Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with some horse racing stuff, specifically at Gulfstream Park. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of using data to predict outcomes, you know, like in Moneyball, but for horse racing. So, I stumbled upon this site called numberFire, which claims to use “quantitative analysis” to give you the best predictions. Sounds fancy, right?
First off, I dug into what numberFire actually offers. They’ve got projections and rankings for all kinds of fantasy sports – NFL, MLB, NBA, you name it. But I was here for the ponies. I found they have a whole section dedicated to horse racing, with daily predictions and picks. That’s what got me hooked.
My main goal was to see if these numberFire picks for Gulfstream Park were any good. So I started tracking their picks for a few days. I just wrote the recommended horses down.
- Thursday, 3/4/21 – They had picks for 10 races. I noted down each horse they suggested.
- Wednesday, 6/24/20 – Another 10 races, another set of horses to track.
- Friday, 6/19/20 – This time it was a nine-race slate. More horses, more data.
- Friday, 1/8/21 – Back to 10 races. By now, I had a decent list going.
I wasn’t just blindly following the picks, though. I was also checking the results myself, to see how often these “expert” picks were actually hitting the mark. I went to the Gulfstream Park website each day and looked at the race outcomes.
Let me tell you, it was a mixed bag. Some days, numberFire’s picks were doing pretty well, and the horses they suggested were finishing in the top spots. Other days, not so much. I saw a few long shots they recommended that totally bombed. Like they didn’t even come close. It is not so reliable, I have to say.
I saw that one of their picks, a horse called “CAMM’S PRINCESS,” was highlighted as having a good chance based on form ratings. I made a mental note to keep an eye on that one. And guess what? That horse actually did pretty well! It didn’t always win, but it was consistently up there, making a “bold show,” as they put it. That made me think maybe there’s something to this numberFire stuff after all.
After a few weeks of doing this, I started to see a pattern. numberFire was decent at picking horses that would place, meaning they’d finish in the top three. But picking outright winners? That was tougher. It’s like they could get you close, but not always to the winner’s circle.
So, what’s my final take on this whole experiment? Well, numberFire is definitely an interesting tool. It’s not a magic bullet, but it can give you some solid insights into which horses have a decent shot at performing well. If you’re into horse racing and like playing with data, it’s worth checking out. Just don’t expect it to make you a millionaire overnight. It’s more like a helpful guide than a sure thing. That’s all I wanted to share today, and you can try it yourself next time if you are interested.
