By TPD CEO Will Duff Gordon
In 2015 I hit the jackpot in owning a horse who was invited to Meydan. Short Squeeze was a highly competitive miler off a strong pace or a head strong yak off a slow one. Hence my interest in pace and the Trakus or Turf Trax data. James Doyle came from last to 2nd in Meydan’s Cepsa Mile all those years ago.
After capturing nearly a million tracked horses via TPD’s services, the world turned full circle when we were asked to provide the technology to Dubai’s Meydan for their Super Saturday then World Cup race nights. This was a great honour and one executed flawlessly at short notice by our team where 5 big screens were filled with live tracking content.
The first quarter of the year has seen a huge growth in our tracking coverage with Aqueduct, our Indian debut at Hyderabad and Meydan coverage contributing to a 31% increase in horses tracked Year on Year across nearly 700 racedays in 7 countries.
Other than the wonderful Frankie Dettori State-side swan song, it’s been a time of Japanese dirt racing domination with Panthalassa winning the Saudi Cup followed by Ushba Tesoro winning the Dubai World Cup. Greater minds than mine can dive into our data to see where the American dirt horses, especially Country Grammar, are going wrong.
For what it’s worth, here is an objective snapshot of the Q1 Dirt racing middle distance heroes as ranked by their average speed versus their competitors. Of the 100 performers over class 1 or 2 @ 1m 2F across various countries, look how the Meydan horses dominate. Just outside the top 10 are Santa Anita’s Avenue/Midnight Jostar and Aqueduct’s Good Skate.
For more information or ways to access these metrics pls contact info@totalperformancedata.com or send us a Direct Message on @TPDZone
Dirt racing’s apogee takes place at Churchill downs and we’ve already drawn attention to the mighty favourite, Forte. Keep an eye on @TPDZone on Twitter for further Kentucky Derby previews.
With all this excitement and with the smell of cut grass harbouring the start of the European flat turf season, where is my racehorse? I’ll tell you – in the Metaverse. That’s a story for another day!