Daily Racing Form introduces five changes to its past performances that are designed to give horseplayers a little more information in a convenient format. Each touches on a different aspect of handicapping:

New Class Codes

Previously, each running line for a horse who ran in a claiming race carried only the price for which he could be bought that day. "Clm20000" meant simply that a horse had been entered for $20,000. The problem for handicappers was that this single designation often obscured the true level of the race: Was it a race for horses priced as high as $25,000 and as low as $20,000, or was $20,000 the top price in a race where the entrants were priced down to $18,000? Was a horse with a string of "Clm20000" starts really facing the same caliber of competition race after race or perhaps moving up and down the class ladder?

Now the answer will be clear. The class codes for those two races now will be represented differently, as either "Clm25/20000" or as "Clm20/18000." There is a small tradeoff here, as the actual price for which the horse was entered will not appear, but readers have told us loud and clear that they find the true class range of a race the more important piece of data. If a horse is claimed out of a race, the actual price for which he was purchased will continue to appear on a separate line along with his previous owner and trainer.

In addition, purse values for maiden special weight races will now be appended to the code "Mdspwt."

Some handicappers are devout believers in the magic of "key races," unusually strong heats from which the top finishers return to win their next starts. Others advise against taking the concept too literally since two or more winners can emerge from the same race by mere coincidence and random distribution.

Whichever camp you're in, though, it's unquestionably a useful piece of information if you're looking at a horse who finished fourth last time out to see that all three horses who beat him have come back to win their next starts. So now, the names of horses who finish first in their next starts will be italicized in the company lines (the names of the first three finishers in a race that appear on the right side of each past-performance line).

This designation is in addition to the boldfacing of common opponents that already appears in the company lines. If a horse in a company line fits both criteria - he is a common opponent today and he finished first in his next start - his name will appear in both boldface and italics.

Breeding remains an inexact science, but there's a reason people breed their mares to the most popular stallions they can afford. The odds are that a son of Storm Cat, who stands for $200,000, is going to turn out better than a son of Smelly, who stands for $1,500.

These stud fees are far from foolproof, but they can be helpful and besides they're pretty interesting in and of themselves. The advertised 1999 stud fee for each runner's sire will appear to the right of the sire and grandsire's name in the past performances. If no fee is listed, it means that the sire is not standing at stud this year.

Although plenty of horses still run well when fitted with bar shoes to compensate for a hoof injury, others do not run their best under this circumstance and then revert to their prior good form when the bar shoes are removed. Previously, the possibility for such an explanation for a dip in a horse's form cycle was invisible.

Beginning with the races of Jan. 1, 1999, bar shoes will be listed as part of a horse's equipment with a lower-cased "r" in the same spot in the past-performance line where blinkers ("b") or front bandages ("f") now appear.

Tracks are generally not consistent or reliable in announcing bar-shoe changes at entry time, so horseplayers should continue to listen carefully for announcements of "bar shoe on" or "bar shoe off" on race day. The historical information that appears in the past-performance lines will be most useful in assessing whether a horse has been able to run well with bar shoes previously or whether some prior performances can perhaps be forgiven because of this equipment.

Two changes have been made to the presentation of each horse's career-record in the upper right-hand corner of his past performances:

First, the designation "Dirt" has been replaced by "D. Fst," meaning only dirt races contested on tracks officially labeled "fast" are included here. This is being done to eliminate the redundant presentation of a horse's record on non-fast dirt tracks, which continues to be listed separately on the "Wet" line. Now, instead of having to subtract out those wet-track races, handicappers can get an immediate picture of a horse's record on fast and non-fast tracks.

Second, an additional column has been added to the four categories on the right side of the career box to provide a more convenient location for the "Best Beyer Figure" feature. So now, for example, a horse's career-best Beyer Figure on the turf appears as the final column of his "Turf" record line, and his career-best Beyer on a fast dirt track appears as the final column of his "D. Fst" record line.

These Figures previously appeared at the end of the workout line for each horse. Readers said they liked the feature but hated the location, so we moved it. In that spirit, we welcome readers' reactions to any of the changes being made as we continue to try to add a few new clues to the great puzzle of handicapping.

Sample Past Performance Illustration

View a sample of the new, enhanced DRF Past Performances online. The example illustration is approximately 90k, which makes it just a little too big to post on this page without adding another 30-45 seconds to the download time at 28.8k speeds. Click on the link below to view it.

Click here to see example.