The Best of the Best

It is useful if you can have a quick guide to compare a dog’s performance. A fairly useful process is to examine all six of the dog’s best times and then determine which time is the ‘best of the best’ times.

When this is ascertained jot it down on a piece of paper and then use this time by subtracting it, in turn, from the time of the last run of each dog and write the answer (the number of ‘spots’- or decimal places) to each sum against each dog’s name. This will give you a series of six numbers going down the list of dog’s names which will indicate which dog’s last run is nearest to the best of the best times.

Of course if the dog with the best of all the times gained it on its last run the answer will be a zero!

It is still a useful comparison to the other five dog’s last run. The old hands can do this as second nature, but as an amateur I have to put the ‘spots’ down in writing.

Don’t assume that the lowest number of ‘spots’ is the winner - you have to assess other factors on the card before coming to a decision on which dog to bet.

An alternative to the above method – and one that got me winners – is to do a different calculation, which is easier than the above, and that is to subtract each dog’s own best time from the time of its last run to see how many spots it is off making its own best time again. However, if its last run was its best time then the answer is zero!

But it is still good to compare it with other dogs in the race. It is all a matter of judgement. Experiment to see what works best for you. Do the math!

Do these methods get me winners? As I have said: I did very well with the second method of assessment, so the answer is, yes and no. You need to consider the other factors and you can do all the above and the dog you have picked can be bowled over on a bend! That’s dog racing!

Come racing!!