Wait A While -Her accomplishments came on turf. Dirt top of 90
2005 Smuggler - Tops of 98, 94, 93, 92 in season that ended in July.
2004 Ashado – Tops of 106, 103, 103, 102
2003 Bird Town -Tops of 101, 100, 100, 100
2002 Farda Amiga -Tops of 103, 103, 100, 95
As far as older fillies & mares, clearly they have run faster due to maturity, but what Rachel is capable of putting out this year remains to be seen.
FYI - Male horses may have higher BSF than female horses. Here are some famous horses and their BSF, just for comparison:
Bernardini- Career high 117
Big Brown - Career high 109
Discreet Cat- Career high of 115
Invasor- Career high 113
Lava Man- Career high 120
Lawyer Ron- Career high 105
Monarchos - Career high 116
Perfect Drift- Career high 117
Smarty Jones - Career high 118
Secretariat - if there was speed figures back then, he would have got 139 in the Belmont
According to Andy Beyer himself, Ruffian was probably the fastest filly ever. He guestimates that Ruffian's career high BSF would probably be 120+ scored during one of her 2-year-old races. ...But Rachel comes a pretty close second!!!
Dear PixiePoet: Thanks for the information. I am a racing newbie and don't know much about Beyer figures yet, but I am a huge fan of Miss Rachel's and hope that she trains well and comes back to her winning ways. I was devastated by her loss to Zardana, and am quite exasperated by all of the Zenyatta people who scream constantly that she did not deserve HOY. I hope she proves all of them wrong--she has nothing to prove to me! Race fast and safe in 2010, my Rachel!
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you so much PixiePoet for your wonderful work on bringing Rachel's fans useful/uplifting information about her. I just can't wait to search the internet to find out what is new with her. Just think, never really watched horseracing until of course laying eyes on Rachel Alexandra in her Oaks victory. Please keep up the untiring work you are doing for all of Rachel's fans. Thank you again.
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs to chill! Rachel wasn't ready to run and it showed. However, now that that her trainers can work on her conditioning and get her back to form she'll be better than last year. Jon Sheriff's camp is riding high now but they will crash and burn at the hands (or hooves) of Rachel Alexandra. A 100% Rachel will dust Zenyatta. Look for Rachel to make her next start on Kentucky Oaks day and meet Zenyatta in June. She will beat Zenyatta. She's a much more talented horse.
ReplyDeleteLove this blog and Rachel! Hope she races at Churchill she is my Queen!
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