Can someone please explain this?

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Try putting that poster on ignore.

The concept is really very simple. The speed of the track can change during the day....just as it changes from day to day. There are obvious reasons for this.....rain during the day is the most blatant. A significant change in wind conditions is another. Also, perhaps a track is watered excessively and/or raked differently at some point in the middle of the card. This, too, could change the speed of the course.

However, why only helps explain how it happens. The simple fact is it does happen....and in order to make accurate speed figures this has to be taken into account. There can, and will, be disagreements over the specific usage of split variants but it is logical to understand that they exist.

Is there a time you can remember the wind being a particularly significant factor in a finish? I've heard of headwinds obviously, and once I saw video of an umbrella popping loose from a picnic area and flying down the track, but I mean something more like gusts that knocked a horse off balance or made it look like they were running into a wall on the way down the stretch. Sometimes wind can move your car while you're driving, but I didn't know if they even tried to run races when it got to be like that.