The new Betmix Past Performances are not only printable they provide a wealth of summarized data that can be used to easily point out logical contenders and potential longshot plays.

The Saturday card at Tampa Bay Downs provided some good examples of the effectiveness of these innovative new PP’s.

The winner of the 5th race was the $18.80 Allie’s Event and it took just a few seconds time with the Betmix PP’s to see that the 6yo son of Wild Event was a major player. After the 11 horse scratched, Allie’s Event ranked first in the top four Factors most important in middle distance turf allowance contests at the Oldsmar, Florida track.

The Quick Handicapping box also show Allie’s Event on top in five of six categories (again after taking out the 11 horse).

Saturday's 7th at Tampa is a good illustration of the new 'Who Beat Who' feature. The betting public sent Lox (#3) postward as the odds-on choice in the 8.5 furlong Maiden Claimer on the main track. But Bexmix PP users were immediately aware that American Merlot (#7) finished ahead of Lox in their last meeting on December 18. American Merlot won by a neck on Saturday at a $14.60 win mutuel, keying a $33.40 exacta with Lox.

Betmix introduced the Handicapping Journal in November and feedback from our users has been overwhelmingly positive. The Journal provides an at-a-glance look at the previous day's results as well as a preview of the current day's racing landscape.

One way to use the Journal is to analyze the day's longshots listed in the Highest Paying Winners section.

Betmix subscribers can click through to pull up the Mix Maker page for that race. From there, click the Run MixMaker button to see if the Mix generated would have put the longshot winner the top selection (or close). If so, look to make sure the Mix uses factors that will likely be predictive in future races of that type.

Once a satisfactory Mix is isolated it can then be tested using the Race Profile report.

Let's take the January 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita as an example of this process. The winner of the 8F Grade 2 stake on the grass was Flamboyant ($94.20). The Run Mix Maker button reveals that weighting just two factors equally, Last Turn Time and Distance Worked Since Last Race would have made Flamboyant a strong top choice.

Anecdotally we can buy this. Last Turn Time and recent workout factors can certainly be indicative of a horse rounding into his/her best form and these more subtle factors can easily be overlooked by the majority of handicappers.

Clicking the Race Profile Report brings up all the 8-9 furlong turf stakes at Santa Anita going back to 2013. In this case we find a good sample size of 30 races. Using the sliders below the Results tabulation on the right side of the screen we can weight our two factors equally. By doing this we find that this Mix has pointed to five other winners, including an $85.40 winner (and a $31.00 place horse) just last May!

Win, Place, Show & exotic percentages are shown along with profit figures. All of these are incredibly strong. For instance, the win profit (for a $2 wager) is over $200 and the (top 4) trifecta box profit rings up at $731.50! (see full Results below).

Once a strong Mix like this is isolated it can be saved to your Mix Library for use on future races of the same type.

Legendary late 19th/early 20th-century horse player George Elsworth Smith, aka Pittsburgh Phil, is known for pioneering many important thoroughbred handicapping concepts. And a good many of those are just as relevant today as they were when all the men wore top hats and overcoats.

“Successful handicappers know every detail in regard to the horses upon which they are intending to place their money.”

Betmix was essentially founded on this principle - to bring greater, often hidden, detail to the modern horse player. When ‘Phil’ first uttered those words over 100 years ago there was a decided lack of information available on the equine contestants of the day. In 2015 we not only have a wealth of data at our disposal but the computing power to parse it new and powerful ways.

The state-of-the-art Betmix software analyzes results from thousands of races to isolate the typical winning factors for a specific race type. For example, we now know that in one mile Allowance contests at Churchill Downs the horse with the highest Average Lifetime Earnings has won 35% of the time producing a win bet ROI of $8.00. With a few clicks and movement of the Betmix sliders you can find out which horse ranks best in this factor in the next race of this class and distance under the Twin Spires.

That’s just one example so things can quickly head into information overload territory. That’s why we’ve been introducing new ways to organize and present the available data making it easier for Betmix users to search out winning plays.

The most innovative of these new features is Command Center. This recently introduced page shows all the days North American races on single, sortable interface. Looking for races that tend to produce longshots? Sort by Avg. Win Payout to immediately isolate races that are often captured by high-priced winners. Or maybe you need a safe play to ice a lead in a handicapping tournament. Sorting by Hit the Board score quickly points out races with a single contender most likely to make the top three.

To take advantage of the full power of Betmix, just click anywhere on a race line to open the Mix Maxer/Race Profile interface for that race.

