I definitely agree that "speed favoring" biases are a self fulfilling phenomenom-- if the jockeys all send a 6f race becomes a 4f race, and very little happens in the stretch other than the horses galloping to the wire. I have given jockey instructions to do exactly the opposite in those situations because you can often get a great trip.

All else being equal, all races have a built in speed bias to a degree-- less traffic, less ground loss. The bigger the field, the more the number of turns, the more this is true.



TGJB