Novice handicapping question
 

When I am reading the PPs and I look at the time intervals, that is the time for the first horse to hit that spot, the 1/4,1/2 etc. Right? And the finish time is the time the first horse stopped the clock. So, how did I figure out what the other horses ran? Is there a standard that I add to my horse's time, i.e. if he finishes 3rd by x lengths do I multiply a fractional figure times the number of lengths back to get his finish time? What about the splits, how do I calculate how fast one horse is going?

Any help is appreciated, I enjoy reading the Mysteries of the PPs and am sure that some day I can find the key to unlock it all!

I believe one second is 5 lenghts, so every 1/5th of a second is a length.

That's what I've always used.

It obviously depends on the rate of speed....but as a rule of thumb, one full second equals about six lengths.

Suffolk you may find the expanded Moss figure forms to be of use as he assigns a number to each horse for each split, a number similar to beyer (higher the better)

To steal a line from Steve Davidowitz...."mathmatically speaking, a length should equal 1/5th of a second only when a horse travels a furlong in 15 seconds. The only horses who go that slow charge 10 cents a ride."