I
ItalianStallion
Guest
Thought this was very interesting and have taken some notes for those who haven't got RP Video;
We are in an era now when racings in the UK are run too quick, horses that have led to the two furlong pole often get caught and one of the most dangerous things to excited about is horses that are finishing strongly all the time as they are achieving their yard cheaply in the 2nd part of the race so look for horses that have led at the final furlong pole but haven’t lasted home because if it can pass all its rivals to lead their it can be ridden differently next time out.
Sectionals what can they tell us?
Time is the ultimate arbiter in telling us how fast a horse can run taking into account the going, distance, weights, weather conditions, course layout, rail movements.
You can work out a picture of the day’s race but look at how conditions have slowed down horses in general, factor that into how fast they've run in the first place, allow for weight and hey presto you've got speed figures
Once we’ve got this picture of how fast a horse has a won its race, we need to know find out how it’s achieved it.
The best way for a horse to achieve its final time is in even fractions, running each part of the race in similar times, for example; Roger Banister 4 minute mile time, Sectarian in 1973 ran 12 furlongs in 12 seconds each.
Fundamental law of sectionals is even pace begets final time.
So what is pace?
Different distances give different distribution of ideal pace, for example;
Sprints – there isn’t even time to use a horses energy(which is in deep reserve) so it has to use fast switch energy which is readily available because of its large muscle groups and you’ll find sprinters have to run the first part of the race much faster than the second part of the race, for example; Michael Johnson the great 400 and 200 metre runner said “ you have to run negative splits i.e. running the first 200 faster than the second 200” to achieve the sensational times he did.
Middle Distances – even pace throughout
Long Distances- slow early stages, fast finish, for example; Double Trigger produced fastest final quarter of the meeting when winning the Goodwood cup despite running over 2 miles.
How does ground effect time?
Ultimately class is the factor that determines the winner of a horse race but ground determines the optimum way a race should be run, soft ground favours front runners whilst fast ground favours hold up horses this is why horses run much faster early on in soft ground as their opponents will get tired and are generally harder to peg back this is why in the Autumn you see that front runners always seem to hold on and his is why in the summer it is easier for horses to run off the pace on better ground.
How to record sectionals?
Try to use paths, furlong markers but most importantly to get a general feel of how the race was run and don’t try to be unsustainably accurate as it’s just not possible but particularly over jumps it’s much easier to record sectionals as you can tell when a horse has crossed a fence much easier than when its crossed the furlong pole, for example; see Glorio Vicits (spelling error?), Kauto Star, Denman who all produced sectionals in their novices that told you they would become superstars so in general just time after ever two fences/hurdles jumped but beware hurdles are moved and fences are not.
We are in an era now when racings in the UK are run too quick, horses that have led to the two furlong pole often get caught and one of the most dangerous things to excited about is horses that are finishing strongly all the time as they are achieving their yard cheaply in the 2nd part of the race so look for horses that have led at the final furlong pole but haven’t lasted home because if it can pass all its rivals to lead their it can be ridden differently next time out.
Sectionals what can they tell us?
Time is the ultimate arbiter in telling us how fast a horse can run taking into account the going, distance, weights, weather conditions, course layout, rail movements.
You can work out a picture of the day’s race but look at how conditions have slowed down horses in general, factor that into how fast they've run in the first place, allow for weight and hey presto you've got speed figures
Once we’ve got this picture of how fast a horse has a won its race, we need to know find out how it’s achieved it.
The best way for a horse to achieve its final time is in even fractions, running each part of the race in similar times, for example; Roger Banister 4 minute mile time, Sectarian in 1973 ran 12 furlongs in 12 seconds each.
Fundamental law of sectionals is even pace begets final time.
So what is pace?
Different distances give different distribution of ideal pace, for example;
Sprints – there isn’t even time to use a horses energy(which is in deep reserve) so it has to use fast switch energy which is readily available because of its large muscle groups and you’ll find sprinters have to run the first part of the race much faster than the second part of the race, for example; Michael Johnson the great 400 and 200 metre runner said “ you have to run negative splits i.e. running the first 200 faster than the second 200” to achieve the sensational times he did.
Middle Distances – even pace throughout
Long Distances- slow early stages, fast finish, for example; Double Trigger produced fastest final quarter of the meeting when winning the Goodwood cup despite running over 2 miles.
How does ground effect time?
Ultimately class is the factor that determines the winner of a horse race but ground determines the optimum way a race should be run, soft ground favours front runners whilst fast ground favours hold up horses this is why horses run much faster early on in soft ground as their opponents will get tired and are generally harder to peg back this is why in the Autumn you see that front runners always seem to hold on and his is why in the summer it is easier for horses to run off the pace on better ground.
How to record sectionals?
Try to use paths, furlong markers but most importantly to get a general feel of how the race was run and don’t try to be unsustainably accurate as it’s just not possible but particularly over jumps it’s much easier to record sectionals as you can tell when a horse has crossed a fence much easier than when its crossed the furlong pole, for example; see Glorio Vicits (spelling error?), Kauto Star, Denman who all produced sectionals in their novices that told you they would become superstars so in general just time after ever two fences/hurdles jumped but beware hurdles are moved and fences are not.