OXO horses - speed figures

[jayalexander]

Was at a Breeders Cup preview evening last night and Mark Johnson (commentator) brought up the above term, which I had never heard about, in relation to horses that clock a high rating one race and go off the boil, before clocking another good rating. This was said in relation to 2yos but I'm sure it can apply to older horses too, for instance one that scores a high rating in a claimer, then subsequently runs below par in a handicap. What do our speed rating fanatics think here?

[Trotter]

Re: OXO horses - speed figures I recognise this if not the term used ! Speed figures do tend to go up and down Mainly of course because possibly the most important component of the figure is the pace of the race.......so a horse can record 'slow fast slow slow slow fast' because those were the relative paces of the races he ran in You've got to beware of horses that record big figures when finishing 7th in a race.......they can be dragged to a big figure by running in the peloton but will only record the big figures when they finish mid pack. Bounce......a horse records a big figure but the run takes a lot out of him and he's below that level if he doesn't have a few weeks recovery time and comes back too quickly.......then he can come back and record another big figure because the second race doesn't take as much out of him. I think this is more likely what MJ was on about......

[richard-westwood]

Re: OXO horses - speed figures yeah ...i see it all the time ..."bounce "......happens a lot where a horse has run a very fast time ....say ...first time out that season ....or when turned out too quick ...running a fast time tskes a lot out of a horse ....and its just difficult to run super fast times consistently .....so you tend to get one fast ...then the next ..fairly good .....then they can suddenly put in another fast time out the blue .....if you can predict this the prices are normally ace because of the poor run before

[jayalexander]

Re: OXO horses - speed figures Yep, aware of the bounce factor, was just a little confused that he called them OXO horses. Probably to satisfy the only American on the panel! Sent from my SM-G900F using PL Forum

[Toast]

Re: OXO horses - speed figures

I recognise this if not the term used ! Speed figures do tend to go up and down Mainly of course because possibly the most important component of the figure is the pace of the race.......so a horse can record 'slow fast slow slow slow fast' because those were the relative paces of the races he ran in You've got to beware of horses that record big figures when finishing 7th in a race.......they can be dragged to a big figure by running in the peloton but will only record the big figures when they finish mid pack. Bounce......a horse records a big figure but the run takes a lot out of him and he's below that level if he doesn't have a few weeks recovery time and comes back too quickly.......then he can come back and record another big figure because the second race doesn't take as much out of him. I think this is more likely what MJ was on about......

Think you can put Jacobean and the o Brien odds on fav who got turned over at the Curragh into this bracket. All down to the break between races IMO, especially the older horses, as 2yos are generally inexperienced to know any better.