Know the dosage profile of a horse and how it can help your bet

Dogs, in particular, may be man's best friend, but animals, in general, have always been man's partners. Animals have always been of great assistance when it comes to man's travel, farming and livelihood, among others. We have in fact heard of birds and pigeons being letter carriers and messengers during the dangerous times of war.

Animals are loved not just for these "hard" benefits though. They also provide us with friendship, companionship and entertainment. One of the animals best known for the latter is the horse. Some records show that horse racing may have happened even in the earliest civilizations located in Babylon, Egypt, Syria and Greece. In fact, mythology offers examples of such events.

In modern times, horse racing is no longer just entertainment and recreation. Man has found ways to turn it into big business as well, primarily in the form of the betting and gambling that go with the races.

For those who take their horse race wagering seriously, you would have encountered the term dosage. In this case, the term does not have anything to do with medicines or drugs. In fact, it is a series of figures relating to a horse's ancestry or lineage that is used to help predict his racing performance.

This came about because an enthusiast about a century ago observed that, in tracing the pedigrees of champions, certain stallions would frequently come up as being part of the lineage. These stallions earned for themselves the title "Chief of Racing" or Chef-de-race. A further study was made on which characteristics they passed on to the champions, tagged as aptitudinal designations, and labeled with the acronym BICSP, which stands for Brilliant, Intermediate, Classic, Solid and Professional. Each Chief of Racing stallion was then assigned one or a combination of these letters to indicate which of these traits they possessed and passed on to the champions.

The dosage profile of a horse is composed of a series of numbers. These series of numbers, read from left to right, corresponds to the BICSP mentioned above and must be read as a range, with Brilliant standing in or speed and Professional referring to stamina or endurance. The numbers refer to the generations back when the Chief of Racing stallion appears in the pedigree of the horse.

To illustrate, a horse like Rags to Riches with a dosage profile of 8-11-19-0-0 means that it is skewed towards the left side (Brilliant = speed) of the range, and will most likely be fast but cannot sustain long races, since it lacks the Professional or stamina trait.

Remember though, this is just a tool, and actual results could still vary.