About

This project originated as a section within the Hello Race Fans Thoroughbred horse racing fan education site. It was active between 2018 and 2019 and looked at a variety of data points for a handful of graded stakes races from 1991 to 2018 (and in some cases 2019).

The profiles are a series of data visualizations created to answer simple questions like “how have favorites performed in this race historically?” and “what kind of running styles have performed well, or not”.

The charts use Google charts and data manually compiled from Equibase, the “official supplier of racing information and statistics” in North America.

Google charts provided a relatively straightforward way to produce simple charts, but presented a host of issues, mainly around accessibility and performance. For more information see the Accessibility Statement for details.

This project was conceived, created and maintained by Dana Byerly and is built with hand-written HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The favicon and social image is from EmojiTerra. There is more information about the concept and implementation of the project at my personal site.

Each race looks at the following angles…

• Odds and payouts
• Bettors’ choice and field size
• Running styles
• Last track raced and days since last raced
• Winner’s placing in prior race

Races for horses older than 3-years-old include

• Winners by age
• Multiple winners and “run backs” (horses who have made more than one start in the race)

Open company races, or races that are open to any sex, include

• How fillies and mares have performed (if any fillies or mares raced in the time period)

Races for 2-year-olds include

• Number of career starts prior to race

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