Handicapping on the Mac has never been easier, thanks to the easy-to-use StretchRun. Using proprietary Dynamic Speed Figures, StretchRun is unlike any other program you’ll find.

Features and Benefits

Dynamic Pace and Speed Figures

Dynamic pace and speed figures help place every past performance in context to today’s field. Color coding helps you quickly separate the good from the bad.

Workout Analysis

Few handicappers understand how best to use workouts. Most focus on bullet works and ignore patterns of distance and days in between. StretchRun looks at the entire set of workouts for every horse running that day and puts each horse into context of the norm for the track. Standout workout patterns show up in one glance.

Handicapping Angles Highlighted

Track switches, distance changes, etc. are all accessible from a pop-up menu so you don’t have to spend time thinking about the obvious.

Workouts are vastly underused by most handicappers, mostly because there are few tools available to interpret them. For example, the Daily Racing Form provides lists of times on a daily basis and within its past performances. However, it’s not the individual workouts that matter, but the pattern used by the trainer over time. Plus, you need to know how each horse compares to the others in the field.

StretchRun has some unique tools for evaluating workouts. As an example, take a look the field for the 4th race at Santa Anita on April 11, 2009.

StretchRun Workout Analysis

The W1 and W2 columns provide two different comparisons of a horse’s workout patterns to all of the other horses racing at the the track that day, not just those in the field. A score of 100 represents the median, with any number above or below 100 a percentage of that median.

In this example, Treadwell is a first-time starter with the highest W1 score in the field, and is well above average in W2. I base these scores primarily on number of furlongs worked, with recent works given preference. StretchRun’s workout viewer lets you dig into the details of all the workouts, including viewing times converted to feet-per-second for easy comparison between distances.

StretchRun Workout Viewer

This view indicates that only 4 horses in the field worked out in the last 7 days, and Treadwell had a full 6 furlong work just 4 days ago. The results below speak for themselves, with the top 2 W1 horses running 1-2 and 3 of the 4 horses with workouts in the last 7 days running running 1-2-3.

Santa Anita Results 04-11-09

Handicappers on the west coast, particularly Southern California, should have a deep understanding of workout patterns or they’ll be missing out on valuable information. Players at smaller tracks and outside California may have to be more forgiving for poor workout numbers, given the number of horses that work off-track or are galloped into shape.

StretchRun’s workout analysis has no equal among handicapping programs and will help you eliminate false favorites and find the value play, especially when playing maiden races.

One the big issues facing every bettor is how to place a horse’s past performances into the context of today’s race. In the case of Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness we were faced with a dominating filly in a field of some good male horses, many of whom had run just as fast against better competition.

But Rachel Alexandra had such dominating speed and pace numbers that StretchRun easily flagged her as the one to bet. The program places all of a horse’s speed and pace numbers in the context of all the other horses in the race for easy comparison.

Compare the sea of green for Rachel here:

To the sea of red for second betting choice Pioneer of the Nile here:

There simply wasn’t any chance that Pioneer of the Nile was going to beat Rachel Alexandra if she ran her usual race.