"If there are two or three very fast horses in a race one or two of them will quit before the end of the journey."

‘Phil’ was on top of race shape long before ‘pace makes the race’ joined the handicapping vernacular. With Betmix it’s easy to check the possible pace scenarios in a given race. There are eight factors related to pace that can be quickly weighted with the Betmix sliders. A good way to check on potential early pace is to slide Avg of Last 3 E1 Pace over to see if a horse is shown to have a big early pace advantage. Conversely, you may find two or more horses are likely to scramble for the early lead. In the case of the latter, the Avg of Last 3 Late Pace or Avg of Last 3 Turn Time sliders come in handy to isolate who’s likely to be running fastest of all in the later stages of the race.

"The basis of all speculation is the amount of profit to be obtained on an investment."

2015 translation: insist on value. On the Race Profile page, each factor also has Win, Place and Show return on investment (ROI) figures shown. For example, in the visual below Avg. Speed Last 3 not only wins 44% of the time in this race type it’s also been yielding a Win ROI of $28.40 (for a $2 bet). The Race Profile can be sorted by Win % and the ROI columns to instantly see which factors win most often and if they tend to produce payouts worth going after.

Pittsburgh Phil passed away in 1909 with a reported $3.2 million in the bank. One has to wonder what that account would have looked like if Betmix were around in those days.

In the past two Factoring Pedigree posts we profiled the emerging first crop sires Girolamo and Twirling Candy. But it’s Scat Daddy who rules as North America's overall sire of two-year-olds this year, and by a wide margin.

The Ashford Stud stallion has 20 juvenile winners so far, well ahead of Twirling Candy’s 12, and his babies have racked up nearly $1.5 million in purses. A very impressive five of those winners are already stakes winners and they've captured a good number of the major North American juvenile blacktype races on the grass.

That Scat Daddy is a good sire of two-year-olds is no surprise. He won three of his first four starts at two, including the Champagne Stakes (G1). He was a good early three-year-old as well notching the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and Florida Derby (G1) before being injured during his 18th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

Scat Daddy also hails from a sire-line known for juvenile performance. His great grandsire, Storm Cat won the Grade 1 Young America Stakes in 1985 before being nosed out by Tasso in the second Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Storm Cat, of course, went to be one of the all-time great sires and Hennessy was one of his early stars after taking the Hopeful Stakes (G1) and just falling short to Unbridled’s Song in the 1995 BC Juvenile. Hennessy then sired Scat Daddy’s sire Johannesburg, who was able to win the Juvenile in 2001, finishing off an unbeaten international juvenile campaign.

Johannesburg was a Group 1 winner on European grass courses, so while Scat Daddy never ran on the grass, he is passing on his sire’s aptitude for the lawn.

Scat Daddy’s two-year-old daughter Acapulco scored one for the U. S. in the June 17 Queen Mary Stakes (G2) at the Royal Ascot meeting. Both juvenile turf stakes at Saratoga fell to the Scat Daddy clan - Azar (Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes) and Harmonize (P. G. Johnson Stakes). And just last Sunday, Conquest Daddyo scored in the Grade 2 Summer Stakes on the lush Woodbine grass course. Scat Daddy also has a good 2015 dirt juvenile in Pretty N Cool, winner of the Sorrento Stakes (G2) and runner-up to Songbird in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.

Overall, 17 of Scat Daddy's first 30  blacktype winners (56%) have won on the turf.

Scat Daddy was the #3 first crop sire in 2011 and made it up to 10th on the 2014 two-year-old sire list (after finishing 32nd and 70th the previous two seasons). Part of the reason we’re seeing so many Scat Daddy winners and stakes winners is simply that there are a lot of them out there - 150 to be exact. But make no mistake, he’s clearly establishing himself as an elite juvenile sire and one of the very best sires of any kind on the international stage. It will certainly be hard to ignore his sons and daughters at the windows in this fall's juvenile grass races.

Scat Daddy's 2015 Royal Ascot winner Acapulco.

Twirling Candy is out of the gate with 12 winners so far, the most of any North American first crop sire. Queen of Silence became winner number one on May 25 with a debut victory going 5/8ths on the Gulfstream Park turf course at odds of 10-1. Three more Twirling Candys have won on the grass and two others have earned victories on the all-weather tracks at Woodbine and Presque Isle Downs. 

