The Kentucky Derby is the most anticipated event on the American horse racing calendar. The prestigious meet is the contest that all owners, trainers, and jockeys are determined to win more than any other on the schedule. Not only are they guaranteed a significant windfall in prize money, but the persons and horse involved live forever in the folklore of the race at the Churchill Downs.
Selecting a winner at the event can be a tricky proposition indeed. Even if you have the right pick for the horse that crosses the line first, there’s no guarantee that will pay off in a successful wager. The racing world discovered this when Maximum Security was disqualified after the fact in the 2019 Kentucky Derby when the winning horse interfered with War of Will on the track. This minor miscue not only frustrated its owner and trainer but also the many people that would have backed Maximum Security to claim the crown before it passed Country House.
In the past, bettors have often gone by the form of charges that has been building over the course of the season. Given the race is contested by three-year-olds, the smart move is to look at the form of horses since their debuts at the age of two. The hard work towards the Kentucky Derby more often than not begins the year before. However, Justify blew those efforts out of the water in 2018 when he won the race without having registered a victory as a two-year-old. Bob Baffert’s charge had won his previous three meets entering the contest and was the favorite, but to achieve the feat and triumph by a comfortable margin was a sight to see.
It proves the difficulty in forecasting the Derby. In 2020, Authentic was an outsider for the crown with odds of +840. He rose to the occasion spectacularly to beat the leading contender Tiz The Law. Authentic had won three out of his four races but was not considered the top horse in the race. Many bettors may have been persuaded to put their money elsewhere given the unpredictable nature of his past performances under the spotlight.
The use of artificial intelligence can bring clarity to chaos in the world of predicting a winner of a horse race. The Beth.bet betting tool takes into account a number of factors regarding the runners of the contest, including their pedigree and form along with their performances on certain racecourses, weather, and the ground. These details can be missed by casual bettors, who may just have a passing interest in the sport and fail to grasp the essential information. The use of Beth.bet can narrow down the field to those horses with the best opportunity to win the contest based on their key criteria and the attributes required to triumph for races such as the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Their concept could be used in the future in American horse racing to identify the top characteristics required to win a race such as the Kentucky Derby. The three leading contenders for the 2021 Kentucky Derby, Essential Quality, Rock The World, and Concert Tour all have excellent pedigree on the track and major wins under their belt. However, there could be key aspects hidden underneath those performances that could limit their ability to close out a victory on the grand stage of the Derby. Those could be discovered by analytical tools, using their ability to decipher all the vital statistics.
By highlighting the horses with the best attributes to win the race, you will have a headstart over those bettors that may not be aware of the key details. It can be those little aspects of the horse or even the jockey in question that can make or break success. You would not want a minute mistake to stand in the way between a huge windfall or a narrow failure and there’s a strong argument to suggest that AI could be the way to avoid that.
