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Graded Stakes Results & Ratings - March 19th, 2013

Taking an assessment of the graded stakes results in 2013 after the first two and a half months of the racing season.

Kelvin Kuo-US PRESSWIRE

We're almost a quarter of the way through the 2013 racing season, a season in which we've already witnessed some very good performances on both dirt and turf. Last weekend, Bright Thought set a world record for a mile and a half race when he won the San Luis Rey in a scorching 2:22.72 over firm ground at Santa Anita. Obviously, the Santa Anita turf course was extremely fast when you consider that Secretariat ran his historic Belmont Stakes in 2:24 flat. Also out west, Game On Dude has dominated his last two races at Santa Anita and ranks at the top of all dirt runners so far this season.

I've updated all the results in our handy, dandy graded stakes file with ratings from the various speed figure/performance ratings, which you can find via the links below.

Beyer Speed Figures (DRF)
Bris Speed Figures (Brisnet)
Equibase Speed Figures (Equibase)
Performance Figures (Chef de Race)
Racing Post Ratings (Racing Post)

You can find the complete list of top three graded stakes finishers for 2013, along with the individual horse ratings for those same horses on both dirt and turf at the Google Drive link below. The El Camino Real Derby is the only graded stakes races on a synthetic surface so far in 2013, so we'll wait to start computing a synthetic rating until the sample size gets a little bigger.

2013 Graded Stakes Results & Ratings

I've broken down the Top 5 horses on dirt by each speed figure/performance rating below as a comparison across the differing systems.

Rank Horse Race Beyer
1 Game On Dude Santa Anita Hcp. 116
Game On Dude San Antionio 116
2 Graydar Donn Hcp. 109
3 Joyful Victory Santa Margarita 107
4 Clubhouse Ride San Antionio 105
5 Clubhouse Ride Santa Anita Hcp. 104
Bourbon Courage Donn Hcp. 104
Itsmyluckyday Holy Bull 104

Rank Horse Race Bris
1 Joyful Victory Santa Margarita 112
2 Game On Dude Santa Anita Hcp. 110
3 Game On Dude San Antonio 109
4 More Chocolate Santa Margarita 108
5 Fed Biz San Fernando 107
Tritap San Fernando 107

Rank Horse Race Equibase
1 Graydar Donn Hcp. 120
2 Discreet Dancer Gulfstream Park Hcp. 119
3 Game On Dude San Antonio 118
4 Game On Dude Santa Anita Hcp. 116
5 Bourbon Courage Donn Hcp. 115
Fort Loudon GP Sprint Champ. 115
Royal Delta Sabin 115

Rank Horse Race PF
1 Game On Dude Santa Anita Hcp. -93
Game On Dude San Antonio -93
2 Graydar Donn Hcp. -82
3 Coil San Pasqual -78
Guilt Trip Strub -78
Ultimate Eagle San Pasqual -78
4 Discreet Dancer Gulfstream Park Hcp. -75
5 Fort Loudon GP Sprint Champ. -73

Rank Horse Race RPR
1 Game On Dude Santa Anita Hcp. 128
2 Game On Dude San Antonio 125
3 Royal Delta Sabin 122
4 Graydar Donn Hcp. 121
Ultimate Eagle San Pasqual 121
5 Coil San Pasqual 119

A few thoughts on the figs from each system so far in 2013:

  • There is pretty much universal agreement among the systems that Game On Dude's wins in the Santa Anita Handicap and the San Antonio are two of the best performances this year. Beyer, Performance Figures and the Racing Post Ratings have those two races as the two best on dirt so far in 2013. Bris ranks them #2 and #3, while Equibase has them #3 and #4.

    I think, generally, we can feel confident that Game On Dude has been the most consistent, high-level runner this season, so far.
  • I found it interesting that Bris ranks Joyful Victory's win in the Santa Margarita as the best graded stakes performance in 2013 to this point. (Remember, these are only the figures earned in graded stakes; events like the Sunshine Millions Classic are not included.) Beyer has Joyful Victory's race at #3, while neither Equibase, Performance Figures or the Racing Post Ratings have that race in their Top 5.
  • The other top distaffer in early 2013, Royal Delta, ranks in the Top 5 with Equibase and the Racing Post Ratings.

I combined the ratings under each system and computed a Horse Rating and a Race Rating for each of the top 3 finishers this season in all dirt and turf graded stakes. Below are the Top 5 and Bottom 5 individual Horse Ratings under this calculation at this point. The full list can be found on the Google Drive document. Par equals '100'.

Dirt Horse Ratings
Rank Horse Race Horse Rating
1 Game On Dude Santa Anita Hcp. 199.48
2 Game On Dude San Antonio 199.23
3 Graydar Donn Handicap 196.13
4 Joyful Victory Santa Margarita 188.92
5 Bourbon Courage Donn Handicap 184.28
152 Heaven's Runway Southwest Stakes 8.76
153 Golden Soul Lecomte 7.73
154 American Sugar Honeybee 6.70
155 Fear the Kitten Lecomte 5.41
156 Power Lady Old Hat 2.58

Turf Horse Ratings
Rank Horse Race Horse Rating
1 Bright Thought San Luis Rey 189.44
2 Point of Entry GP Turf Handicap 182.22
3 Data Link Canadian Turf 177.78
4 Animal Kingdom GP Turf Handicap 172.22
5 Amira's Prince (IRE) Mac Diarmida 168.89
68 Kitten's Point Herecomesthebride 17.78
69 Tokyo Time Herecomesthebride 14.44
70 Wave Theory Florida Oaks 13.89
71 Tuttipaesi (IRE) Herecomesthebride 13.33
72 Reporting Star Palm Beach 12.22