Picks: Big Brown (7) - Gayego (12) - Racecar Rhapsody (6) - Hey Byrn (13) - Behindatthebar (5)  

The Wager Value Coefficient indicates if a horse is a good or a bad bet compared to his Morning Line Odds.  If a red arrowhead (◄) appears next to the number it is a good value horse.  A Wager Value Coefficient of zero is neutral.  A negative Wager Value Coefficient indicates a low value horse.

We have added another new feature for you this year, the Computer Variant.  The Computer Variant (C.V.) ranges from 0 to 100.  The lower the number, the stronger the confidence in the Computer Score.  Conversely, the higher the number, the weaker the confidence in the Computer Score.  So if two horses have the same Computer Score of 88, but one horse has a C.V. of 36 and the other horse has a C.V. of 76, then the horse with a C.V. of 36 is more likely to run close to his Computer Score of 88, and the horse with the C.V. of 76 could run much worse or much better than his Computer Score.  For instance, a European import with no races on American soil will have a very high C.V. because he is an unknown quantity here in America.  But a horse with several route races over the Pimlico main course will have a low C.V. because he is a known quantity. 

We look to the Computer Score for the strength of a horse.  An average (typical) Computer Score is 90.   We look to the Computer Variant for the variability of our Computer Score.   An average (typical) Computer Variant is 50.    

OK, everybody, here it is, the Horse-Race-Handicapping.Com Preakness 2008 plays.