Divisional Standings & The Classic

A few weeks ago when I published the Graded Stakes Results & Divisional Standings data, I included a chart summarizing results from the Classic division in 2012 using a composite speed figure ranking. Essentially, I took all of the results, sorted by three speed figure systems (Beyer, Bris and Equibase), came up with an "Average Rank" for each race and then sorted by that rank. That data appears at the bottom of the post.

It was brought to my attention a couple days ago that the top three ranked horses in this year's Breeders' Cup Classic all finished in the trifecta - Flat Out, Fort Larned and Mucho Macho Man. Nates Mineshaft was ranked third in the table but didn't race in the Classic.

Another interesting point from the table is the performance of the top Equibase horses in this year's Classic. Within the division, horses ranked #2 and #4 by Equibase Speed Figures from Classic division races finished in the top three at Santa Anita, and Fort Larned, the top Equibase figure horse in the race (Nates Mineshaft holds the top Equibase figures in the division for the year), was the winner.

The top three Beyer figure horses in the Classic (Game On Dude, Fort Larned & Flat Out) and Bris horses (Flat Out, Mucho Macho Man & Game On Dude) also performed well, with the exception of Game On Dude. That might be the most interesting part of the speed figure comparisons heading into this year's Classic: Equibase wasn't nearly as high on Game On Dude as both Beyer and Bris, as his best performance ranked just 9th on the Equibase Speed Figure scale within the division.

I am in the process of summarizing the other divisions in the same manner as the Classic with the pre-Breeders' Cup prep results as I'm curious if we might see some similar results.