Street Sense Number

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by magic_idol

The shortest point From A to B is a straight line if your horse can handle the turn allways take the inside saves in distance a hell of alot,Some horses dont like being closed in so the outdside is better but mind the jockey they dont like sitting outside as it makes them look bad on TV

Your first sentence doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The shortest distance between A & B may be a straight line, but the inside rail is the furthest path from a "straight line" of any, at least in the sense of curvature.

You quote pgardn, and then do not address at all the valid point he makes. It takes energy to make tight turns. This should be intuitively obvious to anyone who has applied the brakes to a car making a tight turn. I'm not sure how to quantify the effect for horses, but I suspect it must be a real effect for some horses. It's going to be less important at a big oval like Belmont than at a smaller track. I can remember horses almost skidding around the turns at Sportsmans Park.

--Dunbar