[Mitch44]

At one time Sartin was putting in all horses and that's what we did back around 1990. He than advocated scratching from the lowest Total Energy or TPR to the top 5. His theory was that Tot. En. was class. Most winners do come from the top 3 and decline thereafter.

So during that era Balance was a great tool to eliminate horses. Keep in mind that Balance rankings are another way to view pace, whether Total or TPR, just broken down to two parts in EP & LP or you can say E/EP & L /EP. Actually E/EP & L/EP is better , trying to keep it simple here. Essentially just a form of TPR which most can comprehend due to its simplicity here and its rankings. This is about as de-complicated as it can be made.

Now that we have an understanding of it, lets put it in context. When putting in all horses it was a valued Factor back in the day. Also back then field size was much larger. Fast forward to today and I totally agree its not a Prime or even secondary factor today. Unless of course you put in all the horses and the field is large. When putting in only 5 contenders its nullified because it'll only eliminate 1 horse at best. That eliminated horse can be also eliminated on several other Factors, because its going to come up worse on several other Primary readouts.

I don't use it and haven't for many years. With putting in only 5 true contenders it just isn't a viable Factor. Many other Primary or key Factors will eliminate that same horse and even a 4th horse. Note: I don't recommend scratching down to 3 horses. Just scratch them in your head and consider them non- contenders.

Bottom line is forget about Balance, the game has changed and with proper contenders its effectiveness is over. If Sartin were alive today he would cast it in the pile of no longer effective, along with Models, track Profiles etc.

Mitch44