Desert Orchid
Senior Jockey
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2005
- Messages
- 25,037
What on earth is going on here?
Yesterday it was described as firm with an unusually high going stick reading (9.8, the highest recorded at the track going back to 2008) for a major flat track. This was changed to 'Good' after one heavy shower during the first race but the ground was reported to have 'firmed up' after an earlier shower.
The times are all over the shop. I reckon you can run very slow times on very fast ground but you can't run very fast times on slow ground (not taking account of going adjustments) so how come the 3yo Cl4 handicap was won in a time almost a second faster than the [adjusted*] old standard? (You need to bear in mind the race was actually run over 1m50y and not the exact mile as suggested in the racecard. *My 'standard' time for the race as quoted is based on the published time for 1m with an arithmetical adjustment to account for the extra 50y.)
This led me to arrive at a going allowance of -0.75spf, an unusually high allowance suggesting lightning quick ground, which is in line with the going stick reading.
The first race time was moderate but that might have been on account of jockeys not going as fast in the belief they were racing on ground they were told wasn't fast. The times got faster after that; presumably the jockeys realised the ground was faster than they were told.
Today's going allowance of 8.0 seems still to be on the fast side but showers are forecast.
Yesterday it was described as firm with an unusually high going stick reading (9.8, the highest recorded at the track going back to 2008) for a major flat track. This was changed to 'Good' after one heavy shower during the first race but the ground was reported to have 'firmed up' after an earlier shower.
The times are all over the shop. I reckon you can run very slow times on very fast ground but you can't run very fast times on slow ground (not taking account of going adjustments) so how come the 3yo Cl4 handicap was won in a time almost a second faster than the [adjusted*] old standard? (You need to bear in mind the race was actually run over 1m50y and not the exact mile as suggested in the racecard. *My 'standard' time for the race as quoted is based on the published time for 1m with an arithmetical adjustment to account for the extra 50y.)
This led me to arrive at a going allowance of -0.75spf, an unusually high allowance suggesting lightning quick ground, which is in line with the going stick reading.
The first race time was moderate but that might have been on account of jockeys not going as fast in the belief they were racing on ground they were told wasn't fast. The times got faster after that; presumably the jockeys realised the ground was faster than they were told.
Today's going allowance of 8.0 seems still to be on the fast side but showers are forecast.
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