Doc,

The model does not have any "hard and fast" rules. It just weights certain factors and rolls them into an odds line via some extensive number crunching. It does factor in the 2yo line and the 3yo preps including number and spacing but it is not a series of rules such as you described.

Such Derby rating systems remind me a lot of the question-keys I had to use in high school biology to identify insects. Does it have 3 body segments?...Does it have wings?...You kept answering a set of binary questions until finally you narrowed down the entire universe of bugs into only one possible little critter that had to be your particular little critter. Of course, when you compared the picture in the book to the bug in the jar they looked completely different. Teacher, I need some help...

Fortunately, I did not become a biologist.

Chris