We all want to pick winners, but we all have different ways of doing it. Some people just pick a lucky number and play it all night. Other people are guided by “feelings” and hunches to choose dogs. I even know a guy who randomly bets on any number that comes to mind when he walks up to the window.

Then there are the people who believe that speed is the most important predictor of whether a greyhound will cross the finish line before the other dogs. They completely ignore everything else and focus on that one facet of a dog’s performance data.

This is really short-sighted of you. Speed ​​alone only tells you what a dog did in a previous race that might be nothing like the race he runs today. While it’s nice to know a dog can keep up, it’s not the most important factor.

Even if you calculate the speed using a formula that takes into account various things that can affect it, it is not the most important thing in the handicap. That’s why so many speed ranking handicap systems are gathering dust on the handicap racks.

So if not speed, what is the most important factor? Well that’s the thing. In my opinion, there is no element in a greyhound’s performance that predicts that he will win. It’s all factors, not just one. So if you isolate speed and use it on its own, you won’t get a true picture of what the dog’s chances of winning are.

There are so many things that have an effect on speed. Stall position, class, running style and the running styles of the other dogs. Even the weather and track conditions can affect speed. If you try to make any one of those factors more important than the others, you’re missing a big part of the disadvantage picture.

You must use them all together, weighing them equally, to win at the dog track. Until you figure out how to integrate them and put them together, you won’t be able to consistently pick winners. Doing this, and doing it successfully, is the biggest factor in disability, in my opinion.