this is actually an excellent topic to start a thread about
we all have our own opinions and methods we use as far as past performances go....having said that I have a very unpopular view of the most revered, famous tool used by most--the Beyer figure
the most over rated, over hyped, subjective number out there is the Beyer fig--but many are completely obsessed by it
Beyer numpers do not take into account what "path" a horse has taken, how much ground was covered/lost during the running of the race. Two people, Randy Moss(the bald white guy not the GOAT wide receiver) and Dick Jerardi(local philly college basketball beat writer) perform most of the Beyers nationwide--and they are not objective--they make up numpers based on if they like/dislike a horse
I can vividly recall California Chrome and Zenyatta--two of the most popular horses that the pom pom waving Cali media ever saw--having points arbitrarily added to their races, because the fans liked them. One race Chrome won--the fans were very upset that the number assigned wasn't high enough for them--so Andy Beyer himself instructed his minions to freely add 10 points to his race a month after the race was run--to satisfy his fans and popularity.
The same was done with Zenyatta a couple of times
now I can appreciate that "fan popularity" is important to the success of the sport--as the game needs heroes--but to add numpers without merit to popular horses is not what I consider objective-but then again I am not from California.
the Beyer numpers has made many fans/bettors/handicappers simply flat out lazy--instead of really digging into the data--they just obsessively stare at that "bolded" numper in the DRF.... its faster, easier and doesn't require much work or skill--but most are of the belief the numper is scientific, which is completely misguided thinking. ...the DRF makes millions off the lazy people who blindly believe that numper
