Winning favorites, top payouts and field sizes last week

Where favorites are rolling

Favorites won 58 percent on the Fair Grounds turf course, even with full fields with an average field size of 9.0. This was unusually high, as over the month favorites won on this course 34 percent of the time. A possible explanation for this difference could be the rail setting. Rails were at eight feet this week, while previously they were set at 27 feet.

Is Gulfstream’s Tapeta easy or hard to handicap? 

While many bettors have complained about the difference in handicapping Tapeta at Gulfstream compared to dirt or turf, the percentage of winning favorites has remained quite high.  Favorites won at 44 percent on the Florida track’s Tapeta last week, exactly the same percentage as the month of January.  With 108 starts and a 44 percent win percentage, this is a trend that may be here to stay. 

Chalk finally slowed down at Santa Anita

At Santa Anita, players finally got a break from the steady diet of chalk.  This week favorites won 17 percent of the time on dirt and 23 percent on the turf. This was much lower than January’s average where even with lower numbers this week, favorites won 37 percent on dirt and 48 percent on turf for the month.  Interestingly, the SA dirt favorite percentage of 17 percent came with an average field size of 6.0, showing that sometimes smaller fields can be just as difficult to pick. 

Here’s a look at the biggest priced winners from around the country last week, where 4 of the 13 biggest long shots came from Sunland Park.