A
regular contributor has sent me some interesting facts and figures
about the gender imbalance in racing results which may give you
pause for thought.
She
has apparently done a study of 115,793 mixed sex races
to determine if there was a gender imbalance in the results and
the findings are quite interesting.
In total ,the 115, 793 races were contested by some 862, 292 male
horses and 356, 178 female horses.
In
other words, in a total of 1,218, 470 competitors, 70.7% were
males and 29.3% were females. It goes without saying that the
males won far more races than their
female counterparts simply based on the numbers advantage but
here are some interesting figures that you can make of what you
will.
In
total, males won 9.82% of their starts in mixed sex races while
females won 8.74% of heir mixed sex races.
Now that doesn't sound like a huge difference but over such a
large sample size, the numbers do become significant.
If
you had $10 on each of the 862,292 males at their
starting price ( a largish bank would be required!
) you would have got back 66% where as the females returned
just 57%
If
you'd been punting these on the NSW TAB the returns
were 81%.for males and 72% for females.
Now, as well as noting the gender imbalance, aren't they interesting
TAB vs SP figures on such a large sample?
At
the end of the day, and bearing in mind the size od the database
sample, what allowances do you therefore make to your final ratings
/ weight formulas or whatever you are using?
Tamika's
"headline" conclusion, based on the stats above and
many others that would takes reams of printouts to demonstrate,
is that she allows a 14% final rating reduction in any mixed sex
race as she believes on balance that the male / female gender
advantage is just that - 12%.
In
other words, on the rating system she uses, she has a "final"
calculation column on her "spreadsheet" where females
are penalised 12% of their ratings figure but only, of course,
in mixed sex races.
Interesting
figure to think about and I do know there are many good judges
who will not undertake any betting activities on mares older than
five.
Horse
racing systems and research