Sectionals would only be useful if every horse had the ability to go beyond the maximum level of velocity but given they all reach around 35-40 mph then it's largely irrelevant in terms of analysis relative to the horses ability and provide nothing concrete on comparison terms.
Unfortunately we'd all like time to be able to tell us something that to the naked eye we'd otherwise be oblivious too and we'd all love horse A to be able to run 45 mph and horse B 48 mph but unlike F1 we're dealing with nature in which there's a capacity on which any thoroughbred can reach.
Although in sectionals we have a minimal society who feel they have an edge but in reality my opinion suggests they are only indicative of telling us how strong a race is run which defeats the purpose of batting your eye lids against final times which highlight how long a horse has sustained his maximum level of velocity.
This is more important for me because the stronger a race is run the reduced probability due to nature that a horse is going to have the energy to sustain their maximum level of velocity especially the closer they lay in the race to the punishing fractions.
The latest trend is to time the final three furlongs at a point where races tend to start unraveling and many get caught up on fast sectionals based on slow early pace to come to a conclusion that we've witnessed something impressive which you'll find why many wide margin Novice Hurdling jog & sprint merchants are stuffed at Cheltenham.
Final times can also be accounted for class, without that we'd all be in trouble but even more importantly they should be used in relation to the other races on the card providing everything is adjusted to a mile.
In short if you want to find out how fast a race was run use sectionals but if you want a true underlying piece of information then use final times that are relative to other performances on the day.
Everything evens itself out in the end especially a horses ability to sustain their stamina reserves and nine times out of ten the final time is a reflective and honest examination of the winners performance on the day especially as class will be lost throughout the race eventually in parts that will be shown in the final time but if you don't know how to interpret the data in front of you then you might as well put up sticks and stop where you are.
Would be interesting if you could create yourself a sectional set of standards for the 12f at Epsom EC1.
