It's about time to consider reforming the way our races are timed

[cmorioles]

I've always maintained European turf races, generally, are run at a faster pace than our races. Hell, the way riders ride these days, they are probably being run at a faster pace than our dirt races too.

[cmorioles]

There is another problem with run up. The start of the timing of the race is determined by how fast the first horse gets to the pole. At places like Santa Anita, with a football field of run-up, you might get a horse that has no chance break out 3 or 4 lengths in front of the field and start the clock, while all the others are lagging behind. The leader quits and loses by 50 lengths, but the other horses are basically penalized by his start.

To put it simply, horses are all given a final time, but we really don't know how far they ran to get that final time. It depends on the length of the run up and how far behind the horse was when the leader started the timing. It isn't much different than ground loss on turns, some horses run farther than other timing wise.

Another problem is tracks (like Gulfstream) that run the same distances with wildly varying run up, even on the same card. Luckily, that is pretty rare, but it happens.

[Calzone Lord]

Yep.

Eliminating run-up would also make it a lot easier to hand time races, at least in regard to hand timing them for final times.

Instead of having to guess at tough camera angles, you simply start the stopwatch the instant the gate starts to open. It takes tough camera angles entirely out of the equation.

[outofthebox]

The same goes for workouts from the gate. I've clocked horses from different venues and the run-up distance varied from day to day. Here at Evangeline Training Center we start our gate works from the pole. A 5/8 work in 1:02 can be compared equally to a 1:00 n change at a track that has a run-up start. Is there a longer run up than that of CD 6f start?

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by outofthebox

Is there a longer run up than that of CD 6f start?

It's one of the longest for sure!

Trinniberg and Secret Circle hooked up through a 20 4/5 opening quarter there in the BC Juvie Sprint. They have like 200ft of run-up sometimes at that distance.

Here are the fractions for Black Caviar in a six furlong race over in Australia:

Black Caviar: 13.75, 10.65, 10.30, 10.27, 10.65, 11.75 Final time of 1:07.36

The first quarter was just 24.40 seconds, obviously because they time races from a dead stand-still start and not because 'paces are slow over there'

Obviously, the reason why you have horses running furlongs in 9 3/5 seconds at 2yo sales is because they get huge run-up and they've accelerated to max speed by the time they hit the pole that starts timing.

Still, I would say the difference between a stand-still start and 10ft of run-up is probably a lot greater than 50ft of run-up vs 120ft.

If we started timing races the sensible and logical way in this country ... you would see half the grandstand befuddled by the fractions.

[cmorioles]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

It's one of the longest for sure!

Trinniberg and Secret Circle hooked up through a 20 4/5 opening quarter there in the BC Juvie Sprint. They have like 200ft of run-up sometimes at that distance.

Here are the fractions for Black Caviar in a six furlong race over in Australia:

Black Caviar: 13.75, 10.65, 10.30, 10.27, 10.65, 11.75 Final time of 1:07.36

The first quarter was just 24.40 seconds, obviously because they time races from a dead stand-still start and not because 'paces are slow over there'

Obviously, the reason why you have horses running furlongs in 9 3/5 seconds at 2yo sales is because they get huge run-up and they've accelerated to max speed by the time they hit the pole that starts timing.

Still, I would say the difference between a stand-still start and 10ft of run-up is probably a lot greater than 50ft of run-up vs 120ft.

If we started timing races the sensible and logical way in this country ... you would see half the grandstand befuddled by the fractions.

You should get Charles Carrol's Handicapping Speed. It is great when it comes to talking about how long it takes horses to get up to speed, how long they can hold it, etc.

[Sightseek]

This thread is really, really awesome guys!