Introducing Standings
There’s a new feature on the main page: weekly standings, as calculated by Patrick of Pulling Hair and Betting Horses. Patrick came up with a simple ranking system for racing that assigns points to the top three finishers (and also-rans in specific instances) of graded stakes in nine different categories, with double points for Breeders’ Cup wins. Props to him for this welcome attempt at imposing objectivity and order on a sport that relies on the earnings list and a weekly racing media poll to determine its leaders, and for recruiting much of the racing blogosphere to post the standings.
7/5 Addition: The fractional points are due to three-year-olds taking on older horses or fillies and mares taking on the boys, with 1.25X for the former, and 1.5X for the latter.
The points system:
| G1 | G2 | G3 | 3YOs | BC | |
| 1st | 120 | 55 | 15 | 180 | 240 |
| 2nd | 80 | 40 | 10 | 80 | 160 |
| 3rd | 60 | 30 | 5 | 60 | 120 |
| Also-ran | 35 | 10 | 0 | 35 | 0 |
