Chris-
What you talk about comes as a RESULT of a difference in methods. It's not a cause, it's an effect. There is no way to artificially have LOTS of horses run in a tight range unless you mess around with the relationships WITHIN an individual race, which I don't(and which the Ragozin guys can tell by seeing the relationship of horses WITHIN races is the same as theirs). As any serious figure maker will tell you, having lots of horses run in a tight range is not only evidence that the figures you gave out for that race are right, but that the figures you based them on are right- in the Wood, MDO paired a number he ran at Santa Anita, Saarland paired a number he ran at AQU, etc.
My theories for figure making are basically summarized in the 5/2/2000 post. Ragozin's are strictly dogmatic, that certain relationships are fixed, and established by averages. When you get a look at both sets of figures for the Wood, which we'll be getting into more, you'll see what happens when you do that. They have MDO going 6-1, Sunday Break going 11-0. Seriously.



TGJB