Greyhound Dog Racing Tips.
Greyhound handicapping is all about finding the keys to winning. Class is one of the things that almost everyone says is one of those keys, but that doesn't mean that everyone agrees on what "class" really is.
To some bettors, "class" means grade. To them, a "class dog" is one who runs in the highest grade at their track. A dog who can compete with the best dogs at the track and win or at least run in the money often enough to stay in the top grade. That's one definition of class.
To other people, class just means what grade the dog is running in at the time. Is he a "Class C" dog or a "Class A"? If you tell them you're handicapping for class, they don't have a clue what you're talking about, because every dog has class. It's right on the program at the top of the race page. "See, this is a Class D race," they'll tell you. "It says Grade D on the program."
In my opinion, and I always have one, class means more than grade. When I handicap to find the "class" dogs in the race, I'm looking for qualities that depend on more than grade. For instance, in a Grade A race, there may be two dogs who have just run in AA and three dogs who have just run in B and three other dogs who run in A and stay in A. So how do I decide which dog is the class dog in the race?
I could just say that the three dogs who are dropping down from AA are the class dogs, because they've been running with a better "class" or "grade" of dog. But if I look at those dogs, I might find that one of them has been in stakes races, while another got up into AA and wasn't able to keep up with the pace, so it ran at the back of the pack in every race or got into trouble. Obviously, the dog who ran in stakes races is "classier" than the one who can't keep up with the pace in AA.
In a D race, there might be puppies coming up from M or J who have won a race by 10 lengths and with a terrific time, dogs who have been in C or even higher during this meet, and a dog who is shipping in from another track where it was winning in B. So who's the class dog here? What about the shipper? Well, that depends on the grade of the track it came from. If the track is a better track than this one, I'd have to consider it. If it's a lower grade track, I'd give it a miss.
What about the puppy, especially if its litter mates are burning up the track in B and even A? Wouldn't it be a classy dog? Well, once again, that depends on my judgment of the other dogs, although it's rare that I consider a puppy - no matter how dazzling its wins look in M and J - classier than a dog that has won at a higher grade. Sometimes, there IS no class dog in the race. These are races where the dogs' records are so similar that not one stands out above the others. These are races to watch, rather than play.
What does "class" mean to you? Do you look for "class" when you handicap the program? Do you ignore it and go with other factors? We all have our own handicapping systems and what works for me might not work for you and vice versa. However, I consider "class" an important factor in greyhound handicapping, and think that it's impossible to handicap successfully without taking "class" into consideration. How's the "class" of your handicapping?
Greyhound Dog Racing.