Overall, the 12 Twirling Candy winners have come at 12 different tracks from California to Oklahoma to Florida and even over the famed course at Epsom Downs in England. 

The connections of these early winners appear to feel they have some quality as evidenced by the fact that six of the winners have come back to compete against stakes company. Two of them, Annie's Candy and Conquest Twitter, have picked blacktype placings.

Half of the sons and daughters of Twirling Candy have won at first asking, two second-time out, while a quartet took a little more time to get going, breaking through in their third starts.

Here's the full breakdown of the first 12 Twirling Candy winners:

*race favorite

Twirling Candy was a speedy and versatile runner on the Southern California circuit so it’s no surprise that we’re seeing his early runners performing on a variety of surfaces.

The son of the brilliant and undefeated Candy Ride went wire-to-wire in his racing debut in November of his juvenile season, a 7F affair over the all-weather surface at Hollywood Park. On the shelf until the following May, he reeled off three more victories, two of them on the grass at Del Mar in the Oceanside Stakes and Del Mar Derby (G2). Twirling Candy suffered his first loss next out against older runners in the Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes (now the Awesome Again Stakes). He then closed out his three-year-old campaign in with a track record performance, shading 1:20 in the 7F Malibu Stakes (G1) on the Santa Anita main track (1:19.70).

Twirling Candy's dam is a daughter of the Juddmonte Farm-bred turf star Chester House (a half-brother to American Pharoah's grandsire Empire Maker) which helps explain not only his own affinity for the lawn but also his progeny’s. We’ll have to wait and see if the Twirling Candys will excel at longer distances but both of his grandsires were Grade 1 winners at 10 furlongs and his fifth dam produced none other than 1978 Triple Crown hero Affirmed. For now, it's a good idea to give the sons and daughters of Twirling Candy a long look on any surface, at any track, anywhere in the world.

After a full summer of juvenile racing some new sires with first racing two-year-olds (first crop sires) have emerged that need to be kept on handicapper’s radars. One of those is Darley America’s Girolamo.

This son of A. P. Indy, who stood for just a $5,000 stud fee in 2015, is the sire of seven winners already from 20 starters. That figure puts him in a tie for second behind only Twirling Candy (10 winners) among first crop sires. Girolamo stood his first two years at Sequel Stallions New York and four of his early winners have come against state-bred company. He even appears to have a star-in-the-making in She’s All Ready, who’s dominated her first two starts by a combined 11 ¼ lengths, including a win in the $200,000 Seeking the Ante Stakes last Friday at Saratoga.

All seven of Girolamo winners have won at first asking and he’s had a winner on the grass and on a sloppy main track. Three Girolamo firsters have gone off favored with three others returning double-digit mutuels. Here’s a further breakdown of his seven winners:

*race favorite

In his racing days, Girolamo was more of an outlier for A. P. Indy, one of North America’s top late-developing and classic-distance influences. He was favored in his racing debut at Saratoga in mid-August of his juvenile season and didn’t disappoint. Coming out of the Kiaran McLaughlin barn, Girolamo coasted home under Alan Garcia by 3 ¾ lengths in a 7F main track Maiden Special. McLaughlin started him twice more at two with unplaced finishes in the Futurity Stakes & Champagne Stakes the result.

Girolamo's signature wins came later. At 3 he captured in the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes going a one-turn mile at Belmont Park and added the trophy for Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes going 7/8ths the following season.

Girolamo certainly has the pedigree to be a top flight stallion. A. P. Indy is the sire of several successful/important sons - Bernardini, Pulpit, Malibu Moon, Mineshaft, Congrats among them. As is the case with Girolamo, the dams of the latter four are daughters of the great Mr. Prospector (and Bernardini’s dam is a Mr. Prospector great-granddaughter).

Girolamo’s female lineage is also exceptionally strong. The famed Carnegie/Phipps breeding operation cultivated this female family, one that's already produced successful stallions like Private Account, Mutakddim and the Maryland stalwart sire Not For Love (also the damsire of California Chrome). Girolamo’s full sister, Supercharger, is the dam of 2010 Kentucky Derby hero Super Saver, who is also emerging as a new force in the North America sire ranks. The WinStar Farm stallion now has three Grade 1 winners in his first crop, two at this year’s Saratoga meeting (Alabama winner Embellish the Lace and King’s Bishop winner Runhappy).

With this kind of pedigree it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Girolamo’s train on and excel as more distance racing is carded in the coming months. From what we've already seen, his sons and daughters should be respected no matter where they show up.