Seven furlongs is a specialty distance that some horses just do best at. So what are the “rules” for playing this distance (as well as 7 ½-furlongs)?
It’s really quite simple: Look for horses that have raced at this distance and have the highest speed numbers SOMEWHERE in their past performances. It could be recently, it could be many races ago. If no horses have raced at that distance, look for those who have shown strong early pace in 1 1/16-mile races.
Let’s see how this rule stacked up in Woodbine’s Saturday card where there were three 7-furlong events. To see the races listed below, download the program here.
Race 3: 7-furlong optional claimer on the turf. The three best 7f figures (in the Equibase program) were #1 with 97 (4-1), #7 with 92 (8-1) and #5 with 91 (1-1). The race result was 7-5. The $1 exactor paid $25 in the six-horse field.
Race 7: 7-furlong maiden race on the turf: #3 (3-1) and #7 (3-2) both had the top figure of 81. They finished first and third. But #3 was disqualified from first and placed seventh for interfering with #1 who, incidentally, had the next best 7f figure of 74.
Race 9: 7-furlong claimer on the turf: #9 had a big 104 E speed figure at the distance last year, much bigger than any horse in the field and, more recently, 96, which was still the highest in the field. He won and paid $13.60. The horses with the next-highest numbers were #1, #5 and #11. #5 finished second at 38-1 and #1 finished third at 7-1. The 9-5 exactor paid $147 for $1. And the 9-5-1 triactor paid $815 for $1. Incidentally, someone took down the 20-cent Jackpot Hi-5 on this race (9-5-1-4-10) and collected $22,606.
Does this work all the time? Yeah, sure. Nothing works all the time. But from the above examples you can see there’s generally a high correlation between horses that have the highest speed numbers and where they finish in a race. You obviously would have cleaned up in race 9 just spending pocket change.
Woodbine Pick-6 Take-Down Details
As promised in last Monday’s Bettor’s Edge, here are the details on the $15K jackpot pick-6 won on Saturday, Aug. 27. A single ticket purchased in a U.S. account won the entire pool of $14,806 U.S. by wheeling these horses on a ticket costing $230.40 US: 2,7 / 1,2,3,9 / 1,3,5,6 / 1,2,3,4 / 1,5,7 / 1,4,5. The wheel, then, was 2 x 4 x 5 x 2 x 6 x 3. The winning horses paid $9.80, $18.90, $8, $13, $8.30 and $11.40. Want to review winner’s horses? See program here.
