Prehistory of the "Daily Racing Form" · 12.08.10

There’s an interesting article currently up on the Daily Racing Form website. Titled Frank H. Brunell: The father of form, it tells the story of the founder of the DRF. Frank Brunell was originally not a fan of Thoroughbred racing — his forte was harness racing. As a sports reporter for the Chicago Tribune, in 1889 he was assigned to cover the Thoroughbreds. Losing hundreds of dollars over the next three years, he threw himself into the study of handicapping.

Out of Brunell’s studies arose the two tools which would revolutionize both racing and handicapping: race charts and past performances. Charts made their debut in the first issue of the DRF: November 17, 1894. Past performances (PPs) would appear eleven years later. As an example, the article reprints the PPs for the 1906 Kentucky Derby. Apart from the antique typeface, and minus some modern statistics such as track variants and speed figures, they appear practically identical to the PPs published for the 2010 Derby. A classic example of the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

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What do you think?

  1. A great source of information that the rank and file misuses daily in allowing informational overload to confuse themselves of what is relevant and what is not.

    — Monarchos · Aug 18, 09:24 PM · #

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