100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019

Use statistics
Twelve ways to give your words power

A few well-placed statistics will establish your credibility. If they are accurate and comprehensible, they will show the reader that you have done your homework and know what you are talking about. Keep in mind, however, that too many statistics will numb your reader’s ability to draw meaning from them. Statistics should be sprinkled like pepper, not smeared like butter.

In the following paragraphs from The Greatest Horse of All Time, author Steve Haskin uses statistics effectively. He establishes credibility. But also, by providing the reader with the number of starts, number of wins/seconds/thirds, and track conditions, he gives the reader the necessary context in which to view other information in his post.

From a statistics standpoint, you can start with their combined record of 28 starts, 22 wins, two seconds, and a third, and if you believe that Arrogate was suffering from a physical problem, perhaps back related, in his last three starts, and are willing to ignore those races, then you can make that 22 wins in 25 starts.

You can add the fact that of their 22 wins, 16 were in grade 1 stakes, accomplished at 11 different racetracks at distances from seven furlongs to 11⁄2 miles on fast, sloppy, and muddy tracks. Also, of their 22 wins, 13 were on the lead, three were coming from second, four coming from third, one coming from fifth, and one coming from ninth. So they were far from one-dimensional, and could adapt to any scenario. And their average margin of victory in those 22 wins was over 41⁄2 lengths.