Jerardi: What happened to those lofty Beyers?
Dick Jerardi writes for the Daily Racing Form on the trend in Beyer Speed Figures among top horses. It's not a positive trend. "When a horse gets a 110 these days, it is cause for celebration. Not that long ago, it was commonplace," Jerardi says. But what has caused the drop-off?
"... the durability issue is an answer to the Beyer decline at the top. The foal crop was 40,000 in 1990, probably around 25,000 this year. That has to be a factor."
"I know drugs - legal, less legal, and illegal - will be a popular answer. I don't know how to quantify that, but I am open to suggestions."
"Synthetic surfaces started to become popular around the time the Beyers of the best horses began to fall off a cliff. But I am just looking at dirt numbers, so I am not sure what that means either."
"Maiden, claiming, and allowance horses are, more or less, about as fast now as they were 5, 10, 20 years ago. But the top stakes horses are appreciably slower."
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