Syn4 -- which variant setup is best to use?
 

Which is the best variant setup to use with Syn4?

You get different readouts depending on which setup you use.

Case in point, the Stephen Foster Handicap, which was the contest race here last weekend.

I lost that race. I used Syn4.

For the time being let's assume every paceline I picked was the proper one. Let's also assume that we are only interested in the TPR -- Total Pace Rating -- and SSR -- Synergy Speed Rating. Which variant setup is best to use?

As I mentioned, I lost this race.

Here's the initial setup:

Look what happens if I change the variant setup to Beyer 50%:

The winner -- #7 -- shows up as second choice on Total Pace Ratings:

And #7 is tied for first on Snyergy Speed Rating with 118:

What happens if you use 25% Beyer instead?

Then #7 shows up on top of TPR:

And #7 is tops in SSR with 117:

Here are the race results:

So, as you can see, the difference in variant setup is critical. If I'd used 25% Beyer I'd have won the race.

Obviously one race does not tell a story.

Nor does the, "I've always used the [insert the setup of your choice]."

Has anyone researched this?

Syn4 has been around for a long time and there are several users that frequent this board. Has anyone tested this, kept records and come up with a meaningful result?

By any chance has anyone come up with something statistically significant?

If not, how about a 20 race cycle tested with the different setups?

I'm sure you could find plenty of examples where the DRF variant comes up with a nice double digit winner that the Beyer variant misses. I myself don't like the Beyer figures because they are in the mainstream.

I read in one of the Follow Ups where the DRF-TV outperformed the Beyers and several other figures in a test a few years ago. I think that if the same test were run today it might outperform them again. But if you choose the DRF-TV you would have to update the pars for the tracks you follow.