Four and a Half at Finger Lakes

[chuckg]

This is my first time looking at FL from the start of the season. All the races are carded at 4 1/2 f.

Does anyone work these races?

I noticed a few things.

The BL/BL and Segments screens are not useful because there is no final fraction. The races end right after the second call.

But, the POH screen shows the horses in line at the second call.

Using pacelines from last April predicts the first and second call time better than best of last three.

And, the mutual payouts have been way high on usual early faders with all the bet money placed towards OTE Early Pressers and green P5 and P4 horses.

[Bill V.]

Hi Chuck

Doc wrote that races at 5 furlongs or less and over 10 furlongs are
won by factors other than pace or rather energy excretion,
Most 5 furlong turf races are won by the top EP horses because there is so little time for the third fraction runners

Finger Lakes traditionally starts off wit all 4.5 races for a few days
But once the season gets rolling Finger Lakes is a great place for overlays.

Nothing like a nice summer Friday afternoon, when everybody is loking at Sara toga and Del Mar, I find great joy in a $20 winner in Finger Lakes 5.5 furlong claimer.

But back to 4.5 races I think Doc gives the best advice
In Val 4 he did not even let you look !!!!
all 4.5 races are automatically PASSED

[DaveEdwards]

I think these races are really nothing much more than public workouts. I think to be fair most of the horses don't appear to be of the quality to ship anywhere for the winter and so most need a little action to shake off the cobwebs before they get going.

FL interests me a great deal and I'm looking forward to the racing over proper distances starting soon.

I do think what Howard said about provincial tracks lacking a certain handicapping sophistication holds true at FL. I'll certainly be paying attention to the issues like negative class drops and the internal fractions of routes going into sprints. It's probably not a coincidence that Bert Mayne referred to FL as his favourite outdoor bank.

For what it's worth I've been going over some races from last year and by my handicapping V/DC was strong over a fast track (Top 2). Obviously I'll get in the disclaimer now about everyone keeping their own records and being current, but just thought I'd throw it out there if anyone was interested.

Alarmingly betfair haven't covered the first few meetings. Once the non-training races start properly I might have to give them a call.

[Ted Craven]

FWIW, though I myself have not been working Finger Lakes so far, I have been speaking with our old friend Bert Mayne who has been working each day at FL so far this year and keeping a model from RDSS factors.

Not surprisingly, he says EPR (or 2nd call - 4 furlong adjusted velocity) from best of last 3 lines, is winning a high majority of all the 4.5 races. This is almost a Final Time rating, as 4f is 89% of the race at 4.5f. I don't know if this means Top 2, or Top 3 EPR. But it should be pretty simple to identify.

Just FWIW.

Ted

[MikeB]

I have no personal knowledge about these races. A guy on another forum who lives near there says that he finds these 4 1/2 F races to be very profitable. The key, he says, is the result charts from the same period a year ago. He didn't go into detail, but my impression is that this is a situation of horses for courses and of trainer specialties.

[CEW]

Greetings guys -

Loved seeing the posts on Finger Lakes. I lived in NY in the 80s and started with the Methodology at that time. It can be a mutuel factory.

As far as the 4 1/2 f races, practice a few and see how they shake out. Finger Lakes pretty much ran early when I played that track, and assuming things haven't changed, this distance should run that much earlier.

I caught a rare sustained bias there for several days one time, and you wouldn't believe the prices !

Best of luck to all -

CEW