Oaklawn Park 2011 season begins Friday January 14

Oaklawn Park begins its 2011 live racing season on Friday January 14 and ends the 55 day meet, with the Arkansas Derby, on Saturday April 16. Live racing will be conducted Thursday through Sunday each week.

Rising Star's Method of handicapping the ponies

Rising Star has been handicapping thoroughbred racing at Oaklawn Park for the past 30 years with much success. We have the most extensive database for Oaklawn Park racing than any service in the industry. We track over 75 different handicapping factors covering suitability to distance, surface, current form, class levels, speed, pace, running style and categories including jockey and trainer performance, pedigree information, and overall comprehensive rating. With every race card we download the past performance of each entry into our extensive database. The Rising Star software analyzes, through the use of multiple regression, to determine which factors are the most predictive win, place and show horses for virtually every kind of race run at Oaklawn Park. The software can then determine value and return on each factor (i.e. how powerful and how profitable each factor is). After the completion of each race card we download the results which updates our database for the next race card.

As the software analyzes each race of the current card, it rates each horse that is capable of winning the race (contender) returning the "True Odds of Winning). We list the top 3 contenders on our selection sheet with the true odds, morning odds and a ratio of odds (ratio of the morning odds to the true odds). A ratio of odds greater than 1.00 = an Overlay and less than 1.00 = an Underlay. We include in the remarks column 1st time starter; any horse that has not run a race the past 90 days indicating days since its last race and the quality of its latest work out; and the number of contenders / number of entries in the race.

Over the past 10 years Rising Star has been a consultant to several local owners and trainer that race at Oaklawn Park.