Never having raced outside of Oklahoma, Suddenbreakingnews was on few handicappers radar prior to the February 15 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park. Even at the top of the stretch the colt looked like an also ran before unleashing a furious rally to earn his first graded stakes victory.

Suddenbreakingnews has proven a very versatile runner in his first six starts. In his August 28 debut he crossed the wire first in a 7.5F Maiden Special on the grass at Remington Park, only be disqualified to second. Three starts later he won the 7F Clever Trevor Stakes on the main track. Next out, he handled a sloppy course just fine in the $250,000 Springboard Mile, dropping a nose decision to subsequent Smarty Jones Stakes winner Discreetness (with the highly-touted California invader Esposito in third).

His Southwest victory was not only a rich payday but a good learning experience too. Expertly handled by regular rider Luis Quinonez, Suddenbreakingnews was immediately wrangled to the back of the pack after breaking from post 13. In the process he was bombarded by dirt going into the first turn. Seemingly being bothered by the kickback initially, he settled down nicely and willing passed horses when Quinonez gave his cue. That kind of experience that will come in hand in a 20-horse Kentucky Derby scrum.

Still last of 14 with a half-mile to go, Quinonez left nothing to chance by swinging his mount seven-wide turning for home and Suddenbreakingews mowed them down from there.

The colt's trainer, Donnie K. Von Hemel, would certainly be a welcome addition to the Triple Crown scene. He's earned over 2,000 wins in relative obscurity on the midwest circuit but has made the occasional foray on to the national stage with runners like millionaire Clever Trevor (13th in Sunday Silence's 1989 Derby) and 2011 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile victor Caleb's Posse.

Suddenbreakingnews has the running style and the pedigree to suggest that longer distances are well within his reach. He's by 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft, a son of Belmont Stakes hero A. P. Indy and grandson of 1978 Triple Crown conquerer Seattle Slew. Mineshaft was victorious in a quartet of Grade 1 races in his championship season, including the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Suburban Handicap at 10 furlongs. He's been a hit-and-miss stallion with 2011 Florida Derby winner Dialed In and the late-developing Grade 1 winner Effinex, runner-up to American Pharoah in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic, among his 'hits'.

The dam of Suddenbreakingnews, Uchitel, never found the winner's circle in three starts but is by 2005 Preakness/Belmont champ Afleet Alex from an active female family. She's a sister to Grade 1 winner Composure, dam of recent Royal Delta Stakes (G2) winner Penwith.

Suddenbreakingnews can't yet be put in to the top tier of Derby contenders currently occupied by Mohaymen, Nyquist and Mor Spirit. But it won't be a surprise to find him in some Triple Crown race trifectas, at the very least.

Astute Kentucky Derby handicappers often look past flashy early spring performances, instead preferring horses ready to peak on the first Saturday in May. Mor Spirit is firmly on the radar of those players.

The colt first made news in early March of 2015 when he commanded a $650,000 price at the Fasig-Tipton Florida Two-Year-Old in Training sale. That figure was the eighth highest at North America's most prestigious juvenile sale.

He made his racing debut on September 27 with a second place run in a 6.5F Maiden Special at Santa Anita. Graduation day came a month later when stretched out to a mile and he's faced nothing but stakes company since.

The dark bay ran second to Airoforce in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2), defeating eventual LeComte Stakes hero Mo Tom by a head. He then returned to California to win the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity and the February 6 Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3).

In the Los Al race he was rank, fighting Gary Steven for his head in the early stages before settling down and surging past the sprinter Toews on Ice for the win. In the Lewis, he rated like a gentleman in third, tracking the early leaders. Even when stablemate Let's Meet in Rio rushed up along his inside on the backstretch he waited for Stevens' cue. That cue didn't come until after the eighth pole after which he drove past Uncle Lino and previously unbeaten I Will Score to get the money. He continued running well throughout the spring, passing Exaggerator to get second money versus the runaway winner Danzig Candy. In the Santa Anita Derby he again rallied for second over a sloppy surface he clearly did not appreciate.

A son of the Giant's Causeway stallion Eskendereya (now in South Korea), Mor Sprit doesn't 'wow' with an explosive turn of foot. He simply wears opponents down with long consistent strides. According to his trainer, Bob Baffert, and rider, Gary Stevens, he still may need to develop a 'killer instinct' too.

“He has that long stride, but in the mornings, he’s not a very good work horse. He’s sort of lazy," Baffert told reporters after the Lewis. "He needs a target and when he gets a target, he shuts it down, but today was perfect."

"Every time we step forward I hope I can find the bottom . . . but I don’t want to find the bottom of him until it’s time," added Stevens. "I haven’t got close to that yet and that’s a good feeling. He seems to just do just enough for what’s in front of him; he likes a target. I think as he faces better horses, he’ll only get better.”

Mor Spirit couldn't be in more expert hands to continue both his mental and physical development throughout the spring. Hall of Famer Baffert has guided a quartet of colts to the Kentucky Derby winners circle. All four came back in two weeks to win the Preakness and three of them fired their best shots in the Belmont Stakes too with War Emblem the lone exception. Stevens also has a plaque in the Hall of Fame and it has three Derby victories etched on it - Winning Colors (1988), Thunder Gulch (1995) and the Baffert-trained Silver Charm in 1997.

Mor Spirit reminds one of Real Quiet, a tough and consistent customer who emerged from the shadow of stablemate Indian Charlie to score in the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Bettors who remain on the Mor Spirit bandwagon will be handsomely rewarded should he wear the roses.

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.