Little more than three months ago, Baby Yoda made his debut in a $10,000 maiden claiming race at Pimlico and won it with a modest Beyer Speed Figure of 69. On Saturday, in his fourth career start, the 3-year-old gelding dominated a strong allowance race at Saratoga, ran 6 1/2 furlongs in an astonishing 1:14.33 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 114 – the best by any racehorse this year until it was equaled the next day by Flightline at Del Mar. These two performances were the fastest in the U.S. since the sprinter Shancelot recorded a figure of 121 at Saratoga in July 2019. Members of the six-person team that calculates Beyer Speed Figures look skeptically on numbers that appear to defy logic. Aberrations in final times can be caused by imperceptible changes in track conditions, by errors by an electric timing device, or by other factors. If a speed figure makes no sense, we will sometimes change it arbitrarily rather than publish a number we believe is incorrect. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures In judging the trustworthiness of a big figure, we examine all of the horses in the field, not just the winner. If many horses show dramatic improvement in their figures, we may suspect that all of the numbers have been inflated because of some aberration. Baby Yoda won by 4 1/4 lengths over his stablemate Olympiad, who was making his first start in a year; there was a gap of six lengths between Olympiad and the rest of the field. While we couldn’t assess Olympiad because of the long layoff, all of the other runners in the field had recent form that could be compared with the Saturday race. With Baby Yoda earning a figure of 114, here are the figures for the 3-4-5-6 finishers, compared with their most recent start. Horse Sept. 4 figure Prior start Ducale 92 97 Rejected Again 85 87 Crowded Trade 84 85 Tuggle 83 87 With a 114 for the winner, each of these horses earned a figure consistent with his previous form. Nothing in this data suggests that the winner’s figure was inflated. The Saratoga racing surface appeared to be consistent throughout the day. Baby Yoda’s winning time appeared to be correct. And based on Saturday’s evidence, Baby Yoda may indeed be America’s champion sprinter.